have often resulted in comments that mine clearance is slow, unproductive, costly and not efficient. In Eritrea, the Mine Action program was heavily impacted by this kind of critics, which led to a deterioration of the working environment for the international NGO’s, finally resulting in a decision of the Eritrean Government to expel the latter in an effort to accelerate the transition towards the national authorities. Another interesting example is Yemen. In this mine-affected country, the first ever Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) was carried out in 1999-2000. By then, it was generally understood that the output of the LIS would be a prioritised list of mine-affected communities for carrying out Mine Action activities. This would considerably simplify the management of a Mine Action programme. Unfortunately, this was not really the end result. The output of the LIS concluded with a classification of mine-affected communities ranked by the severity of the socio-economic impact caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance. It became further clear that the impact survey report was not intended to be a substitute for national planning. It only supports and improves national planning because the entire problem is better defined in terms of scale, type, location, hazards and social and economic impacts experienced by local communities. In this regard it provides essential information and knowledge, which can be used to develop priorities of Mine Action activities and allocate resources in the most cost effective manner. What is needed is to take it one step further and to prioritise these identified areas onto a list from which a programme is able to select tasks and compile a clear programme of action. This process, which can be carried out on an annual basis, should follow out of a more global national strategic mid to long term plan (5-10 years). It should be stressed that the basic principle remains rather simple: prioritisation should be applied in order to ensure that the limited resources of a Mine Action programme can have the greatest possible impact in each planning cycle on the socio-economic blockages or damage caused by landmines. In a broader context this would contribute significantly to internal stability
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