UK signs £7M fund for HALO Afghanistan

Land December 13, 2016

Britain’s Ambassador Dominic Jermey signed the agreement during a visit to HALO ’s HQ, which will benefit some 100,000 Afghans through the clearance work.

The UK will provide £7M of funding to HALO in Afghanistan to help with mine clearing operations.

Britain’s Ambassador Dominic Jermey signed the agreement during a visit to HALO HQ, which will benefit some 100,000 Afghans through the clearance work, while securing employment for 416 Afghan staff.

The project, which will run until March 2020, sees mixed-gender response teams also providing mine risk education to locals. The project will see HALO working closely with Afghanaid and the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR) to provide 36 livelihood projects that will allow cleared land to be returned to use quickly and effectively.

Some 9.6M sq m will be cleared of mines in the Logar, Khost, Samangan, Balkh, Baghlan and Kabul provinces, with these areas chosen due to a combination of humanitarian need, high populations of vulnerable poor and the areas’ priority with the Afghan government.

The project has been designed in collaboration with the Government’s Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC) who will be a key partner in the project.

Dr Farid Homayoun, Afghanistan Programme Manager for HALO said: “This UK support for HALO in Afghanistan is important for the development and stability of the country. It means that rural communities can benefit from the removal of dangerous mines and explosive items allowing them to use their land safely and productively again. This project will improve livelihoods in rural communities and provide employment to hundreds, helping to make Afghanistan more peaceful and stable.”

British Ambassador, Dominic Jermey, CVE OBE, said: “I’m extremely proud that today we’re launching a programme, with the Afghan Government and the HALO Trust, to clear 9.6 million square metres of land in Afghanistan. This programme is the next phase of the UK’s long-standing commitment to free Afghanistan of the brutality of buried mines and unexploded ordnance.

“This project is in addition to the 84Msq m of land which UK support has already helped clear. I’m delighted that, through this new programme, in six further provinces, we will not just rid the land of the scourge of past conflicts and remove such horrific harm to innocent men, women and children, but our development assistance will ensure that the land is swiftly returned to the local communities. We will benefit over 100 000 Afghans who will once again be able to prosper from cultivation and development of their fields”.

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Afghanistan HALO mine clearance