Long-Term Risk Management Tools and Protocols for Residual Explosive Ordnance Mitigation (Vietnam)

The Management of Residual Explosive Remnants of War (MORE) framework is a holistic long-term risk management (LTRM) approach for handling the reality of risks posed by explosive ordnance (EO). The current Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) project in Vietnam includes – amongst other objectives – the development and pilot of LTRM processes, tools and protocols in several provinces. Vietnam offers ideal preconditions for the testing of the concept. Vietnam not being a signatory of binding conventions, yet with the recently signed national mine action decree, leaves the national authority and national mine action centre with the question of how to identify a tolerable level of risk and the appropriate point in time to change from proactive survey and clearance to reactive risk management. This report gives a retrospective view of the completed project work, presents the results of a first pre-test of the LTRM framework in Quảng Trị province, and discusses implications for further testing and a possible implementation of the framework nationwide.