Tackling landmines globally

The lives of millions of people in scores of countries are blighted by landmines. These silent, deadly, indiscriminate weapons lie in wait for the unwary, threatening to maim or kill – long after conflict is over.

In addition, the fear of landmines has a crippling effect on communities. To stray onto a patch of land where explosive devices may lurk would be foolhardy: it may in fact be mine-free, but without complete certainty that it is safe, the area will remain out of bounds and its productive potential unexploited.

In April 2019, the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development hosted a conference at London Business School: Landmine Contamination and Clearance – Policy and the Way Forward. It drew together a range of speakers from the United Nations Mine Action Service, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, leading NGOs involved in humanitarian demining, and academic institutions.

This event follows research by London Business School Academics, Elias Papaioannou and Giorgio Chiovelli, and Brown’s Stelios Michalopoulos assessing the economic impact of landmine clearance on spatial development.


A vast range of issues was discussed: the changing nature of the threat as fewer industrially-produced mines are laid but the use of IEDs becomes more common in places such as Syria, Libya and Yemen; the shift of conflicts from rural areas into urban ones which means the remains of war-ravaged buildings may contain countless explosive devices hidden under layers of rubble; the drive to find new techniques; the potential – and problems – of exploiting the value of demining operations to rebuild trust between groups who were previously at war; the need to meet the ongoing needs of individuals who have suffered injuries that will have an impact on their lives for years after a conflict ends.

But one of the strongest themes to emerge from the conference was the imperative to find smarter, more insightful ways of tackling demining in order to achieve maximum benefit from the available effort and resources invested.

No matter how good the technology, a key question remains – where and how to deploy that technology in order to secure the earliest and greatest benefits for communities blighted by the deadly legacy of mines, IEDs and the explosive detritus of war.

Paul Heslop, an LBS alumnus who serves now as the chief of operations and planning for the UN Mine Action Service, was one of the speakers at the Wheeler Institute conference. He made the point forcibly: “What we are trying to figure out is what can we be doing to make sure we are doing the right thing and how we prioritise… we need to become impact and output driven.” For years, a key measure of demining activity has been the cost of clearing a given area.


But, said Heslop, “Cost per square metre is an irrelevance if that square metre isn’t going to be used properly. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a dollar or ten thousand dollars per square metre if there is no impact from clearing that ground or if that ground isn’t contaminated.” Also, donors and potential donors might be happier to provide funds if the demining sector could better explain the value that its activities yield and show the fruits of its achievements.