Afghanistan
The survey concluded with the finding of 2,368 impacted communities, of which 281 are high-impact (12%), 480 are medium-impact (20%), and 1,607 are low-impact (68%). These mine-affected communities encompass 2,245 recent victims and 4,514 separate suspected hazard areas. Executive Director Bob Eaton and Director for Survey Mike Kendellen traveled to Kabul to write the report in preparation for governmental review.
 
The international staff, Alan Macdonald (senior technical advisor), Tom Haythornthwaite (deputy technical advisor), and Luan Jaupi (database officer), have closed down the SAC office and handed over the database to the UNMACA. National staff, Hayatollah Wahdat and Mohammad Ershad, are continuing in Kabul to assist with the final report, in particular, the translation into the two national languages.
 
During a time of regional security problems, particularly in the southern areas, this survey was unable to survey only 5 out of 329 districts in the country. The results above are indicative of this effort. We thank the entire SAC, MCPA, and UNMACA staff for this extraordinary effort.

Angola
Data collection continues with a total of 2,046 community visits yielding full survey results from 984 landmine impacted communities as of 27 January.

Eritrea
The final report goes to the printer in the first week of February.

Ethiopia
Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO) reviewing final report.

Somalia (Phase 2: Bari, Nugaal and Mudug Regions)
Training of the field interview staff completed (click here for four photographs from the training sessions). Pilot testing of the survey instruments scheduled for early February with data collection to conclude in April.

Survey Action Center
The beta version of the LIS Explorer Online (a web-based application for interactively querying LIS data) was released for peer review and will publicly launch in March. Senior Information Officer Craig Williams and his wife Joung-ah are pleased to announce the arrival of their first child Kim (click here to meet Kim). Bethany Champagne departed SAC after completing a five-month internship under the Canadian Young Professionals International Mine Action Program (YPIMAP); SAC extends sincere appreciation for her research and contributions to the Nairobi Conference.