At a meeting of the interagency working group, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Ihor Bezkaraivnyi presented the concept of a prioritization system in humanitarian de-mining, along with a formula for assigning priority levels to specific areas. This concept was developed by the Ministry of Economy in collaboration with the Center for Humanitarian De-mining, with the support of the UN Development Program.
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Transparent Approach
“We are building a system that will determine which areas should be de-mined first based on collected data and a specified algorithm. The main advantages of the prioritization system are the transparency of calculations and the fact that the status assignment for areas is made solely based on collected data, which is processed very quickly. I am convinced that the system we are building and the collected data will be useful not only for humanitarian de-mining but also for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” said Ihor Bezkaraivnyi.
Prioritization Criteria
To determine the order of de-mining areas, the automated system will use coefficients of economic, social, ecological potential, as well as a security coefficient, which will be key. The degree of priority will be determined using the formula.
Importance of Comprehensive Data
“This is a very ambitious issue — to build a system on which decisions about humanitarian de-mining of specific areas will be based. An important element should be a register of potentially contaminated and contaminated territories, which is currently being developed by the Ministry of Economy, the Center for Humanitarian De-mining, and the State Emergency Service. It is crucial to gather comprehensive information, which will determine the appropriate level of priority, and to clearly outline how the coefficients will be defined, to avoid ‘manipulating’ necessary results in the future,” said Oleg Bondarenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and head of the parliamentary committee on environmental policy and natural resource management.
Call for Cooperation
Ihor Bezkaraivnyi urged representatives of interested governmental and non-governmental organizations to participate in the development of coefficients that are key to determining the degree of priority.
Members of the interagency working group, parliamentarians, and invited specialists attended the meeting. Joint efforts are aimed at creating an effective system to address the critically important issue of land de-mining in Ukraine.
