The MAIC recommends the following actions be taken to enhance the collection and management of landmine casualty data on a global basis. These action items are based on the research conducted by the MAIC and published in its January 2002 report, Managing Landmine Casualty Data , and on the recommendations that emanated from the Casualty Database Workshop.

The MAIC recommends:

1) That the IMSMA incident victim functionality ("Incident Report" and "Incident Victim" forms) be retained in light of the important role played by mine action centers (MACs) and national demining offices (NDOs) in data collection. Mine action has an important role to play in support of victim assistance by facilitating the collection of data. It is recognized that limits exist to the capacity of MACs/NDOs to collect data that is not directly pertinent to operational mine action but that the MACs/NDOs are crucial to data collection in most mine-affected countries.

2) That all of the data fields in IMSMA's Incident Victim functionality be assessed for their relevancy to the purposes for which the data is collected: operational mine action, mine risk education, victim assistance, and advocacy/donor information/resource mobilization. Data fields related to each of these purposes should be sent out in survey form to field operators and program experts in each category of purposes for an evaluation of their relevancy, appropriateness and clarity. If a data field is judged as inadequate in any of these categories, then it should be reworded, replaced by another question, or dropped from the form. If there is a need to conduct this assessment in an incremental fashion, then the data fields with a mine risk education purpose (namely items 4.5-4.10 and 4.12 on the "Incident Victim" form and items 1.15-1.21 and 2.1-2.8 on the "Incident Report" form) should have priority for review as these were data fields for which the greatest concern about relevancy was raised by the workshop participants.

3) That the field operators and program experts surveyed also should be queried about possible alternative questions to be added to the data collection forms ("Incident Report" and "Incident Victim") in the event that some data fields are deleted. The possible alternative questions should be drawn from data fields identified by the initial MAIC survey (see: Managing Landmine Casualty Data ) as having a high level of agreement for inclusion in a casualty data collection form but which are not currently on the IMSMA forms.¹

4) That the terms "accident" and "incident" used in IMSMA be changed to correspond to terminology used in the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).
"Incident" should become mine accident - IMAS definition: an accident away from the
demining workplace involving a mine or UXO hazard
"Accident" should become demining accident - IMAS definition: an accident at a
demining workplace involving a mine or UXO hazard
(IMAS definition of "accident" - an undesired event which results in harm)

5) That national ministries of health be encouraged and given the requisite assistance to take a leadership role in collecting and managing landmine casualty data and in promoting the sharing of the data. The Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Integration should engage the national ministries of health on the need for mine victim data collection and dissemination.

6) That MACs and NDOs collaborate with ministries of health to establish a mine victim data collection system and disseminate the information collected. Data should be made readily available to government agencies and NGOs involved in mine action.

7) That donors encourage the collection and reporting of casualty data.

8) That steps be taken to protect the confidentiality of victims' information, including the passage of national laws where they are lacking.

9) That national mine action programs and mine action service providers, in the interest of developing sustainable national capacities for mine action, encourage the employment of women and landmine survivors in mine action duties, including but not limited to, data collection and data entry, and direct victim assistance activities such as surveying survivors and peer counseling.

¹This would include the following data fields: 
Information Sources,  Village,  Area type of accident,  Text description of locale,  Points of contact,  Age at time of   accident,  Family status,  Degree of injury,  Is victim head of household?,  How many dependents?,  Do people continue to go into area?,  After the accident was the site (marked, demined, unknown)?, Mine/UXO clearance at site?,  Were mines reported in area?,  Any mine accidents before?,  Does victim have: (prostheses, wheelchair, crutches or received rehabilitation/ physical therapy?)