The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a non-governmental organization that assists people affected by landmines, unexploded ordnance, and small arms and light weapons.

Drawing on multi-skilled staff, MATs are able to quickly adapt to the many challenges presented not only by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), but also to changing environments, including weather, geographical and topographical conditions and the wider security and political climate.

Team members are trained in Community Liaison (CL), information/data gathering, survey and assessment, mapping, logistics, minefield marking, landmine clearance and ordnance disposal (EOD).

MAG has successfully implemented national socio-economic Landmine Impact Surveys (LIS) which have consequently been published and widely distributed to mine action operators and other relevant stakeholders.

Machines have been used successfully to support manual clearance operations in a number of countries, including Angola, Cambodia, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

MAG's flexible and multi-skilled approach to HMA means that it is well equipped to operate successfully in countries such as Laos and Vietnam where the explosive contamination is mainly UXO as opposed to landmines.

MAG conducts nationwide surveys of arms deposits and warehouses, puts in place specialist equipment and training of national staff to carry out the cache destruction activities, and provides advice for the safe storage and control of remaining items.

MAG’s overarching objective in Bosnia and Herzegovina is to support national efforts to reduce the impact of landmines and other items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) on communities.

This approach enables poor families to gain meaningful employment and has resulted in productivity rise whilst still maintaining MAG's excellent safety record.

MAG has been operational in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since July 2004, working to reduce the threat posed by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO)-clearing dangerous areas and using Mine Risk Education (MRE) to create safe access to water sources, agricultural land, medical facilities and education centres as well as destroying stockpiles of small arms and light weapons and ammunition.

In addition to this, MAG has been asked to intervene urgently in the 8th Military Region (Nord Kivu) to destroy unsafely stored ammunition in order to prevent another accident such as Camp Ngashi.

Since the opening of a liaison office in Kinshasa in January 2005, MAG has become increasingly active in establishing partnerships with the international NGO community, as well as working with the local UN Mine Action Coordination Centre.

Additionally, MAG maintains a regular dialogue with relevant government and military authority and has entered into a partnership agreement through an MOU with a national NGO Humanitas Ubangi to develop its organisational and technical capacity to undertake Humanitarian Mine Action activities.

The programme works with local and regional partners in unstable parts of Iraq to reduce the threat posed by remnants of conflict to vulnerable high-risk communities.

In 2007 MAG Lao located and destroyed 6,460 items of UXO, 3,257,638 square metres of land was cleared for agriculture, drainage canals, electricity pylons, water wells, school gardens, roads (to provide access to markets) and for a project to promote tourism at the historic Plain of Jars.

The fighting and artillery bombardments were heaviest in southern Lebanon, and as a result, an estimated 915,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) fled this area and scattered throughout communities further north.

The scope of activities carried out by MAG Lebanon's programme includes rapid survey and demarcation of landmine and UXO contaminated areas, clearance of priority routes and land, and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tasks.

MAG has positive working relationships with key organisations such as the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Centre South Lebanon (MACC SL) and The Lebanese Red Cross.

Following an accident in July 2008, concerning some children who were playing with a 106mm high explosive anti-tank round that exploded on a school football field (three died and six were injured), MAG held meetings with the elders of the town, made appeals for information, gave Mine Risk Education (MRE) on the local radio and collected other items reported by the community.

It is anticipated that further small arms and light weapons (SALW) and UXO clearance of the country is required to remove these threats, to prevent further accidents and to ensure safe access and use of the land.

The aim of the MAG teams were to address the outstanding problems of landmine and UXO contamination apparent following the ceasefire (Memorandum of Understanding) between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Through deploying Mine Risk Education (MRE), survey and demarcation assets in Northern Sri Lanka, MAG teams sought to protect those most affected by the conflict which had plagued the region since 1983.

MAG now plans to expand its activities in the north throughout the remainder of the year in support of the initiative to return 80 per cent of IDPs back to their home areas by the end of 2009.

At present, MAG has teams carrying out landmine clearance, bomb disposal and destruction of abandoned small arms and light weapons (SALW).

MAG also have Community Liaison/Mine Risk Educational teams delivering important messages to settled populations, the internally displaced and returnees living in contaminated areas.

[4] As the largest non-military clearance organisation operating in Vietnam, MAG plays a key role in reducing the risk and impact of mines/UXO on the local population, and also in facilitating community level post-clearance development and resettlement.

In 2007 MAG began assisting Burundi's government after civil war left the country with the burden of small arms and light weapons (SALW), and unsecured stockpiles.

Contractors must execute clearance work safely and efficiently, and MAG provides the management and maintenance of a mine detection dog accreditation and testing database.

Its aims are to make a material contribution to peace-building initiatives and security efforts in the Republic of Congo through identifying, surveying and destroying small arms and light weapons, MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defence Systems) and other explosive ordnance, which currently poses a hazard due to their degraded state, storage conditions and proximity to local communities.

It includes assisting the Rwandan Army and Police, and also provides training, in stockpile management and destruction of surplus weapons, unstable ordnance and small arms ammunition.