1Council Decision (CFSP) 2026/584 of 16 March 2026 in support of building African capacities towards a mine-free Africa

2.2.1.

Results

The first result is increased knowledge of practical approaches to enable African States Parties to reduce the risk posed by anti-personnel landmines in their country by fulfilling their Article 5 obligations. The second is increased awareness of the role of the European Union and its Member States in supporting Africa to become free from the impacts of anti-personnel landmines.

2.2.2.

Beneficiaries & targets

The 193 UN Member States, in particular African APMBC States Parties

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Eswatini, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. See https://treaties.unoda.org/t/mine_ban/participants.

and Member States of the African Union are the primary beneficiaries and targets. UNIDIR will also engage, and activities and products benefit, EU structures and Delegations, relevant UN entities, other international organisations, regional and sub-regional organisations, non-governmental organisations, and the general public. The ultimate beneficiaries are people, communities and individuals, including women, men, girls and boys, who suffer from the direct and indirect, negative, and gendered impacts of anti-personnel landmines in these countries in Africa and in other regions of the world.

2.2.3.

Activities & outputs

UNIDIR will deliver one knowledge transfer workshop for African States Parties to the APMBC and a report on the action’s key findings and the knowledge transfer workshop. As part of this proposed action, the Institute will develop and make publicly available a monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework. UNIDIR will also develop a prioritisation tool, deliver up to five factsheets and prepare and publish up to eight news items on progress made by African beneficiaries. It will also co-host up to eight events with the EU to raise awareness of the action and share results in a targeted manner amongst primary and secondary beneficiaries and target audiences. Information on the proposed, tentative sequencing of these activities and outputs is provided hereafter.

During the first 6 months of the action, UNIDIR will develop and test the prioritisation tool for use with beneficiary states, including during the initial joint review meetings (see 2.1.3 above). Throughout the course of the action, UNIDIR, in cooperation with MAG, will prepare five factsheets – one for each beneficiary African state. Each factsheet will provide information on the results of the country’s use of the UNIDIR prioritisation tool and progress made to fulfil its APMBC Article 5 obligations. These materials can be used by beneficiary states and UNIDIR partners in Africa, as well as by the international mine action community, to help States Parties fulfil their Article 5 obligations.

Over the three years of this action, UNIDIR will organise and co-host, with the EU, two events per year in Geneva to present the action’s progress and research findings for the mine action community of policy and practice. These could include side events during the intersessional meeting for the APMBC Meeting of States Parties (MSP), the annual APMBC MSP, the National Mine Action Directors and United Nations Advisors meetings, and/or a stand-alone event. UNIDIR will coordinate and work closely with the APMBC-ISU to ensure they are aligned with and contribute to possible individualised approach meetings. This action’s final side event will take place during the intersessional meeting for the Sixth Review Conference of States Parties to the APMBC in 2029. In addition, UNIDIR will organise and co-host, with the EU, events in Africa in year one and year three of the action, in cooperation with the African Union (AU) or an African subregional organisation. To promote the key issues discussed during these events, UNIDIR will prepare and post news items on its website. These activities and outputs will raise awareness of the EU’s role in fostering cooperation and creating a sense of shared responsibility among stakeholders working towards an Africa free from the negative impacts of anti-personnel landmines.

During the second year, UNIDIR will organise and co-host, with the EU, an information-exchange and knowledge-transfer workshop in Africa, in cooperation with the AU or an African subregional organisation, and in close coordination with the APMBC-ISU. UNIDIR will conduct research to inform the workshop. It will be designed and organised using a specific methodology to facilitate a peer-to-peer expert exchange on challenges, effective practices, and innovative approaches in working towards Article 5 completion in Africa. The workshop will bring together 15 African APMBC States Parties, including those that have recently completed Article 5 obligations and those seeking to fulfil them. In the third year, UNIDIR will publish and disseminate a report that provides information generated by this workshop for use by other stakeholders to help make progress towards a mine-free Africa.

1. Engagement with the EU & visibility

This action is designed to both leverage synergies with other EU-led initiatives and actions (such as the APMBC-ISU project to support implementation of the SRAAP

EU Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/781, 14 April 2025, Annex, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202500781.

, the EUNPDC

EU Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/889, 12 May 2025, Annex, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202500889.

, and/or other specific projects funded by the EU). It will provide opportunities for the EU to further consolidate its public profile and leadership in the conventional arms control, non-proliferation, and humanitarian disarmament field at various levels. UNIDIR will cooperate with EU structures in Brussels and engage actively with the EU’s External Action Service, as the key interlocutor, as well as with the Permanent Delegations of the EU to the UN in Geneva and New York. Further, UNIDIR will also engage with and work with EU delegations in African partner countries, starting with initial in-country joint review meetings (see 2.1.3 above), and in States that host relevant African regional and sub-regional organisations, to build national capacity. In addition to publishing written products in accordance with the EU visibility guidelines (see also below). The EU will be visible at all events co-organised with UNIDIR, including by providing opening and/or closing remarks, moderating, or contributing as an expert. UNIDIR considers the knowledge exchange workshop during the second year and the two events during the action’s third year as flagship opportunities to promote the EU’s leading role in peace, security, stability, and sustainable development in Africa.

Unless the EU Commission agrees or requests otherwise, UNIDIR will take all necessary measures to publicise the fact that the project has been funded by the EU, as well as highlight the EU’s role in this action. Such measures will be carried out in accordance with the Communication and Visibility Manual for European Union External Action laid down and published by the EU Commission

See Communication and raising EU visibility: Guidance for external actions – 2022, 16 September 2024, https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/knowledge-hub/communicating-and-raising-eu-visibility-guidance-external-actions_en#visibility.

. The EU emblem and funding statements will be used to acknowledge and ensure the EU’s visibility. This will ensure that the EU’s financial support for the action is visible, transparent, and well-branded.

1. Cooperation & partnerships

The organisation implementing this action is UNIDIR. UNIDIR will work in cooperation with Member States, including African APMBC States Parties and members of the African Union (AU), the APMBC-ISU, the AU and African regional economic communities, other UN entities (such as the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the Mine Action Service, the Development Programme, and Country Offices, as well as other members of the UN Inter-Agency Coordination Group for Mine Action), other international organisations, and non-governmental and civil society organisations.

UNIDIR will cooperate, coordinate and collaborate closely, in particular with the APMBC-ISU, in the implementation of this action, ensuring that its activities and results inform or build on, and create and maximise synergies and complementarities with the EU-supported project of APMBC-ISU in support of the implementation of the SRAAP. With both organisations/entities based in Geneva, regular meetings will be held between UNIDIR and the APMBC-ISU to coordinate activities and events. UNIDIR will invite the ISU to participate in all events organised and co-hosted with the EU, and keep the ISU regularly informed of the action’s activities and outputs.

4.1.

UNIDIR oversight of partners

UNIDIR will engage non-governmental mine action operators from its existing network of partners with which it holds cooperative agreements (i.e. memoranda of understanding) and that have operations in African beneficiary countries, as implementing partners to deliver activities under 2.1.3, and help achieve objective 1. UNIDIR complies with and applies the UN’s rules and regulations for the management of implementing partners

UN Financial Regulations and Rules (FFR), Secretary-General’s Bulletin ST/SGB/2018/3, and JIU/REP/2021/4.

. It has the system and processes in place to effectively and efficiently manage and work with such operational partners in African countries. This includes standards for implementing a risk-based, results-oriented approach to due diligence, selection, performance monitoring, evaluation, and financial oversight.

1. Duration of the action

The estimated duration of the action’s implementation is 36 months.

1. Implementing entity & partner

6.1.

About UNIDIR

UNIDIR is an autonomous institute within the UN system that provides independent research, space for dialogue, advice, tools, and capacity-building to States and other interested parties on critical issues for security, arms control, disarmament, including humanitarian disarmament, and development. The Institute’s history, research and work towards humanitarian disarmament go back to the 1990s, predating the adoption and entry into force of the APMBC

See, for more information, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (2006) Disarmament as Humanitarian Action: From Perspective to Practice, UNIDIR, Geneva, https://unidir.org/files/publication/pdfs/disarmament-as-humanitarian-action-from-perspective-to-practice-288.pdf

. Twenty years ago, the EU cooperated with UNIDIR to inform its strategies for mine action, explosive remnants of war, and small arms and light weapons control programming

United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (2006), European Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and Explosive Remnants of War: Final Report, UNIDIR, Geneva, https://unidir.org/publication/european-action-on-small-arms-and-light-weapons-and-explosive-remnants-of-war-final-report/.

. For over a decade, UNIDIR and its CAAP has worked closely with African regional partners and member States to support capacity-building and programming to address illicit weapons and reduce harm caused by explosive threats on the African continent. In recent years, UNIDIR has concentrated its efforts in this domain on effective treaty universalisation and implementation generally, including the APMBC, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, the threats posed by improvised landmines

This included, for example, the provision of support to the presidency of Germany of the APMBC on the working paper on anti-personnel mines of an improvised nature and the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, 21MSP-President-Paper-Improvised-AP-Mines.pdf.

, and the role of gender in effective mine-action

United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (2023), Beyond Oslo: Taking Stock of Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming in the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, UNIDIR, Geneva.

. The Institute is committed to promoting the gender-related goals and objectives adopted by the UN, and it remains dedicated to advancing the contributions of women in disarmament, including humanitarian disarmament, non-proliferation, arms control, peace and security, thus contributing to the WPS agenda. UNIDIR maintains strong, trusted relationships and cooperation with African States, with unique access at the strategic and operational levels of government. It benefits from well-established, strong partnerships with mine action organisations operating across Africa. UNDIR is recognised for the neutrality, objectivity, and impartiality of its research and work to reduce harm caused by weapons. Therefore, UNIDIR is ideally placed and equipped to achieve the action’s goal and objectives.

6.2.

About MAG

The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a global humanitarian and advocacy organisation that finds, removes and destroys landmines, cluster munitions and unexploded bombs from places affected by conflict. Since 1989, MAG’s work has directly supported over 22 million people in more than 70 countries rebuild their lives and livelihoods after war. Regarded as one of the foremost humanitarian mine action organisations in the world, MAG received the Hilton Humanitarian Prize in 2025 and jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. MAG collaborates closely with national authorities, other international NGOs and local partners to improve efficiency, innovation, safety and productivity. MAG holds a formal memorandum of understanding with UNIDIR, as well as with non-governmental organisations including GICHD, Small Arms Survey, and International Alert, and is also a member of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office.