In 2015, the Republic of Finland contributed €5 million (US$5.5 million)[1] in mine action funding. As in previous years, the largest contribution in 2015 went to Afghanistan (€1,425,000/$1,581,180), with two additional states—Cambodia and Angola—receiving the equivalent of more than $1 million each.

Contributions by recipient: 2015[2]

Finland allocated 70% of its mine action support in 2015 for clearance activities, while 12% went to victim assistance. The remaining 18% was provided to UNMAS for unearmarked activities and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) for core funding.

Contributions by thematic sector: 2015[3]

In 2011–2015, Finland’s contribution for mine action totaled €27.7 million (nearly $36 million), with an annual contribution averaging some €5.5 million ($7.2 million). This is 10% higher than the $32.3 million recorded during the previous five-year period from 2006–2010.[4]

Summary of contributions: 2011–2015[5]

In October 2015, Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs published the results of the evaluation of its humanitarian mine action policy. Among the main recommendations presented in the evaluation was that Finland’s mine action support should focus on “fragile states where it has an embassy” in order to better align with its development and humanitarian cooperation strategy as well as to be able to play an active role in advocacy efforts in the recipient countries.[6] The evaluation recommended the rapid phasing down of funding in Angola and Cambodia—which were among the main recipients of Finland’s support to mine action between 2011–2015 and received respectively $6million and $8.8 million over that period.[7] The evaluation also concluded that victim assistance “should be removed from the humanitarian mine action strategy and placed within existing country development cooperation programmes (health sector) and/or polled funding arrangements with ICRC where applicable.”[8]

In March 2016, at the International Pledging Conference for the implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, Finland pledged €12 million ($13.4 million) to support humanitarian mine action for 2016–2020, representing a drop of more than 50% compared to 2011–2015.[9] This planned decrease in Finland’s mine action budget is the result of budgetary cuts in its development cooperation appropriations.[10] For 2016–2020 Finland has planned to contribute to mine action projects in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, and Somalia, while funding to Angola and Cambodia will be phased out.[11]

In July 2016, at the Pledging Conference in Support of Iraq in Washington, Finland announced €10 million ($11.1 million) in new funding over 2016–2020 to support humanitarian and stabilization in areas liberated from the so-called Islamic State, half of which (€5 million/$5.5 million) will go to mine clearance operations in Iraq and Syria.[12]