Donors need to more boldly involve national commercial operators in their projects

This was stated by Serhiy Nerpii, the head of the International Cooperation Department at UDS, during today’s Localization Workshop on Mine Action, where he participated in panel discussions and presented the company’s position on the localization of humanitarian demining processes.

On February 3, 2026, a Localization Workshop on Mine Action took place in Kyiv. The event brought together representatives from the government, international partners, donors, and national mine action operators to discuss key issues related to the development of Ukraine's demining sector capabilities.

During the workshop, participants focused on the following issues:

🔹 Assessment of needs and challenges for Ukrainian mine action operators;

🔹 Barriers to accessing funding and training opportunities;

🔹 Donor approaches to supporting local organizations;

🔹 Practical cases of successful partnerships and capacity building;

🔹 Ways to strengthen cooperation between national and international actors.

While discussing the localization of demining processes, Serhiy Nerpii emphasized:

💬 “Donors need to be more ‘bold’ and not be afraid to change the rules that allow national commercial operators to fully participate in the implementation of international humanitarian demining projects. This also applies to international operators working in Ukraine. Partnership is built on trust — and UDS is ready to form consortia and develop long-term partnerships for the implementation of comprehensive humanitarian demining projects.”

The event was organized by the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine, Demine Ukraine, with support from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Government of Sweden, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

We thank the organizers for a meaningful and important event that contributes to the development of local capacities in the field of humanitarian demining.