Analysis of non-technical survey, prioritisation and land release planning

International NGO · Written recruitment test

Practical exercise

Mine Action Operations Officer

Duty station: Ziguinchor department, Ziguinchor region (Senegal)
Time allowed: 75 min
Marks: 100 marks
Pass mark: 60 %
Profile: Officer, 2 to 4 years of experience

Instructions

The test lasts 75 minutes. It is marked out of 100; the pass mark for the interview is 60.
Answer in English, in a structured way. Show your workings: a correct result without workings receives only half the marks.
Calculator and spreadsheet allowed. Any outside help (another person, artificial intelligence) is forbidden.
The documents are fictional but built on realistic data. State any assumption you make.

Original practice test, built on the format of written tests used by United Nations agencies and international NGOs. The context and figures are fictitious.

Documents provided

Document 1. Non-technical survey reports (October)

Ref.	Information collected	Land use	Area (m²)	Population exposed
R1	Mine accident involving one person in 2019, field abandoned since	Rice field	4,800	320
R2	Former military position, no evidence of devices or accidents	Not used	12,000	150
R3	Rumour; field cultivated every year since 2012 without incident, confirmed by 3 sources	Agriculture	7,000	200
R4	Mine seen by a hunter who showed the location to the team	Access to the school	2,600	450
R5	Rumour from a single indirect source; orchard worked every season, confirmed by 2 sources	Orchard	3,500	80
R6	Cow killed by a mine in 2024	Grazing land	3,400	140
R7	Mine fragments found on the surface by the team	Return area for displaced people	6,200	260
R8	Area avoided by the population, former camp, no accidents	Not used	9,500	120
R9	A single unexploded shell, visible near a well	Water point	Not applicable	300
R10	Accident in 2008 at the edge of the field; field cultivated every season since 2014; strip along the backwater never used (1,500 m²)	Agriculture	8,000	90
R11	Mines visible after the rains, vehicle destroyed in 2025	Main road	1,900	600
R12	A former combatant says a row of mines was laid, without being able to locate the place	Cassava, abandoned	5,000	180

Document 2. Programme procedures

Confirmed hazardous area (CHA): direct evidence (accident, device seen by the team or by a reliable witness who can locate it).
Suspected hazardous area (SHA): indirect evidence only; it goes to technical survey.
Cancellation: regular and safe use of the land for at least 5 years, confirmed by at least 2 independent sources, without direct evidence.
CHA priority grid: use (road, school or water 3; agriculture or return 2; grazing 1; not used 0) + population exposed (more than 300: 3; 100 to 300: 2; fewer than 100: 1) + accident since 2021 (2, otherwise 0). Tie: the highest population goes first.
Capacities: 2 manual teams; clearance 250 m² per team per day; technical survey 1,000 m² per team per day; 20 working days per month.

Question 125 marks

Classify each report (CHA, SHA, cancellation or other treatment), with justification based on the procedures.

Your answer

0 words

Question 220 marks

Calculate the priority score for each CHA and give the order of intervention.

Your answer

0 words

Model answer

CHA	Use	Population	Accident since 2021	Score
R11	3	3	2	8
R4	3	3	0	6
R1	2	3	0	5
R6	1	2	2	5
R7	2	2	0	4
R10 (strip)	0	1	0	1

Order: R11, R4, R1, R6, R7, R10 (R1 goes before R6 in the tie because 320 people against 140).

Marking grid

Correct scores (12 marks)
Correct order with the tie rule (5 marks)
Clear presentation (3 marks)

Your mark for this question / 20

Question 330 marks

Calculate the number of team-days and the duration in months to clear all CHAs and carry out the technical survey of all SHAs with the 2 teams. In how many days are the first two priorities completed?

Your answer

0 words

Question 425 marks

During an explosive ordnance risk education session, a child says he keeps "a shell" at home. What do you do? Also give the 4 key messages of the session.

Your answer

0 words

Other tests for this profession

Panel interview question for this profession

Describe a situation where you had to prioritise hazardous areas with limited resources.

Competency assessed : Impact-based prioritisation and data integrity

What the panel expects : Explicit criteria (humanitarian impact, evidence, feasibility), use of non-technical and technical survey to reduce areas, validation by the national authority and communities, and results expressed in terms of land use and safety, not only in square metres.

Possible follow-up questions

How did you handle suspected areas with little evidence?
What interim measures did you take for areas not yet addressed?
How did you measure impact after land handover?

Strong answer

In Iraq, we had 14 recorded hazardous areas around three return villages and two teams for six months. With the team, I built a prioritisation matrix: people exposed, essential services, evidence, feasibility. The additional non-technical survey made it possible to cancel 4 areas with no evidence, i.e. 310,000 m², and technical survey to reduce 3 other areas by 70%. We started with access to two boreholes and a school, then farmland. Priorities were validated by the national authority and in meetings with the villages, including women. For the remaining areas, we put up marking and ran 120 risk education sessions. After six months, 480,000 m² had been released, 62,000 of them cleared, 1,900 people had regained access to water, 210 households were farming again, and no accidents had been reported.

Weak answer

"We always start with the largest areas to maximise the square metres cleared." This answer confuses productivity and impact, ignores survey and land release, and gives no result for the population.

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Instructions

Documents provided

Question 125 marks

Model answer

Marking grid

Question 220 marks

Model answer

Marking grid

Question 330 marks

Model answer

Marking grid

Question 425 marks

Model answer

Marking grid

Result

Common mistakes that cost marks

Useful references