Improving Inclusion in Mine Action, Through Design Thinking
When we talk about inclusion, most people picture boardrooms, offices, and HR policies. But what does inclusion look like when the workplace itself is a minefield?
In the Mine Action sector, people work daily in danger zones - clearing explosive remnants of war so communities can live safely again. Women, and people with disabilities are often excluded, despite the critical value they offer. Many attempts have been made to resolve this - largely within policy and training, but the exclusion holds.
At Here I Am Studio, we believe inclusion isn’t achieved just through awareness campaigns or policy statements. It’s achieved through design. Design thinking gives us a way to see - and redesign - all of the many invisible barriers that quietly tell some people, you don’t belong here.
What Design Thinking Looks Like in Mine Action
Design thinking isn’t abstract theory - it’s a structured, human-centred way of redesigning systems - so they work for everyone.
Here’s how a design thinking process unfolds in practice - and what it can reveal about exclusion that traditional approaches miss
1. Empathise - Start with the people inside the system
Spend time with deminers, community liaison officers, women who’ve never applied for mine action roles, women who have, persons with disabilities affected by explosive ordnance contamination. Observe and watch how people move, who speaks, who waits, what feels awkward. Listen for the moment someone says, ‘that’s just how it’s always been.’ That’s where the design problem starts.
Observe what inclusion or exclusion looks like in their daily experience.
2. Define - Map the journey and name the barriers
Turn observations into a visual “journey map” showing where exclusion creeps in as they move through the system - from beginning to end: job ads circulated through male networks, the impossible to pass fitness test modelled on male military drills, training was conducted in male-dominated spaces where women didn’t feel they could speak, the uniform designed for men that pinches and feels immodest.
3. Ideate - Reframe barriers into design challenges
Here, we shift from understanding the problem, to designing the solutions. We reframe each barrier as a creative design challenge, and co-design solutions with the people who will use, and be affected by them: staff, supervisors, community members.
For example: Co-designing directly with female deminers, uniform manufacturers, and safety officers to redesign the uniform. Where does it pinch? Which parts feel immodest? How can we ensure the changes don't compromise safety?
4. Prototype - Test small, safe experiments
Design thinking favours low-risk, real-world testing over big, theoretical or ‘finished’ fixes.
In one programme, teams co-created alternative uniforms - longer tunics, adjustable vests, and breathable fabric. A small batch was tested in training sessions to check comfort, safety, and cultural fit before rollout.
By prototyping early, the team built confidence and proof that inclusion could improve, not compromise, operational standards.
5. Test & Iterate - Learn fast, adapt often
Version 1 of any solution is rarely ‘perfect’. So testing and iterating is essential. Observe what works and what doesn’t, then refine together:
Recognising that the physical test was excluding women, and that it was also misaligned for the job requirements, a demining organisation trialled a gender-neutral physical assessment that focused on task precision and endurance instead of speed. The first version proved too easy for experienced candidates and too hard for new recruits. Through multiple iterations, the test was refined to mirror real field conditions more closely. The result was a fairer, more predictive assessment of job performance - for everyone.
A brilliant example of how to create inclusion without compromising on skills suitability.
The result
By moving through these five steps - Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test - we learn that exclusion is rarely intentional. It’s a collection of micro design flaws that build up over time.
Inclusion doesn’t happen when we write new rules. It happens when we redesign old ones - together, with the people who live them.
Because in the world’s toughest workplaces, inclusion isn’t just about fairness. It’s about building systems strong enough to include everyone.
