Mongolia

Air pollution has major health impacts on people living in Ulaanbaatar. The excessively high particulate matter concentrations, especially in the winter and in the ger... Show More + areas, increase the incidence of heart and lung diseases, and lead to premature deaths. Improving air quality management in Ulaanbaatar and reducing pollution concentrations would prevent illnesses, save lives and avoid enormous health costs. The implementation of the Air Monitoring and Health Impact Baseline (AMHIB) study has brought together Mongolian and international air quality experts as well as public health experts and economists who have taken an synergetic approach of linking public health, air quality and economic issues. This report builds upon the discussion paper air pollution in Ulaanbaatar: initial assessment of current situation and effects of abatement measures that was published in December 2009, and reflects the final results and recommendations from the AMHIB project. Show Less -

The economic rebound in recent quarters has been stronger than expected and the economy is showing signs of overheating. These signs are show up in rising inflation,... Show More + especially of those goods and services which are in strong demand, but cannot easily be imported or whose local supply cannot readily be increased to meet the growing demand. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth reached 20.8 percent year-on-year (yoy) in Q3, following an outturn of 17.3 percent in Q2. Growth for the year as a whole will likely hit 15 percent, if not more, up from 6.4 percent in 2010, and is being pushed by infrastructure spending as Mongolia develops its vast mineral wealth. Show Less -

This paper develops a framework to assess organizational performance in the delivery of social safety nets. Specifically, it provides guidance to task teams and program... Show More + managers for identifying indicators of governance and service quality in targeted cash transfer programs. The paper identifies governance issues along the results chain of service delivery and suggests policy and performance indicators for assessing program inputs, human resources, financing and resource management; and program activities, operational procedures, Management Information Systems (MIS) and control. It also suggests indicators of organizational performance and the quality of outputs, including demand-side accountability mechanisms. Show Less -

The Mongolian economy is experiencing rapid growth in 2011 the second quarter saw the economy growing at a whopping 17.3 percent year on year, compared to 9.9 percent... Show More + in the first quarter. Transportation and construction grew at 39.9 percent and 38.4 percent, respectively, while retail and wholesale trade grew at 24.7 percent, with Mongolians spending more on consumption as a result of higher incomes. The mining and manufacturing sectors recorded respectable growth rates of 8.3 and 12.9 percent yoy in the second quarter, respectively. Reflecting the higher growth, unemployment declined from 13 percent in December 2010 to 8.7 percent in June. Informal labor markets for unskilled workers are also booming, with real wages nearly doubling between December 2010 and June 2011. Mongolia's economic outlook depends heavily on global macroeconomic factors: the current uncertainty and poor growth prospects for the global economy are cause for concern. If there is another global recession, Mongolia's small, open economy will be affected. In that case, China's policy reaction will be crucial for Mongolia. Show Less -

The assessments were carried out during the Second International Mongolian Biodiversity Databank Workshop from the 11th to 15th September 2006. The assessments revealed... Show More + a number of trends affecting the amphibians and reptiles of Mongolia. Six Mongolian reptile and amphibian species were identified as regionally threatened. These summary conservation action plans are intended to highlight species of particular concern, and to alert policy-makers, conservationists, and government and planning authorities of actions that will help to ensure that all reptiles and amphibians of Mongolia maintain viable populations into the future. Detailed action plans are already in place for some of the species in this document; the summary conservation action plans for Mongolian reptiles and amphibians are not intended to replace these documents, but to accompany them, and further details are provided for action plans already available. Each summary conservation action plan presents information about the status of the species, the current known distribution, threats faced, conservation measures presently established, and recommended conservation measures. The future of Mongolia's herpetological biodiversity depends on the response of the Mongolian and global community to the plight of the species discussed in these summary conservation action plans.
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The Mongolian red list of fishes is one of a number of publications resulting from activities under the World Bank's Netherlands-Mongolia Trust Fund for environmental... Show More + reform. Freshwater biodiversity is generally a poor cousin to terrestrial biodiversity and the authors hope that this work will raise the profile of the fishes, highlighting the threats they face, promoting the actions needed for rational management and conservation, and providing a solid reference for those conducting environmental assessments for the growing number of projects affecting surface water such as dams, mines and water transfers in Mongolia. Much of the study and information on Mongolian fishes has focused on species of economic importance. However, since the collapse of the centrally-planned economy in 1990, few good records of fisheries data are now kept. Demand for Mongolian fishes is increasing, both from within Mongolia and from other countries, but although protective legislation is in place, the prevention of illegal fishing remains difficult. Mongolia's fishes are further threatened by mining and climate change. The assessments of the expert working group contained in this book provide an overview of the status of Mongolia's fishes. This includes the most accurate available information on geographic range and significant threat processes for 64 native species. It also identifies what we still do not know about these fishes, and which areas of research should be a priority for future study. Show Less -

Why do politicians distort public investments? And given that public investments are poor because presumably that is what is politically rational, what types of reforms... Show More + are likely to be both efficiency improving and compatible with the interests of politicians? This paper explores these two questions in the context of Mongolia. It argues that Mongolian members of parliament have an incentive to over-spend on smaller projects that bring benefits to specific geographical localities and to under-spend on large infrastructure that would bring economic benefits to Mongolia on the whole. The incentive for the former is that members of parliament internalize the political benefits from the provision of particular, targeted benefits to specific communities. The disincentive for the latter is that large infrastructure carries a political risk because the political faction in control of that particular ministry would have access to huge rents and become politically too powerful. The identity of these "winners" is uncertain ex ante, given the relatively egalitarian and ethnically homogenous nature of Mongolia's society and polity. Anticipating this risk, members of parliament are reluctant to fund these projects. Since these large infrastructure projects are crucial for national growth, neglecting them hurts all members of parliament. Members of parliament will therefore support reforms that collectively tie their hands by safeguarding large, strategic investment projects from political interference thereby ensuring that no political faction becomes too powerful. This protection of mega-projects would need to be part of a bargain that also allows geographical targeting of some percentage of the capital budget. Show Less -

Mongolia was hit hard by the global economic recession, notably the fall in commodity prices. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.6 percent in 2009 after growth... Show More + of 8.9 percent in 2008. The country is narrowly specialized in production of a few primary goods with minerals comprising 70 percent of total exports. Since mid-2008, the prices of main export goods, including copper, zinc, crude petroleum, combed goat-down and cashmere dropped by close to or more than 50 percent, though prices of coal and gold held strong. Furthermore, construction activity fell sharply in 2009 as both the public and private sectors reduced investments and bank loans became less accessible. The research was conducted in urban and rural areas of Mongolia and involved interviews and focus group discussions with about 500 people total (over the four rounds of data collection) belonging to groups identified as particularly exposed to the impacts of the crisis. The primary impacts of the crisis were observed through: 1) labor market effects (e.g. reduced salaries, increased discrimination in the labor market, intensified competition for jobs and a reduction in profitability of small businesses of the poor), 2) price shocks, and 3) social changes (e.g. increase in crime and alcohol abuse). These impacts were particularly significant for the poor. Show Less -

The financial crisis of 2008-09 has considerably slowed the pace of economic growth in Mongolia. When combined with the Dzud (severe winter storm) of 2009-10, which... Show More + occurred just as the economy was beginning to recover and killed over one million heads of livestock, the slowdown is likely to have significant impacts on poverty as well as the distribution of income and consumption among the poor and non-poor. In this paper we examine the poverty and distributional impacts of the crisis in Mongolia, relying on predictions from a simulation model based on pre-crisis data, given that household data to measure impacts during and after the crisis is unavailable. It is difficult to predict the distributional impacts of the financial crisis with a high degree of confidence. Evidence from previous crises suggests that relative inequality falls about as often as it rises during aggregate contractions (Paci et al, 2008). Furthermore, as the crisis spreads within a country (through adjustments in domestic credit and labor markets and fiscal policies), its impacts across different groups, sectors or areas became all the more difficult to track. The paper is structured as follows. Section two outlines the basic methodological approach used to create the simulation results used here. Section three discusses the macroeconomic projections that are used as inputs into the model. Sections four and five examine the model's projections for poverty and distributional impacts respectively, section six discusses the impact of Dzud (severe winter) and section seven concludes. Show Less -

The economy continues to recover with most sectors rebounding strongly from the sharp drop in output late 2008 and early 2009. Preliminary estimates suggest that real... Show More + Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 6.1 percent year-on-year in 2010, following an outturn of minus 1.3 percent in 2009. However, winter arrived in Mongolia with the agriculture sector still feeling the impact from last year's dzud. The sector has now experienced double-digit contractions for the third quarter in a row. The exchange rate against the US dollar has been slowly appreciating back to the pre-crisis level. In December 2010, the average monthly exchange rate against the US$ appreciated by 3.0 percent, compared to the previous month, or 15 percent compared to December 2009. The latest survey conducted in informal labor markets in December 2010 revealed a reduction in number of casual workers by about 40 percent compared to September due to the seasonal closure of construction labor markets, and reduced outdoor sales activities due to cold weather. Mongolia has made significant progress in improving budget transparency, but there is still considerable room for improvement. Finally, although Mongolia's laws are easily accessible online and court processes are generally impartial and transparent, the predictability of court decisions is limited and the courts, enforcement and registration agencies are often perceived as corrupt by the public. Show Less -