Mongolia

Mongolia has made strong progress on key gender-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in recent years. Gender indicators in education and health are also better... Show More + in many respects than in comparator countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. Women have a limited presence in higher level managerial positions and in entrepreneurial work, and working women also have to shoulder most of the household and care duties compared to men. These inequalities can have large impacts on development, growth and productivity as well as pervasive intergenerational social costs. Removing impediments to full and equal participation for women in the economy, providing equal access to economic resources and opportunities and eliminating discrimination can boost productivity and competitiveness for firms with wider benefits for the economy and within the household. A range of potential policy actions can be considered, including improving employment outcomes (wages, career progression) for women in the public sector, introducing more friendly parental leave policies that cover both fathers and mothers, improving child care services and introducing affirmative action policies in sectors where women are acutely under-represented such as mining. In addition, business regulations can be streamlined to make it easier to start and operate businesses for both men and women. Other policies that may be helpful include promoting awareness of and encouraging the development of (appropriately regulated and supervised) micro-lending institutions. Show Less -

Dzud is the Mongolian term for a winter weather disaster in which deep snow, severe cold, or other conditions render forage unavailable or inaccessible and lead to high... Show More + livestock mortality. Dzud is a regular occurrence in Mongolia, and plays an important role in regulating livestock populations. However, dzud, especially when combined with other environmental or socio-economic stresses and changes, can have a significant impact on household well-being as well as local and national economies. This study aims to fill this gap in knowledge by conducting in-depth case studies of four communities responses to the 2009-2010 dzud to document both household-and community-level impacts and responses. The case studies use a mixed-methods approach employing qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques including interviews, focus groups, household questionnaires, photovoice and document review, and were carried out in two soums (districts) located in the forest-steppe zone of Arkhangai Aimag (province), Ikhtamir and Undur Ulaan, and two soums in the Gobi desert-steppe zone of Bayankhongor Aimag, Jinst and Bayantsagaan. The specific objectives of this study are to assess herder household and community vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and medium-term recovery and resilience from the dzud of 2010. Show Less -

The health equity and financial protection reports are short country-specific volumes that provide a picture of equity and financial protection in the health sectors... Show More + of low- and middle-income countries. Topics covered include: inequalities in health outcomes, health behavior and health care utilization; benefit incidence analysis; financial protection; and the progressivity of health care financing. This report analyses equity and financial protection in the health sector of Mongolia. In particular, it examines inequalities in health outcomes and health care utilization; benefit incidence analysis; financial protection; and the progressivity of health care financing. Data are drawn from the 2005 Mongolia multiple indicator cluster survey and the 2007-08 Mongolia household socio-economic survey. Show Less -

The assessments were carried out during the Mongolian Biodiversity Workshop from October 31st to November 4th 2005. The assessments revealed a number of trends affecting... Show More + the mammals of Mongolia. Twenty-one Mongolian mammal species were identified as regionally threatened. Of these, the majority are represented by carnivores and ungulates (Artiodactyla and Perissiodactyla), which are predominantly threatened by overexploitation. 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 mammals 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 mammals 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 mammalian biodiversity depends on the response of the Mongolian and global community to the plight of the species discussed in these summary conservation action plans. Show Less -

There is a growing concern among policy makers and the international development community about the rapid concentration of migrants in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar... Show More + (UB) and its social, economic, and environmental consequences (UNDP, 2003). These concerns call for a good understanding of the nature of migration in Mongolia and its impacts on the life of migrants. Using the 2007-08 Household Economic and Social Survey of Mongolia, this paper aims to: (a) document the characteristics of recent internal migration in Mongolia; and (b) assess the livelihoods of rural-to-urban migrants in comparison to those staying in rural areas as well as to local urban residents. The analysis in this paper suggests that rural out-migration is negatively correlated with the chance of falling into poverty. For those who did not migrate from rural areas, their poverty incidence was much higher, and their consumption level much lower, than that of rural-to-urban migrants. However, not all urban destinations are equal: there is a large discrepancy in livelihoods between those moving to aimag centers versus those moving the UB. The poverty incidence of rural migrant families moving into aimag centers was 33 percent, whereas 24 percent for those migrant families moving into UB. 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 -

Meat plays an important role in the diets of the majority of Mongolians. Since the economic and political transition in the early 1990s, seasonal meat price fluctuations... Show More + have become increasingly marked. In parallel, Mongolia is becoming increasingly urbanized, and urban consumers are dependent upon markets to access food, including meat, for household food security. These two trends have meant that a rising number of urban residents are vulnerable to fluctuations of price in one of their main staples. Government has responded to this by trying to influence the price of meat through a price stabilization policy under which public funds support the purchase and storage of meat and the release of these reserves during periods of peak prices. While some public intervention to smooth prices is a legitimate area for policy engagement, this policy note concludes that there is no evidence that the current policy has an impact on prices, and worse still, it may even discourage private meat storage. This is set in a context of relatively low budget allocation (by international standards) to the agricultural sector. What is required is a more comprehensive approach for developing the meat market and the livestock sector more broadly, and with regard to price stabilization, the consideration of a number of alternative policy responses that limits government expenditure and encourage market-based solutions. Show Less -

Overcoming the twin challenges of child labor and youth unemployment will be critical to progress towards the millennium development goals (MDG), as both can lead to... Show More + social vulnerability and societal marginalization, and both can permanently impair productive potential and therefore influence lifetime patterns of employment and pay. Employment outcomes are typically worst for former child laborers and other early school leavers, groups with least opportunity to accumulate the human capital needed for gainful employment. The link between child labor and labor market outcomes can also operate in the other direction: poor future labor market prospects can reduce the incentive of households to invest in children's human capital. The current report examines the issues of child labor and youth employment in Mongolia. Guided by observed outcomes in terms of schooling, work activities and status in the labor market, it considers the economic as well as the social determinants of child labor and youth employment. Show Less -

The transition from a centrally controlled Soviet-style economy to a democratic system with principles of private ownership brought many social changes to Mongolia,... Show More + most driven by the sharp decline in income. Gross National Product (GNP) per capita dropped as unemployment increased and individuals resorted to alternative livelihoods such as herding (which resulted in movement from urban to rural areas) and artisanal mining. The excessively cold winters in 1999, 2000, and 2001 (the dzud) compounded poverty as herds were lost. This in turn led to a rapid expansion of the informal mining sector which saw approximately 20,000 new entrants (World Bank 2006). The paper will discuss these impacts as follows: the first four sections focus on impacts in specific areas: livelihoods, social services (including a special focus on HIV/AIDS), law and order, and cultural preservation. The subsequent four sections look at the cross-cutting issues of benefit sharing, governance and consultation mechanisms, social conflict, and mine closure. This paper has been informed by a literature review, in-country one-on-one interviews with stakeholders in Dalanzadgad, Tsogtsetsii, and Ulanbaatar in March 2009 and two workshops in Dalanzadgad (September 2008 and March 2009). Stakeholders include government officials, representatives of mining companies, representatives of civil society organizations, and Mongolian citizens. Consultations with social and mining specialists at the World Bank and staff from the Asian Development Bank were also undertaken. It is hoped that this paper will provide a spring?board for more detailed and sector-specific discussions on mining development that take the individual and community into consideration. Show Less -