Green Gold Project: Mongolian Herders’ Pasture Management Practice featured at Milano Expo 2015

Local news, 05.05.2015

A Mongolian herders’ initiative to revitalise traditional collective management for the restoration of degraded rangelands was named the Best Practices for Sustainable Development (BPSD) at the 2015 Milano Expo.  

greengold
Pasture - Mongolia's green gold © SDC

“Mongolian herders not only use rangeland resources to sustain their livelihoods; they also have a bigger role of environmental stewardship, to care for and maintain their homeland,” said Green Gold Project Manager Ts. Enkh-Amgalan.

“We are encouraged that our project was selected among the best practices for managing natural resources at this universal expo.”

The expo - the Universal Exhibition that Milan, Italy, is hosting from May 1 to October 31, 2015 – is dedicated to promoting food security and saving resources.

Last year, the expo called for successful projects, services, products and scientific solutions for submission in the BPSD competition.

Among 749 evaluated projects from more 130 participating countries, 18 were selected as the winners to be featured at the expo. SDC’s Green Gold Project was among the winners and was featured in a documentary at the expo.

The aim of the competition was to share the best ways of identifying tangible solutions for food security and the saving of resources that meet the needs of developing countries.

More than 20 million people from throughout the world will visit the expo in six months.

To read more about the Green Gold Project featured at the Expo:

http://magazine.expo2015.org/cs/Exponet/en/innovation/grazing-lands-at-risk-for-desertification--the-solution-in-mongolia

www.greengold.mn

To find more about the Milano Expo 2015 and other winning projects:

http://www.expo2015.org/en/project/feeding-knowledge

For more information, please contact us at:

info@greengold.mn

Local news, 27.05.2015

Government of Mongolia is committed to sustaining improved public service delivery with the handover of One-Stop Shops

oss
OSS centre, Songino khairkhan district of Ulaanbaatar © SDC

For the past eight years, One-Stop Shop (OSS) centres throughout Mongolia have been making public service delivery more efficient, cost-effective and accessible for all citizens.

The OSS is an innovative model which provides a range of public administrative services under one roof, making it easier and more time-efficient for people to access the services they need, including social insurance and welfare, civil registration, land and property administration, tax offices, notaries and banking. This approach also reduces bureaucracy and corruption.

The establishment of the OSS centres nationwide was the culmination of a tireless effort by the Government of Mongolia, with financial and technical support from the Government of Switzerland.

Hand-over to Mongolian Government 

April marked the handover of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s OSS Project to the government, which is committed to sustaining and strengthening the OSS centres.

Pursuant to that commitment, the government issued a resolution covering the operational and maintenance costs of the OSS centres under local government budgets.

District and aimag governments are also replicating the OSS centres with the aim of providing more efficient service delivery for their citizens.

There are now more than 150 OSS centres operating in khoroos and soums funded with their own resources.

Prior to the establishment of OSSs, people had to travel to numerous locations to access different public services. In addition, those services were not coordinated or linked, reducing overall efficiency.

Moreover, besides saving time and money, the OSSs have also reduced red tape for citizens wanting to access those services.  

The OSS model has earned a significant level of support among the Mongolian public, with independent surveys showing an overall satisfaction rate of more than 75 percent.

“I choose to go to the OSS because there is less bureaucracy there,” said a customer at the OSS in Uliastai, Zavkhan aimag.

“It was convenient to have both the social welfare officer and the bank teller there at the OSS, so I could get everything processed in one place without going back and forth between places,” said another OSS customer in Uliastai.

To commemorate the handover, the OSS Project produced a documentary that highlights the results of eight years of work.

Watch the documentary