Ulaanbaatar, September 17, 2015—Rural residents in Mongolia will benefit from a $34.1 million program funded by World Bank and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) that aims to make the government funding process more transparent and more responsive to community needs.

The program, the third phase of the Sustainable Livelihoods Project, was officially launched today in Ulaanbaatar with a workshop organized by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank. The three-year program aims to help Mongolia implement the 2011 budget law, which gives rural communities a greater role in the government funding process.

“The project will empower rural communities by providing a transparent mechanism for funding to be transferred to support local development initiatives,” said James Anderson, World Bank Country Manager for Mongolia.

The program will build on the success of the first two phases of the project, which have helped set up community development funds financing more than 6,000 projects, mostly investing in education and health. It will build local government’s capacity for financing investments in infrastructure and services. Based on the budget law, funding allocations are decided each year through robust community participation.

“The Sustainable Livelihood Project has played an important role in developing rural areas in Mongolia through community participation. The Government of Mongolia and World Bank have worked together since 2002 to implement the project and increase the flow of public and private investment to herders’ communities,” said Kh. Gantsogt, State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.

The project will also support local economic development by promoting investments for private sector growth in the more than 300 soums – or local administrative districts – throughout the country.

It will focus on financing based on governance performance, which awards additional funding for local development investments to local government entities that adopt participatory processes to reflect local needs and priorities in their planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes.

“The new phase of the project will ensure that the budget available at local level, especially Local Development Funds, will be managed and used effectively and efficiently, responding to the needs of local people. Strengthening capacities of local governments in rural areas will be key to achieving this goal,” said Markus Waldvogel, Director of Cooperation of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

The program is funded with a $22.7 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the low-income countries and a $11.4 million grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

“I’ve visited many artisanal and small-scale mining sites all over the world,” said international ASM expert Felix Hrushka.

“For the first time ever, I was given a security briefing on an ASM site. This happened during my recent trip to a site operated by XAMODX NGO in Bayankhongor province.”

International validation of Mongolia’s efforts in the ASM sector took place at the international ASM Knowledge Hub symposium on 10-11 June, 2015, in Ulaanbaatar, organised by the Ministry of Mining of Mongolia and Mineral Resource Authority of Mongolia in partnership with SDC’s Sustainable Artisanal Mining (SAM) Project.

More than 60 delegates from 18 countries representing small-scale miners, ASM civil society organisations, ASM and other development projects, governmental and non-governmental organizations, international ASM experts, academia and research institutions took part in the event.

Creation of Knowledge Hub

Based on the success of the formalisation of the ASM sector, Mongolia is taking an important role in establishing an international knowledge hub - a space for sharing and exchanging knowledge and feedback among national and international ASM communities and stakeholders. 

The SAM Project is supporting the establishment of a knowledge hub within international ASM communities, believing it is important for Mongolia’s ASM organisations to be linked to their global partners in order to help further develop the sector.

“I believe we achieved our goal of identifying the key and interested players in the future knowledge-sharing network. We wanted to see what Mongolia’s ASM organisations would offer the global ASM community and gain from their partners worldwide,” said SAM Project Director Patience Singo.

“We succeeded in bringing together some of the world’s leading experts in the artisanal mining sector, and we exchanged a great deal of best practices and lessons learnt.”

One of the major achievements within the ASM sector in Mongolia has been the cooperation between the artisanal and small-scale miners and large-scale mining companies which has resulted in safe and legal workspaces for miners.

“In 2007, I had the opportunity to visit Mongolia’s artisanal mining sites. Back then, it was illegal and quite chaotic, and there was no legal framework to regulate the sector,” said African Mineral Development Centre advisor Salvador Mondlane.

“But I’m quite impressed with the work that has been done in formalising the sector. Mongolian artisanal miners are now legally recognised. I congratulate the Mongolian Government and ASM communities for their incredible partnership.”