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.

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