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.

Mrs Udval, head of the Association of Pasture-User Groups in Tsetseg soum, Khovd aimag, is using the film-making skills she gained in training provided by SDC’s Green Gold Project. She learned to document local people’s knowledge and experiences in a series of participatory videos that give a voice to remote herding communities.

On 15 October, Mrs Udval drove 50km to meet with a herding community that had gathered to celebrate the completion of a warm winter shelter for livestock - built by members of the Zaisan Pasture-Users Group.

“It’s great work for this community that they joined forces and resources to build a large shelter for the livestock of one member of their group,” said Udval. 

“This is something important to share with other communities to encourage them to act collectively in order to accomplish more.”

In preparation for filming, the herders developed a storyboard - a hand-drawn visual plan to guide the video - on how they built the shelter. Once completed, Mrs Udval began recording the process, complete with interviews with those who took part.

“I’m happy that I built the fence for newborn animals thanks to the support I received from my fellow herders,” said D. Batbileg, member of the Zaisan PUG and owner of the new shelter.

“There are many herders who need the support of others. We plan to build fences for at least three herders each year.”

Using video to encourage herder participation, learning and exchange is completely new for us. Mongolians say that it’s better to see something once than to hear it a thousand times. Therefore, videos are more effective in explaining the accomplishments of others than just my words alone.

After finishing her day’s work as APUG leader, Mrs Udval then drove about 90km to the next community. That evening, she edited the video, using local music as an accompaniment. The next morning, she met with the herder community, who were largely unfamiliar with the work of SDC’s Green Gold Project in supporting herders in pasture management and collective action.

She showed them the five minute long video she had produced, which captured the herders’ attention, particularly when they saw the benefits of communal work, and resulted in a round of questions on how they, too, could engage in such collaborative efforts.

Mrs Udval will continue to meet with herders in neighbouring communities where she plans to introduce joint pasture-management practices.

“I believe that meetings and activities with herders are more efficient with the use of the videos we produce together,” said Udval.