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.

The “National Rangeland Health Assessment Report”, presented to the Mongolian government at a workshop held on May 28, summarises the results of a six-year research project carried out by the National Agency of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, the National University of Life Sciences, the Academy of Sciences, the Agency of Land Affairs, the Geodesy and Cadastre and SDC’s Green Gold Project.

“Addressing rangeland health is an important issue given that it is the backbone of one of Mongolia’s strategic sectors and will ensure national food security and employment creation in rural areas,” said Minister of Food and Agriculture R. Burmaa in her opening address at the workshop.

According to the report, the primary challenge to sustainable livestock production in Mongolia is the decline in rangeland health in many parts of the country.

Causes and Solutions 

The trends of significant climatic warming, declining levels of precipitation and increasing livestock numbers pose a risk of further rangeland degradation, particularly in the central and northern parts of Mongolia.

The report suggests that grazing management practices associated with healthy pastures should be maintained in some areas, whereas in other areas management practices should be altered to promote perennial grass recovery, a reduction in the dominance of degradation indicator plants, and control soil erosion.

A new, comprehensive approach focused on the sustainable production of meat, fibre and other environmental goods and services was required. However, livestock numbers in excess of pasture carrying capacity remains the primary barrier to sustainable livestock production.

According to the report, increases in livestock numbers are likely to intensify and further exacerbate rangeland degradation. However, there were ample opportunities for changes in management practice and policy that improved rangeland health, that enabled adaptation to climate and land-use change in the long term, and that secured the future of pastoral production and food security in Mongolia. However, it was vital to act decisively and promptly before those opportunities were lost.

According to the report: “A vast majority of monitoring sites, representing more than half of Mongolia’s rangelands, suggest that changes to grazing management could result in recovery or progress toward recovery within 10 years.”

Download the full report (PDF, 66 Pages, 2.2 MB) in English

To find more about the project, please visist:

www.greenmongolia.mn