“Since the establishment of the YDC in our city, my friends and colleagues often hang out here because it’s nearby our school and is a convenient place for us to productively spend our free time,” said L. Mukhtsooj, 20, a regular client at the Khovd YDC. “The staff here are also very welcoming to us.”

There are 15 YDCs throughout Mongolia, and each provides youth with a range of programmes aimed at building their life skills, providing knowledge about their rights and responsibilities, and offering them meaningful ways to realise their potential. These multi-purpose centres also offer a range of skills-development services, such as career planning and healthy leisure activities.

“There are many clubs that bring together youth based on their interests and hobbies. We have clubs for amateur photographers and book lovers, and a girls’ group with arts and fashion, to name but a few,” said Enkhbayar, coordinator of the Khovd YDC.

The YDCs are fun, safe places for young people to spend their free time and develop their social skills. The centres also target marginalised youth and young families, providing them with life skills education and other trainings.

“We try to offer comprehensive and holistic services for our clients,” said S. Khishigtogtokh, a social worker at the Khovd YDC. “There are support groups addressing vulnerable youth, such as youth in prisons or those with disabilities. 

In assisting young families, Khishigtogtokh said: “We try our best to reach every family member, providing counselling for young people and young couples, supporting their children in their school enrolment, and addressing their health and livelihoods, jointly with other public services”.

Mr O. Battur, 28, a local auto mechanic, his wife Tsetsegjargal, 26, and their four children have benefited from the services offered by the Khovd YDC. The couple attended family and relationships workshops - the first such training in which they had taken part. “I learned a great deal about family relations and parenting,” Battur said. “It’s been an interesting training for a man like me who knew nothing other than fixing cars.”

His wife Tsetsegjargal also attended a skills-development training organised by the Khovd YDC and became a certified kindergarten assistant. And while finding a job in such a remote town is a challenge, she is nonetheless positive about the future. “My dreams are now brighter. I want all my kids to finish school and be well-educated. I want to build a happy family,” she said.

One of these advancements has been the introduction of the Local Development Fund (LDF) - a pool of state funds that enables Mongolian citizens to participate in identifying priorities for public investment. People are more aware of, and are largely satisfied with, the LDF and its investment in priority areas that have been identified by local communities.

“When we speak to local people, we are repeatedly told that an official sitting in Ulaanbaatar doesn’t know as well as the local population what is needed in local areas, for example for a school or a hospital”, said Diepak Elmer, SDC in Mongolia Deputy Director of Cooperation.

The Office of the President, a pioneer in the implementation of direct democracy in Mongolia, together with Mongolian civil society organisations, is willing to go beyond consultation and establish citizen participation as a right of citizens and a duty of local governments. The model of the 200-year-old popular referendum in Switzerland is being used as a point of reference.

Two Swiss experts from the Centre for Democracy Studies in Aarau travelled to Mongolia in January on a week-long advisory mission. Together with Mongolian legal experts and civil society democratic leaders, they analysed how to legally formulate a referendum mechanism that would work for both citizens and local governments. They also explored its inclusion in a draft of the Law on Public Participation.

At a public discussion in January focused on how direct democracy can be incorporated into a representative democracy, Professor Auer from the Institute of Democracy Studies in Switzerland shared the Swiss experience and examples of how representative and direct democracies can complement one another.

Professor Auer highlighted that direct democracy was not unknown to the Mongolians, referring to the Article 3 of the Constitution of Mongolia. He said the direct participation of citizens in state affairs as a way of exercising state power was mentioned before the representative system.

SDC’s Governance and Decentralisation Programme is supporting the drafting of the Law on Public Participation, which it is hoped will be passed by the Parliament in 2015.

On request from Mongolian authorities, SDC funded a documentary film that captured Mongolia’s direct democracy practices and experiences. Directed by internationally awarded film director S. Byamba, the film focused on the introduction of decentralisation and citizen participation in decision-making in Mongolia.