Civil Society & Inclusive Governance

People in Need INGO, in collaboration with the FARO Foundation NGO and the Ministry of Digital Development and Communication (MDDC), is implementing the DICE project to empower CSOs, and to support the transition towards a citizen-centered digital transformation. In line with the EU CSO Roadmap, the DICE project unfolds a dynamic strategy to bolster the digital capacities of CSOs, making them instrumental players in Mongolia's journey towards digital inclusivity. The project focuses not only on internal CSO capabilities but also directly addresses the digital literacy needs of marginalized groups through targeted training and development programmes. Specifically, to bridge the digital divide, the project seeks to empower a minimum of 40 CSOs and their 160 staff members to engage with elderly individuals, people with disabilities, rural households, women, and vulnerable youth.

DICE Project Overview

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia – Civil society organizations form the foundation of Mongolia’s democracy. Since Mongolia’s peaceful revolution in 1990, civil society organizations (CSOs) have played a critical role in the country’s economic and democratic transition.

However, challenges to accessing international funds and leveraging global expertise continues to be a challenge for local CSOs.  In Mongolia, CSOs are essential for more accountable governance and freer societies and must be adequately resourced. The future of the sector is via supporting local actors alongside strengthening government systems yet the processes and systems to support such locally led action are minimal.

To better serve CSOs, People In Need (PIN), inspired by the EU Delegation’s CSO Roadmap, has launched a new platform called “Civil Society Now” – commonly referred to as CSN.

“At PIN, we are looking at an approach to flip the power dynamic whereby we provide capacity building services to local CSOs in order for them to be able to directly access and manage international donor funding,” said Camila Garbutt, Head of PIN’s Global Technical Advisory Unit.

“PIN itself has grown from being a small civil society organisation in the Czech Republic to become a trusted partner of institutional donors operating in more than 20 countries. This recent growth means it has a fresh living memory of its own organizational development, remembering and understanding the needs of smaller organisations and pathways for establishing the required standards.”

PIN will open up its internal fundraising, accountability, donor compliance and programme management systems to provide local CSOs with the resources required to build their own in order to access and effectively manage international donor funding. The CSN platform aims to contribute to Mongolia’s development, growth and emancipation of local civil society organizations. The services provided to members would be template resources, internal guidance documents, drop-in sessions on topics requested by members, and consultancy support.

“An empowered Civil Society is a crucial component for Mongolia’s democratic system and is an asset in itself. CSOs represent and foster pluralism and can contribute to more effective policies, to equi­table and sustainable development and to inclusive growth. It is great to see that our Roadmap is inspiring others to contribute to a Civil Society landscape conducive to strengthening governance and democracy in Mongolia.”, said H.E. Ms Axelle Nicaise, Ambassador of the European Union to Mongolia.


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About People in Need (PIN): The CEO and co-founder of PIN is Simon Pánek, one of the student activists during the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic. PIN is an active member of the European Partnership for Democracy as well as a framework partner of the European Commission for civil society development. In Mongolia, PIN strives to strengthen capacities of local authorities and CSOs, promote human rights, and empower communities to be the drivers of change and equal opportunities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Government’s ‘Vision 2050’. For more information about PIN Mongolia and its work, visit: www.mongolia.peopleinneed.net/en/

Contact info:  For project or media-related inquiries, please contact Tina Puntsag, Communications and Advocacy Manager: tina.puntsag@peopleinneed.net / phone: +70111501
EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society in Mongolia (2021-2025): https://europa.eu/!nnjWtj
 
 

Here in Mongolia, domestic and sexual violence is a human rights issue of national concern. According to a UNFPA/NSO study in Mongolia, one in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Last year, eight people were killed and 732 were injured in reported domestic violence cases, of which 89% were women and 7.7% were children. The same study also found that 1 in 10 women experienced child sexual abuse before the age of 15. With the COVID19 pandemic quarantine measures, children and women are at greater risk of violence when they are unable to leave their homes.

To address the pervasiveness of violence against women and children, People In Need, National Center Against Violence, Monfemnet, and Healthy Men Health Family NGO, are running the White Ribbon Campaign. The campaign´s aim is to call up all men to rise up and put an end to violence in all its forms. The Speaker of Mongolian Parliament H.E. Zandanshatar confirmed, that the Parliament plans to make major policy changes in order to raise national and community-based awareness on the issue, raise awareness and increase men´s and boy´s engagement in “ending gender-based violence" - encourage them to speak out and unite to end violence.

People in Need is helping to enhance the quality of Mongolian university education in the area of livestock breeding and its relationship to farming freely roaming animals, which has so far been a fairly marginalized topic in the Mongolian expert community. Two prominent Mongolian institutions, the Mongolian Academy of Science (MAS) and Mongolian University of Agriculture (MULS) in cooperation with Czech Agricultural University (ČZU) are engaged in the project. One of the main events is a summer school in Mongolia which is attended every year between 40 to 50 students and educators. The main focus of these summer schools and related activities is primarily to understand the interaction between enclosed pasture and the management of freely grazing wildlife. The participants aspire to close interconnection of the two approaches which so far have been studied only separately.

PIN Mongolia and three local NGOs indeed implemented an EU-funded project (better known under the name “EP-IL”) in Arkhangai and Övörkhangai, which aimed at increasing access of micro/small economic ventures (be they profit-driven or not) to productive and technical resources, as well as better access to markets and financing (e.g. the Sum Development Fund). It also entailed fostering the interaction between these private entities and the sum authorities. PIN also capacitated the latter to improve their governance, increase citizen’s participation and dialogue between businesses and local authorities.

In Mongolia, the majority of the people living in the rural regions still rely on herding as their main source of income. In 2016, PIN proposed the EPIL project to the European Union as it observed that rural entrepreneurs lacked information about financing and the necessary skills to secure it. They also faced difficulties to create and develop new activities that would help them earn additional money. In a nutshell, they were lacking the opportunities to have better livelihoods. At that time, the central government of Mongolia created a special fund meant to provide soft loans to help rural entrepreneurs pursue and make concrete their business ideas. However, accessing this fund proved to be difficult for business owners as PIN noted issues with the way the fund was managed and with both the quality and the volume of information given to potential loan applicants.

In details, the project focused on different ways to achieve the desired impact:

- Disseminating information about the public fund to businesses, civil society organisations, and cooperatives and training local officials to better governance practices.

- Providing business skills and tools to these private actors, and improving their marketing, financial management, loan applications, and innovative thinking.

- Linking districts, regions, and economic actors together and promoting sharing of knowledge and best practices.

The project contributes to strengthening the quality of Mongolian Higher Education in the construction sector through cooperation and transfer of know-how between Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT) and Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) through the facilitation of PIN.
The project goal will be achieved through the implementation of outputs which focus on quality improvement of vocational subjects teaching through direct teaching by Czech teachers, improvement of material equipment of School of Civil Engineering and Architecture (SCEA), enhancement of the quality of teaching, and support of joint research projects between the two universities. The project will also improve the model of quality of teaching of selected technical subjects through direct participation of university teachers from Czech Technical University (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Faculty of Architecture) on education activities in Mongolia, consultation and supervision of seminar, bachelor' and master's thesis and provision of the necessary material equipment to SCEA.

Building up on Caritas Czech Republic and People in Need previous successful experiences in Mobile Health Services and on World Health Organization (WHO) national mandate towards Ministry of Health and Sports and Provinces Health departments, we had provided technical assistance for initial assessment, development of the guidebook, preparation of the workshops and trainings, advocacy at the national level. By contribution to create a methodological and legal framework for the Health services, we could provide better access and better diagnosis to remote rural population of Mongolia.

The current social situation in Mongolia is characterised by the high level of domestic violence, human trafficking and subsequent sexual exploitation within the country and abroad. This and other pressing matters are the objectives of our program of using documentary films during school tuition intended for students as well as the secondary and trade school teachers.  Its objective is to increase awareness of young people in human rights issues.

The students of the schools involved in the programme attend the screening of selected documentary films and participate in subsequent activities which generally take the form of discussions. The schools are provided with a DVD, manuals, and worksheets. The teachers have the opportunity to participate in training and workshops where they can acquire methodology for human rights tuition and increase their factual knowledge. 20 schools from Bulgan, Darkhan-Uul, Orkhon, and Selenge aimags participated in the program in 2012, with the participation of 1,500 students and 50 educators.
        
In 2013, 52 educators received training in the methodology of using documentary films and facilitating methods. A special education package with documentary films and additional didactic materials was created for teachers and subsequently distributed to all 52 teachers from 23 schools in Darkhan-Uul, Selenge, Orkhon a Bulgan aimags. Screenings of documentary films concerning with human rights was in 2013 attended by approximately 8,000 students.  The first screenings in the newly established school film clubs were attended by approximately 520 students.
 
In 2014, the One World at Schools programme in Mongolia extended to Arkhangai, Uvurkhangai, Tuv, Gobi-Sumber and Ulaanbaatar aimags. During the school year, the teachers and the students between 14 to 19 from 20 different secondary and trade schools will newly participate in the activities.

On the basis of the wealth of experience with the One World organization at Czech, Lebanese, Armenian, Georgian and other foreign schools People in Need expect that introducing human rights topics into the school curriculum will in the long-term view lead to greater participation of young people in the functioning of civil society.

 

Basic healthcare in the rural areas of Mongolia is relatively readily available but the people living in remote localities do not have access to specialists doctors, modern diagnostic equipment nor to the medical care when necessary in case of acute need for help. The People in Need health programme facilitated the provision of year-round available quality healthcare for the nomad population in six provinces in western and southern Mongolia in order to reduce morbidity and mortality. 
    
A total of six four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with modern diagnostic tools were presented to the regional hospitals in 2011 in Archangaj and Uvurchangaj aimags, in 2012 in Bayankhongor and Zavchan aimags and in 2013 in Huvsgul and Umnogobi aimags.  These mobile clinics in regular cycles do the rounds of all of the aimags, supporting the inadequately staffed and equipped rural hospitals and, when necessary, they visit the remotest of places too. Their main objective is the diagnosis and prevention. They carry equipment and materials for providing help in the acute cases.
 
Medical experts trained 125 employees of regional hospitals to man the off-road mobile clinics. In cooperation with hospitals they also put together itineraries, a monitoring plan and an equipment use manual.  Between 2011 and 2013, the mobile clinics provided healthcare to more than 31,000 persons living in remote rural areas. 

The agricultural and processing industry vocational education programme was started as a reaction to the high unemployment rate in northern Mongolia which was the result of insufficient coordination of vocational programmes offered with the demand on the local labour market. For instance, schools do not offer enough courses that are directly applicable in the region (for example woodworking and forestry) and they also have only dated equipment which reduces the degree to which acquired skills are applicable in professional practice (for example, the agricultural mechanization course uses machinery dozens of years old is taught). New vocational departments spring up that try to react to the local conditions but they lack the necessary quality. 
        
To improve the situation, People in Need supported vocational and secondary schools and provided financial and expert support directed at modernization and creation of new study departments.  These cover mainly education of forestry and woodworking, crop and animal production, agriculture mechanic and the cooking/baking trade. The objective was to change the system of education in a way it would reflect the demand of the labour market and the development as yet unused potential of the region. 
                                                                                                              
In 2012 PIN helped to establish a new forestry department in Sukhbaataru and a department of agricultural mechanization at the vocational school Zuunkharaa in Selenge Aimag . Studies at new school departments were launched for the school year 2013 to 2014, with the first students taking their places behind their desks on 1st September 2013.