Climate resilience

Transitioning Ger (yurt) kindergartens into low-carbon, energy-efficient eco-learning hubs of education and well-being.

Climate-resilient ger (Yurt) kindergartens project overview

The European Union, through its SWITCH-Asia program, has funded a four-year project called “Switching on the Green Economy” (SOGE) with USD 2.2 million. The project aims to support Mongolian MSMEs and retailers in the agri-food and beverage sector to confidently adopt circular economy practices. This will be achieved through a market-based green certification and eco-labeling system, capacity building, behavior change, and access to green finance.

Mongolia has set a national strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 22.7% by 2030. The Agri-Food and Beverage Sector is a significant contributor to environmental impact. Therefore, the country is embracing resource-efficient practices from the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy to aid Mongolia's transition to a low-carbon circular economy and accelerate poverty reduction.

The project will establish a dedicated unit for eco-label green certification aimed at promoting environmentally friendly, resource-efficient, and smart practices among MSMEs and retailers through an electronic platform. Furthermore, a localized payment system will be created to incentivize consumers to choose goods and services from the retailers.

SOGE Project Overview

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: People in Need INGO, Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association (MSFA), Development Solutions NGO, Caritas Czech Republic INGO 

Air pollution & CHIP innovation: Due to the high exposure to polluted air and climate related hazards, children across Mongolia are facing enormous risks to their overall health, cognitive development, access to nutritious food, and safe water. Without swift action, generations of Mongolians will live with the health and economic consequences of air pollution.

To address these challenges, the CHIP package was designed and piloted with energy efficient and environmentally friendly “Cooking, Heating and Insulation Products” (CHIP) for ger households. To date, the project has benefited 492 households in Bayankhongor, Govi-Altai, Umnugovi provinces and the 5th, 17th khoroos of Bayanzurkh district, Ulaanbaatar city from 2019- 2020 – bringing health, thermal comfort and better Indoor Air Quality to children. 

The CHIP package replaces the coal stove and chimney with an energy-efficient electric heater and circular air filters on the door and extra layers of windproof and waterproof insulation around and under the ger. All this was designed to improve energy efficiency and indoor air quality in traditional gers as well as reduce outdoor and indoor air pollution.

CHIP Project Overview 

“THE HAZE GAZER” PROJECT
The fight against air pollution across Asia, including Mongolia, is one of the most pressing challenges in a generation. The impacts air pollution has on our daily lives extends to more than just health -- they are social, economic, and gendered. The initiative that was introduced by the UNDP and UNICEF Mongolia on International Human Rights Day, the Haze-Gazer platform is dedicated to monitoring collective impacts of air pollution on human health and safety, the socio-economic situation in communities, and to understand the public perception and reception of interventions to improve air quality.

The "HAZE GAZER" platform aims to:
● Collect and consolidate air pollution data in Ulaanbaatar city through DIGITAL smart devices based on active citizen participation;
● Provide valuable data to researchers, journalists and policymakers;
● Encourage citizens to take action to reduce air pollution impacts, as part of their civic duty, by sharing their life experiences and stories on the platform;
● Inform decision-makers on the multidimensional impacts of air pollution on citizens, in particular women and children as well as integrate data with secondary sources.
The platform is being developed by People in Need INGO and it is a public project, crowdsourcing the knowledge and data from the public. Therefore, the platform can only succeed with strong civic engagement to generate the data but also to learn together and build solutions for a better, cleaner, healthier future. ACTION FOR CLEAN AIR IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY!

About UNDP
UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. For more information about UNDP Mongolia and its work on governance, SDGs and environment, visit: www.undp.mn

About UNICEF
UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. For more information about UNICEF Mongolia and its work for children, visit: www.unicef.mn

About PIN
About People in Need (PIN): INGO based in the Czech Republic, launched programming in Mongolia in 2009, when it provided emergency assistance to herders affected by severe winter conditions (dzud). With the goals of saving lives and protecting dignity, empowering people and supporting sustainable living, PIN established its permanent presence in Mongolia in 2011. For more information about PIN visit: http://www.peopleinneed.cz/ , and its work in Mongolia, visit FB page: @PINinMongolia
For more information about the project or media inquiries, please contact info.mongolia@peopleinneed.cz.

Ulaanbaatar's winters are characterized by an extremely high per-capita use of heating fuel - unrefined and low-grade coal and exceedingly low temperatures. A combination of extreme harsh winter climate, heating supply inefficiencies, inadequate metering and tariff structures and generally poor building-insulation levels has led to Ulaanbaatar´s status as one of the most polluted cities in the world.

In ger district, the houses are often constructed with very simple plans and low quality, windows and doors that cause heat loss during Mongolia´s winters where the temperature can get down to -35 degrees Celsius. This has both negatively affected the health of Ulaanbaatar´s residents and contributed to climate change as the population living in these areas relies on burning coal for heat. 

The project adresses these issues by installing chimney pots in gers and stand-alone houses (baishins) in Ulaanbaatar´s ger district to increase energy efficiency. 
The primary impact of the chimney pot will be to save fuel , reducing the amount of exhaust emission to the air. The secondary saving of harmful emissions is due to better combustion of fuel. The promotion of chimney pots will increase awarness of the product and strenthen business ties to support sustainable production of the chimneys in Mongolia. 

In cooperation with GERES and our local partners MNCA and BEEC, PIN supports the redevelopment and retrofitting of households in the ger district working with construction sector MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), local authorities, individual households and institutions to directly benefit 10,000 households and indirectly impact the whole population of UB. Through awareness raising, residents of the ger districts are educated and empowered to use sustainable energy consumption solutions and the associated behaviors. The project provides increased access to financial institutions for home renovation opportunities making it easier for people from ger districts to build and retrofit energy efficiency in their houses. Selected households (with a priority given to vulnerable and women-headed households based on their motivation to retrofit sustainably) are selected to pilot technical solutions in the building and retrofitting process. Overall, this project aims to contribute towards reduced energy consumption of coal, further contributing to reducing CO2 and PM emissions from individual houses in UB’s ger districts, thereby reducing air pollution and benefitting the whole population.

R2B improves information sharing systems and enhances transparency and accountability of air pollution data in Ulaanbaatar and the provincial center of Tsetserleg in Arkhangai. People in Need and its partners work with local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), empowering them to engage with local and national authorities to address urban air pollution. Through R2B, we work with communities, CSOs, local NGOs, local and national authorities to increase knowledge of air pollution data, understand the gaps in air pollution mitigation measures and develop best practices for an adaptation and mitigation campaign. Raising awareness of effective adaptation and mitigation practices will help citizens protect themselves and their families by contributing to improved air quality and decreasing the chances of illnesses caused by air pollution.

Leveraging Technology and Tradition for Resilience, or LTT4R, is a project that increases the resilience of the rural population to drought, dzud and climate change in four provinces of Mongolia. LTT4R works in 4 ways:

1) increasing the availability of early warning through an SMS platform,
2) assisting local and national authorities in disaster management,
3) research and advocacy around herder’s household vulnerability, the barriers they face for new and old coping mechanisms and advancing early warning systems and
4) developing disaster management plans, proactive pasture management plans and a dzud vulnerability index for use the Government of Mongolia and humanitarian actors in-country.

A key activity is the development in our target areas of local disaster management plans that include pasture management, and a vulnerability index for Mongolian herder population. Accessing weather information and an increased knowledge of the new challenges facing them will increase the resilience of Mongolian herders to shocks and stressors. At an institutional level, increased planning and sensitization will enable local and national authorities to better to respond to hazards in Mongolia. Working at these levels and advancing research on the challenges facing Mongolian herders, PIN Mongolia aims to increase the viability of the herding livelihood, a tradition in Mongolia, in the face of a changing climate.

Livestock farming plays a vital role in the Mongolian economy and is of fundamental significance for employment and export income. The success of their farming activities depends on the local, landlocked climate with alarming temperature extremes over the course of the year.

Sheep wool is an important resource in Mongolia. 90 % of it is raw wool which is in low demand and generates almost no profit for suppliers. For this reason, People in Need focused on this unused potential in a project for processing sheep’s wool as heat insulation construction material.  Special emphasis is laid on the development of a supply chain involving small and medium enterprises, individual sheep farmers, and institutional consumers in the form of schools and state authorities. The programme, therefore, represents not only an interesting business opportunity for the inhabitants of Mongolia but also an environmentally friendly energy-saving alternative.

The Dornogobi province is combination of semi-desert and occasional desert. Revegetation is exceptionally difficult here, because the large herds, the size of which interests the herders more than economy and efficacy, over-graze vegetation and exhaust water sources, thereby causing desertification in new areas.  Dornogobi is also a region with high levels of unemployment of almost 40 %.
 
A promising alternative in the local conditions is plant production. The advantage in this lies not only in further potential income for individuals, but also potential for long-term development of the area. People in Need offered agricultural advice during which the emphasis was placed on economical management of scarce irrigation water and orientation in plant species with market potential. In this, PIN followed up on previously implemented programmes and built the Agrocentre advice centre which also serves as a model farm for plant cultivation, irrigation and storage.  
    
The Agrocentre is also a distribution centre for quality seeds and seedlings and provides expert knowledge to existing and potential farmers not only about cultivating plants, but also about the subsequent phases of the business. In addition to this, it helps farmers form cooperatives and provides them with all the necessary agricultural data involved.