Mongolia was among TOP-3 countries among Asian countries in the Women, Peace and Security Index 2023 (WPS Index 2023). The country is on the 3rd place after South Korea and Japan.

Mongolia scored 10.7 percent in the average duration of school education among women indicator, 60.4 percent in the employment of women, 100 percent in the usage of smartphones by women, 95 percent in financial security of women, 17.3 percent in women’s representation in parliament, 8 percent in discriminatory norms, 1.03 percent in preference of sons (birth rates ratio between men and women), 82.5 percent in the lack of legal discrimination, 0 percent in organized violence (the number of deaths in armed conflicts per 100,000 people), 46.4 percent in the perception of social security of women, and 12% in current partner abuse.

Mongolia is on the 54th place among 170 countries.

A bitterly cold winter after a summer of drought has left herder families in Mongolia without livestock and facing severe food shortages as well as struggling to afford basics such as school supplies, hygiene items and healthcare, Save the Children warned.

Currently 13 of Mongolia's 21 provinces are experiencing a dzud. It's a natural phenomenon unique to Mongolia, when heavy snow and extreme cold follow a summer drought resulting in insufficient grazing pastures and killing livestock. Between 1940 and 2015, there were official "dzud declarations" made twice a decade. However, dzud's have increased in frequency, with occurrences now happening annually.

This year, winter temperatures dropped as low as -40° Celsius causing many animals that were already malnourished to perish due to starvation or freezing, affecting the livelihoods of nearly 200,000 households who make an income from herding goats, sheep, cattle, horses, yaks and camels. The dire situation is exacerbated by inflation, which skyrocketed in 2022.

As a result of the dzud, around 213,000 people, including 80,000 children, are now in need of humanitarian aid including food, access to health facilities, and hygiene items. During a dzud, children under five are at high risk of malnutrition, respiratory diseases, and injuries, as their caregivers struggle to afford attention and healthcare.

Climate experts say the frequency and severity of dzuds is increasing and this can be attributed to the climate crisis. Temperatures in Mongolia are rising twice as fast as the global average, with temperatures warming over 2°C and declines in rainfall reported between 1940 and 2015. A decrease in annual precipitation has led to the increased frequency of dzuds.

Delgerbat, 39, his wife and three children live in Ikh-Uul soum (village) in Zavkhan Province in western Mongolia. Delgerbat recently had to take his son out of school to help him care for their livestock. About 40% of Mongolians rely on livestock for a living. He said:

“The climate is very different from when I was a child. The summers are too hot, the winters too cold and less grass and plants are grown. When I was young the snow would have melted by this time and it would already be spring, but now spring comes so late.”

A dzud takes a psychological toll on children as they worry about their family members and animals. Delgerbat's daughter Yesun, 13, added:

"The dzud arrives when there is a lot of snow and no grass. My father and mother said to each other that they don't have money to buy grass. It is hard to watch our animals die."

Myagmarsuren, 9, lives in a village on the Mongolia-Russia border. He said:

"This year there was a lot of snow and the cattle got sick. One of my two beloved animals, a baby goat named Orgio, died. Orgio showed me a lot of affection and ate bread from my hand. When he recognised me, he would run up to me and bite my hand. It is terrible to see animals die."

Children of herders often live away from home in school dormitories, but they depend on their families for hygiene items such as toothpaste, soap and menstrual health items. Many families struggle to afford these items during the harsh winter. Myagmarsuren's mother, Tuya, 46, said:

"It is hard to make a living raising livestock. During a dzud, we devote all our attention and resources to the animals. The children in the dormitory need many things, but I cannot always give my children what they need."

Save the Children is helping herders and their children in Khovd, Zavkhan, Gobi-Altai, Bayankhongor, and Tuv provinces. The organisation also distributed hygiene kits to about 2,130 children of herders, who are staying in school dormitories.

Altantsetseg, a single mother to six children, lives in Tes soum (village), Zavkhan Province in western Mongolia. The family receives support from Save the Children. She said:

"This year's price increase and inflation are affecting herders. Fuel, oil and other commodity prices are up, except for meat and raw material. I am glad to receive the animal fodder and cash assistance, when the help is desperately needed. If the animals give birth to their offspring safely and survive this March, we will be fine."

Bayan-Altai Luvsandorj, Country Manager and Representative of Save the Children Japan's Mongolia Programme said:

"Herder families urgently need support so they can purchase essential items such as food and medicine, and also animal fodder to save their livestock and protect their future livelihoods. Dzuds are becoming more common and more severe as a result of the climate change. The international community needs to provide humanitarian aid, but it also needs to support herder communities to adapt to climate change, in order to prevent future humanitarian disasters."

Save the Children's humanitarian response to the dzud was implemented with funding from the START Fund of the UK, the Humanitarian Fund of Save the Children International, Save the Children Japan and the Swiss Cooperation Office of the Embassy of Switzerland in Mongolia.

ENDS

Notes

As of 1st February 2023, according to OCHA

Nearly 80,000 children in need of humanitarian aid, is based on the share of the children in the population in 2022 being 36.6%, and 213,000 people with limited food, 36.6% of 210,000 equals 77958.

An estimated 20,000 children needing life-saving assistance, is based on the share of the children in the population in 2022 being 36.6%, and 56,000 people needing urgent life-saving assistance, 36.6% of 56,000 equals 19,398.

For further enquiries please contact:

Ruby Wright, GMU global media manager: ruby.wright@savethechildren.org

Diana Oberoi, Interim Asia Regional Media Manager: doberoi@savechildren.org

Global Media Unit: GMU@savethechildren.org

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Mongolia has committed to implement the international Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (AEOI) by 2026. The AEOI standard is being implemented on a global scale, with 123 of the 167 members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) now committed to start automatic exchanges by a specific date and the vast majority having commenced exchanges.

"I am delighted to announce Mongolia's commitment to implementing automatic exchange of information standards beginning in September 2026, which will significantly improve our ability to combat tax evasion and promote transparency in our financial system,” said Mr Javkhlan Bold, Minister of Finance of Mongolia. “This is an important step in providing a level playing field for all taxpayers and showcasing Mongolia as a responsible and trustworthy member of the global financial community."

More and more developing countries are implementing the AEOI standard and this global reach is a key element to ensuring its effectiveness in combating tax avoidance and evasion. The Global Forum Secretariat is committed to promote and support the implementation of the AEOI standard, particularly by developing countries.

Mr Gaël Perraud, Chair of the Global Forum, welcomed Mongolia's commitment: “The Global Forum will monitor Mongolia’s progress in delivering its commitment to start exchanging automatically by 2026 and updates will be provided to Global Forum members and the G20. Our Secretariat will assist Mongolian tax authorities in implementing the standard and in addressing any challenges that may arise.”

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels. The delivery of the Global Forum’s capacity-building programme is only made possible thanks to the financial support and the trust of its generous donor partners.

For more information, please contact gftaxcooperation@oecd.org.

Under Secretary Nuland accompanied Secretary Blinken to the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Karuizawa, Japan, April 16-18.

She will then travel on to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to meet with senior Mongolian officials, civil society leaders, and tour a USG-supported cultural heritage project April 19-20.

On April 17, Luo Zhaohui, chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), signed a cooperation document with Khurelbaatar, deputy prime minister and minister of the economy and development of Mongolia, on the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), during his visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Head of the CIDCA's Global Development Promotion Center Tang Ying, Deputy Director-General of the CIDCA's Department of Policy and Planning Li Ming, and Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations Vorshilov Enkhbold also attended the meeting.

As part of the liberalization of air transport, the Government has been working toward launching direct flights to the main air transport regions of the world in 2023-2024 and plans to conclude air service agreements with 10 countries.

Minister of Road and Transport Development S. Byambatsogt met with the British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Mongolia Daniel Kawczynski and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Mongolia Philip Malone on April 13 and exchanged views on development tendency in the fields of air transport, railways and roads, and expansion of cooperation between the two countries.

Minister S. Byambatsogt expressed his gratitude to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for paying special attention to its economic cooperation with Mongolia and sending the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to increase trade turnover between the countries and voiced his desire to expand the cooperation in the future.

The Minister said, "The transport sector plays an important role in Mongolia's relations with third countries. Therefore, we plan to establish more air service agreements to increase the number of direct flights. We envision it possible to sign the Intergovernmental Agreement on Air Communications between our two countries during the International Transport Forum in Leipzig, Germany, on May 24-26” and he asked to convey the proposal and support it.

In view of the traffic congestion in the capital city, the Government plans to implement the "Tuul Highway" project, reflecting it in the New Revival Policy. The road and road facilities along the banks of the Tuul River, as well as the road facilities to connect this road to the Ulaanbaatar-Khushig Valley Airport Expressway, will be built under this plan. Briefing about the "Tuul Highway" project and the "New Kharkhorum" project, which started by decree of President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh with a goal to rebuild the capital city of the Mongolian Empire Minister Byambatsogt expressed Mongolia’s interest to cooperate with Germany in developing the feasibility study and designing of a high-speed railway connecting Kharkhorum city with the capital city.

The Ministry of Road and Transport Development informed that the British side had agreed to expand cooperation in trade, economy, and transport sectors and to cooperate in major infrastructure projects.

Mongolia has experience in introducing British advanced technology and know-how in the railway sector. Specifically, products of "Pandrol," a manufacturer of rail fastenings of reinforced concrete sleepers, and "RM&S," a manufacturer of concrete sleepers, were used in a newly built railway in Mongolia. The fastening technology is suitable for the extreme climate of Mongolia and meets the quality requirements. Given that concrete sleepers and fastenings will be required for the projects to construct western and eastern vertical railways and to renovate existing railways, the Mongolian side put forward cooperation proposals.

The Government of Mongolia and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have been working to expand air transport links since 1997.

1. Aeronautical Authorities of the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 1997. In the Memorandum the two parties agreed that the airlines designated by the Mongolian side may operate up to two services per week in each direction and to grant Mongolia the fifth freedom traffic right on Moscow and Berlin route as well as to designate MIAT, Mongolian National Flag Carrier to operate on Ulaanbaatar-London route. However, MIAT has not operated flights to London due to the shortage of flight fleets and lack of passenger traffic to the European Market.

2. The Government of Mongolia and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland signed an Agreement on Air Services in 2000, agreeing to allow the designated airlines of the two countries to operate flights between Ulaanbaatar and London.

3. During the Air Consultation Meeting between Aeronautical Authorities held in Ulaanbaatar in 2009, both parties agreed to specify Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich as destination points in Germany and granted fifth freedom traffic right to a designated airline of Mongolia to/from London, Paris, Prague and intermediate points of Moscow, Prague.

4. Aeronautical Authorities of the two countries met in London in 2012 and the UK delegation confirmed that the designated airlines of Mongolia may operate Ulaanbaatar-Moscow/Berlin-London with fifth freedom traffic right and agreed on a code-sharing arrangement at the 2013 Air Consultation Meeting.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today the launch of its five-year (2023-2028) Mongolia Strategic Framework that will guide the agency’s work. The strategy focuses on supporting Mongolia’s efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, enhance national sovereignty, and diversify its economy.

In partnership with the Government of Mongolia, civil society, and the private sector, USAID will build on past progress to strengthen democratic systems, unlock private enterprise-led economic growth, reform the energy sector, and improve resilience to climate change.

“As Mongolia’s long-standing partner and third neighbor, the United States remains committed to help strengthen Mongolia’s democracy and enhance its economic vitality,” said USAID Mission Director Ryan Washburn. “The U.S. government, through USAID, will continue strengthening our partnerships to advance our shared goal of sustainable development for all Mongolians.”

For more than 30 years, USAID assistance has spanned a variety of priority areas, including developing the energy sector, helping to establish and strengthen major banking institutions, providing humanitarian assistance, promoting small businesses and diversifying income in rural areas, and spurring inclusive participation in the democratic process. The United States also provided more than 24.8 billion MNT ($8 million) to help Mongolia respond to COVID-19.

To learn more about the Agency’s five-year Strategic Framework for Mongolia, visit www.usaid.gov/mongolia.

Mongolia has substantial coal deposits across the country. Coal is an important source of government revenue alongside mineral exports from mega mines such as Oyu Tolgoi and the Erdenet copper mine. But in September 2022, a coal scandal began to unfold in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

Multiple disclosures were made regarding corruption and conflicts of interest associated with the state-owned coal company, Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi JSC. Then in October 2022, the Mongolian government revealed that coal was being illegally transported across the Chinese border without customs registration. This coal smuggling was allegedly directed by individuals in high-level government positions. Mongolia’s new national opposition political party, the HUN Party, calculated that the total loss of potential revenue to the Mongolian government was equivalent to an estimated 40 trillion Mongolian tugrik (US$13 billion). The Mongolian government did not officially confirm this figure.

Coal executives involved in such deals directly implicated the governing Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) because Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi JSC is state owned. According to Mongolian news media revelations in December 2022, Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi JSC executives secretly signed multiple offtake contracts (largely with Chinese and Mongolian companies) to fund infrastructure projects in exchange for cheap coal. These projects included the Zag water pipeline, the Bogd Khan railway and Tavantolgoi Gashuun Sukhait road projects.

Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi JSC’s chief executive officer was eventually arrested and imprisoned. Mongolia’s government installed a special representative to replace him. On 30 March 2023, two members of parliament — Tumurbaatar Ayursaikhan and Dashdemberal Bat-Erdene — lost their positions. Several Chinese officials associated with the coal trade were also arrested in China at the end of 2022.

This revelation of secret, internal deal-making within the state-owned company triggered large-scale protests in Ulaanbaatar. Yet these protests were directed not only at this scandal but embodied a larger anger at political dysfunction and endemic corruption in Mongolia. During the protests, many different opinions were broadcasted, including calls for the government to resign. Protesters also promised that this would be the first of further protests planned for when the intense winter cold thawed.

This scandal was seen as an example of so-called ‘theft-by-law’ because state secrets rules technically protect internal deal-making and it is within the power of the ruling party’s decision makers. The scandal’s information source remains unclear — no single whistleblower has come forward, though several copies of the offtake agreements have been shared publicly.

The initial spotlight on the smuggling came from within MPP. Given the nature of Mongolian politics over the last decade, this situation is an indication of party fracturing and an internal fight for financial resources.

With the next election coming in June 2024, internal party fighting may have culminated in Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene’s effort to exert his control over the MPP and use the scandal to display an anti-corruption stance. This was evident in Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene’s speech at the Plenary Session of Mongolia’s parliament on 15 December 2022 when he stated his rejection of the ‘MANAN gang’. MANAN refers to MAN — the MPP, and AN — the Democratic Party — combined to construct the Mongolian word for ‘fog’.

As Gantulga Munkherdene has argued in his analysis of ‘wild capitalism’ in Mongolia, MANAN has come to embody public perceptions of the fusing of Mongolian party politics with jockeying for control of the nation’s wealth. It has been in circulation to contest corruption since the mid-2000s.

The coal smuggling is not an isolated event. Powerful political figures are closely intertwined with large-scale business interests. The culture of corruption within the Mongolian state has existed over at least three decades, which closely tracks with the Mongolian mining boom starting in the early 2000s.

Politicians’ use of public funds for personal gain and the cultivation of financial and social privileges has a long history in Mongolia. A 2005 USAID report on corruption highlighted ‘a profound blurring of the lines between the public and private sector brought about by endemic and systemic conflict of interest at nearly all levels’.

Corruption scandals have plagued Mongolia. The Mongolian government unfairly awarded scholarships to relatives or children of politicians and a state-run health and social insurance fund was subject to high levels of corruption and theft of assets. The Development Bank of Mongolia’s famous Chinggis and Samurai bond money was gutted by government authorities and their family members and major Mongolian private companies with political connections. The state fund for small and medium enterprises also gave large loans to members of the MPP — often without them paying them back.

The coal smuggling scandal is another example of the culture of corruption in a long line of similar events. But it is unclear why the Mongolian government only uncovered this so-called open secret of coal smuggling within its own party now.

Coal smuggling has been on the radar since at least 2018 when former member of Mongolia’s parliament from Omnogobi province, Luvsang Enkhbold, warned about millions of tonnes of coal missing in customs declaration forms. Beyond pointing to internal fighting for power within the MPP, the scandal may serve as a convenient crisis to make the prime minister look good in anticipation of the elections in 2024. The scandal could distract the Mongolian population from bigger protests calling for genuine reform.

BY:

Gantulga Munkherdene is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, National University of Mongolia.

Ariell Ahearn is Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Oxford.

The Xiongnu, contemporaries of Rome and Egypt, established their nomadic empire on the Mongolian steppe 2,000 years ago, emerging as Imperial China’s most formidable adversary and inspiring the construction of China’s Great Wall.

According to a new study, the Xiongnu were a multiethnic empire with high genetic diversity throughout the empire and within individual extended elite families. Women held the highest positions of power on the outskirts of the empire. The highest genetic diversity was found among low-status male servants, providing clues to the process of empire-building that gave rise to Asia’s first nomadic imperial power.

The world’s first nomadic empire, the Xiongnu empire, is finally being revealed thanks to archaeological excavations and new ancient DNA evidence. The Xiongnu empire arose on the Mongolian steppe 1,500 years before the Mongols. It became one of Iron Age Asia’s most powerful political forces, eventually stretching its reach and influence from Egypt to Rome to Imperial China.

The Xiongnu were famously nomadic and built their empire on the backs of horses. Their economy was based on animal husbandry and dairying. Their skill at mounted warfare made them swift and formidable adversaries, and their legendary conflicts with Imperial China eventually led to the construction of the Great Wall.

Juhyeon Lee, the first author of the study and Ph.D. student at Seoul National University, said, “We wanted to know how much genetic diversity was structured at different social and political scales, as well as in relation to power, wealth, and gender. We knew that the Xiongnu had a high degree of genetic diversity. However, due to a lack of community-scale genomic data, it remained unclear whether this diversity emerged from a heterogeneous patchwork of locally homogenous communities or whether local communities were genetically diverse.”

They discovered that the Xiongnu had a high level of genetic diversity. However, it was found that individuals in the two cemeteries displayed extremely high genetic diversity, comparable to that found throughout the Xiongnu Empire. This was revealed by the excavation of the Xiongnu Elite Tomb 64, which contained a high-status aristocratic woman at the site of Takhiltiin Khotgor, Mongolian Altai.

However, a lot of this variation was divided according to social class. The lowest rank individuals displayed the greatest genetic variation and diversity, indicating that they came from remote regions of the Xiongnu Empire or elsewhere.

Elite status and power may have been concentrated among particular genetic subsets of the larger Xiongnu population, as suggested by the lower overall genetic diversity and higher proportions of eastern Eurasian ancestries found in local and aristocratic elites interred in square tombs and stone ring graves. Particularly in Shombuuzyn Belchir, even wealthy families have exploited marriage to fortify ties to recently incorporated communities. We now have a clearer understanding of how the Xiongnu grew their empire by integrating many groups and utilizing marriage and concubinage.

Researchers discovered that high-status Xiongnu burials and elite grave goods were disproportionately associated with women, correlating with textual and archaeological evidence that Xiongnu women played particularly prominent political roles in the expansion and integration of new territories along the empire’s frontier.

They also discovered that the elite monumental tombs at Takhiltyn Khotgor were built for women, with each prominent woman flanked by a slew of commoner males buried in simple graves. The women were buried in elaborate coffins emblazoned with the golden sun and moon emblems of Xiongnu imperial power. One tomb even housed a team of six horses and a partial chariot.

Women occupied the wealthiest and most elaborate graves at the nearby Shombuuzyn Belchir elite cemetery. The grave goods included wooden coffins, golden emblems and gilded objects, glass and faience beads, Chinese mirrors, a bronze cauldron, silk clothing, wooden carts, more than a dozen livestock, as well as three items typically associated with male horse-mounted warriors.

Bryan Miller, project archaeologist and Assistant Professor of Central Asian Art & Archaeology at the University of Michigan, said, “Women held great power as agents of the Xiongnu imperial state along the frontier, often holding exclusive noble ranks, maintaining Xiongnu traditions, and engaging in both steppe power politics and the so-called Silk Road networks of exchange.”

Genetic analysis also provided rare insights into the social roles of children in Xiongnu society.

Senior author Christina Warinner, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said, “Children received differential mortuary treatment depending upon age and sex, giving clues to the ages at which gender and status were ascribed in Xiongnu society.”

They found that while younger boys were not, teenage Xiongnu males as young as eleven to twelve were buried with a bow and arrows. This shows that males were only assigned the gendered social responsibilities of hunter and warrior in late childhood or early adolescence.

Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, project archaeologist and Mongolian Archaeology Project: Surveying the Steppes project coordinator at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, said, “Our results confirm the long-standing nomadic tradition of elite princesses playing critical roles in the political and economic life of the empires, especially in periphery regions – a tradition that began with the Xiongnu and continued more than a thousand years later under the Mongol Empire While history has at times dismissed nomadic empires as fragile and short, their strong traditions have never been broken.”

Journal Reference:

Juhyeon Lee, Bryan K. Miller, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, etal.Genetic population structure of the Xiongnu Empire at imperial and local scales. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf3904