The Ministry of Health reported that 1,348 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours. Specifically, 835 cases were confirmed in Ulaanbaatar city, with 513 cases in rural regions.

As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mongolia stands at 326, 738. 6,477 patients have made recoveries in the past 24 hours.

Furthermore, 14 new COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, raising the country’s death toll to 1,377. Currently, 19,957 people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 whilst 55,387 people with mild symptoms of COVID-19 are being isolated at home

Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has ramped up counter-desertification efforts days after launching a national campaign to plant a billion trees by 2030.

On Sunday, foreign ambassadors, diplomats and staff of international organizations in Mongolia, as well as representatives of various fields of Mongolia joined the campaign and planted trees in Nalaikh District of the Mongolian capital.

"This national tree-planting campaign concerns not only Mongolians but also the whole world. I believe that Mongolia and (the) Mongolian people are contributing to the well-being of mankind via the campaign," Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh told foreign representatives during the event.

The "Billion Trees" campaign was officially launched on Oct. 4. Khurelsukh earlier told United Nations General Assembly that the country aims to combat climate change and desertification through the campaign.

"Yellow dust storms originating from Mongolia reach other countries such as China, South Korea and Japan, causing damage to health, ecosystems and the economy. More than 70 percent of Mongolia's total territory has been struck by desertification," Khurelsukh said. "So today we must fight and act together against the desertification, and we must not waste time."

Planting trees is not only about planting seedlings, he said, as the most important thing is to care for the planted trees.

Hailing the Mongolian president's initiative, Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui said it is a good initiative not only for the future generations of Mongolia, but also for the earth, adding that China is ready to work with Mongolia to combat desertification.

Major companies in Mongolia have committed to joining the national campaign to fulfill their social responsibilities, according to the president.

For example, Mongolian state-owned mining enterprises, Erdenet and Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, are expected to plant 100 million trees and 180 million trees, respectively.

Mongolia is expected to spend at least 1 percent of its GDP (gross domestic product) annually to reach the target in time.

With girls in Mongolia spending more time online and falling prey to cyber harassment, an ADB technical assistance is providing digital and crowdsourcing approaches to prevent new forms of gender-based violence, increase reporting, and hold predators accountable.

ADB technical assistance is providing digital and crowdsourcing approaches to prevent new forms of gender-based violence, such as cyber-bullying and online harassment.

During the coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic in Mongolia, most girls who had internet access spent hours online for school, socialization, and coping with the lockdown.

Sodnoi, like many adolescents, missed her friends and craved for companionship outside of family. She made her social media profile public, and gave her mobile phone number and email address freely online. She knew of the risks but all she wanted was to make new friends.

It didn’t take long for Sodnoi to receive attention. Much of it was unwanted and sexual in nature. Like the majority of teenage girls experiencing gender-based violence online and via their mobile phones, she blocked various accounts, and ignored the rest.

In Mongolia, similar to many areas in Asia and the Pacific where health protocols required children and adolescents to stay at home, schools used televised and internet-based classes to ensure continuity in education. The constant online exposure combined with risky online behavior and the need to reach out socially made adolescents more vulnerable to cyber bullying and sexual harassment.

With girls in Mongolia spending more time online during the COVID-19 pandemic, new forms of gender-based violence such as cyber-bullying are becoming prevalent, ADB is supporting in the identification of approaches to address these.

Anticipating this, ADB provided technical assistance to meet the girls where they are – in cyberspace – using the same technologies and platforms to help them protect themselves, and hold predators accountable.

“It was critical for young Mongolians themselves to pinpoint the online threats they face and the behaviors that make them vulnerable, and to co-design innovative digital approaches to counter new forms of gender-based violence such as cyber-bullying” said M. Teresa Kho, Director General at ADB’s East Asia Department.

Designing apps to protect girls

Over seventy local teams registered for a hackathon to co-create solutions to prevent and address online gender-based violence. The three apps that made it to the finals – Online SOS, eProtect, and MeToo – conducted their own baseline surveys that showed the breadth of the problem, zeroing in on victim and predator behaviors.

The surveys showed that teenage girls received more cyber sexual harassment when compared to any other demographic. This ranged from receiving nude images and sexual messages, being coerced to provide their own nude pictures, or asked for sexual favors. Believing that the harassments were too common anyway, adolescents simply ignored the messages, blocked the harassers, and when continuously harassed, deleted their social media accounts or changed mobile phone numbers. All were defensive strategies but the lack of accountability from harassers fueled more and increasingly overt predatory behavior.

Accountability for predators

"Predators must be made accountable for their actions because all too often, with victims simply blocking or ignoring them, they become bolder and repeat the violence with increasing audacity,” said Veronica Mendizabal Joffre, Social Development Specialist at ADB. The eProtect app developed during the hackathon allows those who were harassed to collect and upload evidence, and provides information on how deleted texts and data can be retrieved from social media accounts.

The eProtect app walks victims through the options and steps to trigger official complaints as these send strong signals to predators that their actions are criminal. One option is through the social media platform where the violence occurred to initiate the internal processes that most platforms are obligated to follow, including acting against the accounts used by predators. eProtect also helps victims to officially submit complaints, statements, and evidence to the government-run eMongolia platform to verify if complaints are genuine. eMongolia then assists in following up the cases with harassers and specific social media platforms. eMongolia is governed by privacy provisions which protect the identities of victims.

UN Day of the Girl Child, ADB is helping Mongolia to identify solutions to address cyber-bullying and online harassment.

Games and simulation

The team behind the app, MeToo, which maximized the global campaign against sexual harassment, reported that even while beta testing, the app already received 87 harassment stories within five days. This showed the growing prevalence of online sexual harassment and cyber bullying among girls, and the increasing willingness to talk and to act against online violence.

The MeToo app recognizes that because online gender based violence has become common and can take on subtle forms cloaked in friendship and unequal power relations, girls needed to be constantly made aware of the forms that sexual harassment takes. Using gaming as an education-entertainment approach, girls are led through simulations that show how to recognize online predatory behaviors and what to do in case they encounter harassers.

Maximizing technology

Mongolia has a landmark Law on Combating Domestic Violence (2017). ADB’s TA on Addressing and Preventing Domestic Violence in Mongolia During the COVID-19 Crisis, contributes to maximizing the use of technology to implement the Law. With its other components that include the use of artificial intelligence powered chatbots, the TA bridges the online efforts, and works with the Mongolian Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs (MOJHA) and CSOs to refer domestic violence survivors to more information and services such as rescue, shelter and legal advice. The TA costs $400,000 which is financed on a grant basis from ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund. The TA complements an ongoing grant project on Combating Domestic Violence Against Women and Children, financed by the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific with $4 million.

China has banned British beef imports of cattle under 30 months of age after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow" disease, in the UK last month.

The ban took effect from 29 September, according to a statement from the General Administration of Customs.

China has yet to restart buying beef from the UK after agreeing in 2018 to lift previous restrictions.

Beijing imposed a ban in the 1990s during earlier outbreaks of BSE.

In September, the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) said a case of BSE had been confirmed on a farm in Somerset.

How BSE crisis shook our faith in food

In 2018, China ended a two-decades-long ban on imports of beef from the UK, which as first introduced after the outbreak of BSE in the 1990s.

At the time, the UK government said the lifting of the ban would be worth £250m to British producers over the next five years.

It came after years of site inspections and negotiations between officials in London and Beijing.

In September this year, it was announced that the US was lifting its decades-old ban on imports of British lamb.

The US had stopped British lamb imports since 1989, following the first outbreaks of BSE.

The previous year British beef exports to the US resumed for the first time in more than 20 years.

British beef was banned by Washington after the BSE outbreak in 1996.

The BBC has contacted the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for a response to China's announcement.

At 10.00 pm on October 10, the polls closed at two electoral districts of the by-election for two parliament seats.

Through their website, the General Election Commission (GEC) reported that voter turnout was at 37.04 percent in Khentii aimag and 39.61 percent in the capital city’s Songinokhairkhan district.

As voter turnout in the electoral districts was less than 50 percent of the total number of the voters, re-polling will be organized within seven days to involve those who did not cast their votes.

Despite the insufficient voter turnout, the GEC has reported the preliminary results. In Khentii aimag, the top three candidates that received the most votes were candidate from the ruling Mongolian People’s Party Ts.Iderbat (12,923 votes), candidate from the Democratic Party B.Garamgaibaatar (3,544 votes), and an independent candidate M.Chingiskhaan (545 votes).

As for the capital city’s Songinokhairkhan district, the candidates with the most votes were candidate from the Mongolian People’s Party E.Batshugar with 23,998 votes, candidate from the Right Person Electoral Coalition B.Naidalaa with 5,180 votes, and candidate from the Democratic Party E.Bat-Uul with 4,925 votes.

China’s Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd will buy Canada’s Neo Lithium Corp for C$918.7 million ($737.14 million )the companies said on Friday.

Zijin has agreed to buy Argentina-focused lithium company, Neo Lithium at a price of C$6.50 per share in cash, the companies said in a joint statement.

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IN AUGUST, CHINESE GOLD AND COPPER MINER ZIJIN SAID ITS PLAN ON LITHIUM AND OTHER NEW ENERGY MINERALS WERE IN A PRELIMINARY STRATEGIC PLANNING STAGE.

The offer represents a premium of over 18% to Neo Lithium’s last close of C$5.49 on Friday.

Neo Lithium said that the deal has been unanimously approved by the board.

In August, Chinese gold and copper miner Zijin said its plan on lithium and other new energy minerals were in a preliminary strategic planning stage with no detailed time frame or specific projects yet.

The deal comes after Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) last month agreed to acquire Canada’s Millennial Lithium Corp in an all-stock cash deal worth C$376.8 million ($302.33 million).

Last year, CATL also purchased more than 10 million shares of Neo Lithium Corp and became the company’s third-largest shareholder.

Mongolia has fully vaccinated 69.2 percent of its eligible population above age 13 since a vaccination roll-out began mid-February. Originally, Mongolia had planned to vaccinate 2 million 67 thousand people above the age of 18, however, since June the country has vaccinated 290 thousand children aged between 12-17 as well as pregnant women.

So far, 90.5 percent of Mongolian population already received the first doses of vaccines against Covid-19.

However, vaccination rates of third doses or booster shots are being much lower since Mongolia starts rollout in August.

The Ministry of Health reported that 2,068 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours. Specifically, 1,267 cases were confirmed in Ulaanbaatar city, with 801 cases in rural regions and one imported case.

As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mongolia stands at 325,390. 7,725 patients have made recoveries in the past 24 hours.

Furthermore, 17 new COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, raising the country’s death toll to 1,363. Currently, 20,885 people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 whilst 62,517 people with mild symptoms of COVID-19 are being isolated at home.

Mongolia, where more than 50% of the population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar[3], is facing serious environmental risks due to poor environmental management by the government, poor human activity, and extreme weather conditions[6]. In the face of urban expansion, there is a need for more space for people to move around but Mongolia’s public facilities are not yet able to meet the demand, the existing space is becoming overloaded and the pressure on the environment is increasing[6]. The integrated thickness meter captured high rates of PM2.5 during seasonal daytime conditions and during the winter months, consistent with the influence of heavy coal and wood burning in low-income housing (GER) areas of the city. PM2.5 heights of more than seven times the air quality guidelines set by the WHO were detected in the Ulaanbaatar city center, with an annual average concentration of 75 g/m3. In winter PM2.5 values were 148 g/m3 and average concentrations in GER were as high as 250 g/m3. The 29% (95% CI, 1243%) of cardiopulmonary deaths and 40% (95% CI, 1756%) of lung cancer deaths in the city equate to nearly 10% of the total mortality rate in the city, and estimates exceed 13% of the mortality rate, which may be attributed to outdoor air pollution[2].

Mongolia is currently in a period of urgent economic development and the development of industry has become a very essential approach. The mining industry has been on the rise due to the country’s mineral wealth, and it has been able to strengthen its industrial advancement[9]. However, deforestation, soil erosion, and desertification are increasing in Mongolia. Legal regulations and environmental management procedures in Mongolia have not kept pace with the increase in economic standards so that the health and well-being of the population are not being adequately safeguarded. Changes in the surrounding environment and social inequalities can lead to a range of negative health effects[7]. Therefore, these environmental changes have led to the high exposure of Mongolian people to polluting gases, chemical toxins that are harmful to their bodies, such as metals, environmental tobacco smoke, etc[8].

Firstly, air pollution. According to the WHO Household Energy Database survey shows that The majority of the Mongolian population uses solid fuels (coal) for heating and subsistence because of the cold climate in Mongolia, the number of stoves used in homes is increasing and the use of coal is rising[5]. Thus, the number of household stoves used is rising and the use of coal is also increasing. The second is the exposure of metals, as many water containers in Mongolia have been found to contain high levels of lead, due to the lack of strict control over the industrial environment, which has led to chemical contamination of water bodies. Thirdly, the sanitation of water resources is a concern, with over 70% of water resources not being properly protected and the majority of Mongolians using untreated water. Fourthly, poor tobacco control leads to very high smoking rates, and 33.7% of minors smoking even in primary and secondary schools.

Therefore, lower respiratory infections are an important source of national health care that Mongolia needs to undertake. The mortality rate from respiratory diseases also rises at any time when the concentration of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter in the air in the environment increases. These risk factors increase the exposure of the population to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and children face obstacles to their respiratory fitness and neurological development, such as chronic bronchitis, pneumoconiosis, asthma, tuberculosis, lung cancer, poisoning, and musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases[4].

What can be done to ensure the country’s economic development while promoting the health and well-being of the population is a topic well worth discussing. The article I read suggested these measures that could be taken:

Promoting the use of clean energy (e.g. natural gas, etc.)

Learning from the experiences of countries with similar geographical and weather conditions on how to deal with these problems

Regulate production standards and industrial emission standards

Increasing the system for regulating tobacco and promote smoke-free public places

Regulate the treatment of water resources and connect every household to a central water system

Training for people working in the heavy industry on how to handle metal hazards

Too many environmental conditions have been sacrificed to promote the country’s economic development. People generally live in a polluted world, it is only a matter of how much this pollution is. The situation in Mongolia is not unusual. However, I hope that all countries will become aware of their environmental problems and actively seek ways to deal with them so that their citizens can live in a healthy space with as little environmental threat as possible.

Inclusion has always been at the forefront of World Learning’s approach to creating a more peaceful and just world, and its USAID-funded Leaders Advancing Democracy (LEAD) Mongolia program has been no exception. From the program’s inception in 2016, LEAD has prioritized inclusion as one of the hallmarks of its programming — from the initial program design to outreach and implementation. Now, five years later, the LEAD Mongolia program has just concluded, after supporting thousands of young people in gaining new knowledge and skills in democracy, advocacy, civic engagement, and social inclusion.

On September 10, World Learning hosted the “Legacy of LEAD” event in Ulaanbaatar to highlight the LEAD program’s legacy with an official launch of the Mongolian version of the World Learning “Transforming Agency, Access, and Power” (TAAP) Toolkit. The TAAP Toolkit, originally launched in 2018, is an interactive guide for more inclusive development to amplify the voices, opportunities, and dignity of all people.

With five years of successes and lessons learned, the World Learning Mongolia team aimed to showcase the achievements of the program and provide a useful resource for the development community in Mongolia. The Mongolian translation will serve as an invaluable resource for development practitioners, civil society, the private sector, and government officials across the country. During the September 10 event, World Learning staff and LEAD program alumni highlighted the importance of inclusion and shared real-life examples of how the TAAP Toolkit can be utilized to ensure that all people have a voice in their community or workplace.

Why Inclusion Matters

In August 2016, World Learning staff carried out a Transforming Agency, Access, and Power (TAAP) assessment in Mongolia, paving the way to create an inclusive design for the program and new opportunities for social inclusion over the project’s lifecycle. Before, during, and after this assessment, World Learning met with dozens of individuals and organizations, with a particular focus on gender, disability, LGBTI, youth, rural and nomadic populations and Kazakh minority community members. Not only did these meetings and discussions inform the design of the LEAD program, but they also provided important insights and connections that proved essential to ensuring LEAD had representation from diverse groups.

LEAD’s Deputy Chief of Party, Khulan Dashpuntsag, recalled initial stakeholder meetings during these very early days of the program in 2016. She remembers visiting with members of the deaf community and learning that they were not often consulted on issues that directly affected their daily lives; for example, School №29 in Ulaanbaatar, a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, had bells to denote the end and beginning of classes. Most students and teachers could not hear these bells, yet nothing had been done to provide a solution. Through the civic education component of the LEAD program, students and teachers at School №29 worked together with stakeholders to install a lights-based system at the school, which was more suited to students’ and teachers’ needs.

This story and countless others like it demonstrate the importance of inclusion, ensuring that a variety of voices are heard, and that community members have a say in what happens in their own lives. This belief is what drove the World Learning team to incorporate inclusive development practices throughout the LEAD Mongolia program, from design to applications and outreach to technical content.

TAAP In Practice

During the “Legacy of LEAD” event, several alumni of the LEAD program shared how they have used the TAAP Toolkit and inclusive development methods in practice in their professional lives. The alumni came from civil society, the private sector, and government, emphasizing how these methods can be used across sectors to strengthen organizations and promote inclusive practices.

“I hope this approach will open up opportunities for people to participate in civic action.”

LEAD 2019 US Exchange Program Fellow Purevjav Tumendemberel is currently a project officer for the Mongolian Youth Council, a non-governmental organization that empowers young people to become active citizens and leaders. While he noted that civil society organizations can sometimes lose sight of inclusive processes when focusing on the end results of a project, he emphasized the versatility of the TAAP Toolkit in countering this tunnel vision, as the toolkit can be utilized at various stages of development and program planning. “I hope this approach will open up opportunities for people to participate in civic action,” he stated.

Although many people would not think of the private sector when they hear the term ‘inclusive development,’ LEAD 2018 US Exchange Program Fellow Telmen Gerelt explained how inclusive practices can be successfully implemented in the private sector, particularly in relation to hiring and staff development. As the Chief Executive Officer at ARD Credit, Telmen spoke of using TAAP practices to ensure that a variety of his staff’s voices were being heard and that the company’s hiring and human resources practices became more inclusive.

Telmen highlighted updating human resources policies at Mongol Post (a company with over 2,000 employees) to make them more inclusive. For example, the policy changes aimed to reduce or eliminate ways in which women were sometimes discriminated against in workplace hiring processes due to time out of the workforce to raise their children. He also spoke about efforts to improve mechanisms for employee input and feedback in decision-making of the company.

“I want more people to use the TAAP Toolkit, as I have experienced firsthand the positive results that can be achieved. I especially urge the private sector to use this toolkit because when the employees feel included and heard and when the workplace is equally inclusive, employers benefit more,” Telmen said.

Bulganchimeg Bayasgalant, Deputy Director of the National Development Agency and LEAD 2016 US Exchange Program alumna, spoke of the importance of government agencies implementing inclusive practices like those found in the TAAP Toolkit. She used the four phases of TAAP to explain how government agencies can be more inclusive, from initial analysis to inclusive design and implementation. Bulganchimeg provided several examples, including an internship program at the NDA designed to help youth gain more practical work experience and a one-month capacity building program for Mongolian start-ups.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to broaden our perspectives through this toolkit as everyone is different,” she summarized.

Inclusive Development from Start to Finish: The LEAD Mongolia Experience

LEAD Mongolia became the first project to commit to the TAAP approach to embed inclusion sensitivity in all aspects of the project life cycle. During the past five years, the LEAD Mongolia program integrated all five core TAAP principles throughout its design, implementation, and accountability mechanisms.

After the initial assessment in 2016, three key recommendations were developed:

1. Expand the program’s original target groups to also include the Kazakh ethnic group and internal migrants. Based on this recommendation, the program team strategized and budgeted our program outreach to hold information sessions at locations that are accessible and welcoming for these groups.

2. Consciously focus on deepening participants’ understanding of and sensitivity to the concepts and patterns of inclusion, marginalization and exclusion, and inclusive development across project components. With this in mind, the team designed program content to include at least two technical sessions on diversity and inclusion for each LEAD Mongolia cohort. Through these sessions, participants increased their understanding of inclusion in their communities and were able to initiate projects that improve the overall inclusive environment and awareness in their professional and personal lives.

3. Finally, the assessment found that an inclusive, creative, and ongoing communication strategy is the key to reaching the greatest number of people from diverse backgrounds. All of LEAD’s content was mindfully created with inclusive aspects, such as videos including sign language and/or subtitles and Kazakh subtitles, as well as having image posters with separate texts for the blind community, among other efforts.

Over the years, LEAD Fellows equipped with new inclusion skills have implemented some incredible initiatives within their communities. One of the latest examples is from LEAD 2017 US Exchange Program alumnus, Bekbolat Bugibay. Bekbolat lives in Bayan-Ulgii province, the only Kazakh majority province in Mongolia. He recently finished building a girls’ dormitory for the Bayan-Ulgii branch of Khovd University. Since it is a university for the entire western region, many female students arrive with no place to live and are prone to various challenges. He recognized this issue and started raising funds to build a dormitory for those students, who otherwise would have not been able to get a quality education due to their circumstances. Of the project and the role his LEAD experience played, he said, “The LEAD program had the great advantage of providing equal opportunities to all young people regardless of their background, ethnicity, or where they work or where they live. Advocacy for youth through youth representation was the best approach.”

Stories like Bekbolat’s reminds us why we do what we do and how important it is to keep working to include everyone’s voices. Building a fully inclusive society takes time, and everyone’s effort is instrumental. However, if society can continue to be mindful and open to more inclusive processes, great progress can be made.

The Legacy of LEAD

The Mongolian version of the TAAP Toolkit can be found here.

As Khulan explains, “While the LEAD Mongolia program may be ending, the TAAP Toolkit can continue to be a resource for the development community here for years to come. This is truly one of the legacies of LEAD.”

Launched in September 2016, LEAD Mongolia was a five-year leadership development program — funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by World Learning — that exposed 246 emerging Mongolian leaders to best practices in democracy and good governance, strengthening their ability to advocate for their communities and engage with policymakers. Since its inception, the LEAD program has focused on developing a strong network of young Mongolian democracy advocates who have a unique vision and desire to create positive change in their communities. These changemakers have implemented 26 civic action projects over five years, focusing on LEAD Mongolia’s key policy themes of poverty alleviation and unemployment, environment and urbanization, and transparency and anti-corruption.

Through its partner, the International Republican Institute, the program has also connected young Mongolians with their counterparts in Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar, highlighting Mongolia’s peaceful democratic transition as an example in the region. The civic education component, implemented by the Center for Citizenship Education, developed and introduced civic education curriculum for teachers and students at the high school level in Ulaanbaatar and all 21 aimags.

LEAD brought together students and young professionals representing different sectors and experiences to take part in civic advocacy and leadership training, exchanges, and community action planning, all aimed at fostering a strong network of young democracy advocates across the country.

The contents of this article are the responsibility of World Learning and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.