POPULATION POLICY OF MONGOLIA
One - General Provisions
1. Mongolia is a developing country that is aspiring to build a humane and
democratic civil society. It has a vast territory and a small population of
youthful age structure and low density, and combines both nomadic and
sedentary lifestyles.
These specifics of population structure and density determine the
distinctive nature of the Population Policy (hereinafter referred to as
Population Policy) of Mongolia.
2. The Population Policy is based on national interests as laid down in the
Constitution of the country, and the universally recognized norms and
standards in the spheres of population sustainable development.
3. Key to Mongolian development and prosperity is an individual both
physically and mental well developed, patriot, with high level of intellectual
and moral values, hard-working and who respects laws and legislation. The
Population policy shall be based on people-centered global development
which is aimed at respecting human rights and freedom and development
of individuals and families.
4. The Population Policy shall be a fundamental document of population and
sustainable development which determines the State policy on population
for near future or period up to 21-25 years.
5. The Population Policy shall be aimed at a sustaniable population growth and
creating socio economic favorable environment for personal development
and for all aspects of human development.
6. The Population Policy is based on national interests as laid down in the
Constitution of the country, and the universally recognized norms and
standards in the spheres of population sustainable development.
7. Proceeding from the Concept of the Security of Mongolia, this Population
Policy will be implemented by way of being reflected in the annual National
Socio-Economic Development Guidelines.
The population policy consists of the following components
pertaining to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
population growth and health;
education and employment;
distribution and migration;
registration, information and research;
link between population and sustainable development;
status of family and social groups;
administration of population policies and resources.
Two - Population Growth and Health
8. The goal of the state population policy for the period up to 2010-2015 is to
create conditions for maintaining the average annual population growth rate
at no less than 1.8 per cent, reducing the mortality rates of infants and
children under five years of age by one third and the maternal mortality rate
by 50 per cent from the level of 1990, and for increasing life expectancy at
birth.
9. Creation of favorable conditions for spacing birth in the interest of child and
maternal health, shall be viewed as the major factor in ensuring of population
growth.
10. Considering the steady decrease of infant and maternal mortality rates as a
major factor of population growth, particular attention shall be paid to
creating conditions to ensure safe birth and healthy childhood.
11. In the context of overall education of the population on reproductive health
and health lifestyle, information and medical services will be provided in
accordance with national specifics to prevent early or inappropriately (closely)
spaced births.
12. Abortion shall not be promoted as a method of family planning, and it shall be
provided in accordance with law, on medical grounds and in the interest of
family members under safe medical conditions.
13. The Population Policy shall be aimed at upgrading the quality of health
services to international standards on the basis developing a proper system of
health providers of different types of ownership, attaching priority to
preventive medicine and promoting the use of modern and traditional medical
practices.
14. A policy shall be pursued to improve the delivery of highly qualified medical
services to the population by way of supporting the setting up and
development of diagnostic, treatment, services, training and research centers
in rural areas.
15. A system of medical and genetic monitoring shall be created to prevent
hereditary diseases, pathologies and the birth of mentally retarded children,
and measures will be taken to revive the practice of using family names.
16. Investment in mother-and-child care shall be increased and forms and
methods of social benefits for mothers and children will be improved in
keeping with the requirements of overall social development.
17. A comprehensive set
of health and social
social
measures shall
be
implemented to fight widespread diseases and industrial accidents as well as
to decrease morbidity and mortality.
Three - Food and Housing
18. The main principle shall be to gear food supply to population growth and to
steadily maintain a proper balance between production and consumption. The
policies and activities in this field will be consolidated through the Law on
Food and the Food Program and other legislative acts of Mongolia.
19. Food
security and sanitary-hygienic monitoring of housing and other
environments will be strengthened in everyway.
20. The guiding principle shall be to harmonize the daily physiological norm of
nutrition with the person's age, sex and occupation as well as the place and
climate in which he or she lives, to encourage the consumption of ecologically
safe food products by establishing a national database giving the pattern of
consumption of these products region by region.
21. Research and production shall be supported to improve the structure and
composition of nutrition in keeping with the special nutritional needs of young
children, pregnant and nursing mothers, the elderly and people from
vulnerable groups.
22. It shall be a policy issue to steadily support the production and services aimed
at providing the population with housing, both traditional and modern.
All-round support will be given to any initiative aimed at providing
the population in cities and settlements with low-cost housing that
meets the traditional cultural and sanitary requirements and offers
conditions for the development of household and small-scale
industries.
Four - Education and Employment
23. A policy shall be pursued to provide economic and financial support to
businesses and other organization which invest in improving the educational
and professional qualifications of their workers, basing on the size of such
investments.
24. Foremost support shall be extended to any initiative in public and private
sector alike, that is aimed at improving the access of the rural population to
vocational training.
25. The Government will support every citizen's effort at personal development
and fulfillment through productive work and employment consistent with
his/her talents and interests.
26. A policy will be pursued to give all-round support to families and households,
especially low-income people and mothers of large families in developing
home-based enterprises.
27. Favorable conditions will be created for the populations of remote and Gobi
areas to development production.
Five - Distribution and Migration of the Population
28. A proper system of local government and accessibility of socio-economic
services to the rural population shall be viewed as the major condition for
ensuring an even distribution of the population across the country.
29. Urban areas will be developed in such a way so that they are in harmony with
the national cultural traditions and ensure a balanced interrelationship
between the environment, population growth and social services. Priority
attention will be paid to decreasing the concentration of the population in the
capital and other larger cities, and developing satellite cities and regional
centers.
30. The Government will regulate the issues pertaining to the size and structure
of the body of foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in
Mongolia, to the import and the export of labor, as well as the emigration of
Mongolian citizens in keeping with current needs of national security,
population growth and socio-economic development, and in conformity with
the principles of respect for human rights and mutual benefit.
31. Special attention shall be paid to ensure that relevant agreements and
treaties
provide
for
guaranteed
social
security
of
Mongolian
citizens
temporarily residing abroad, particularly with respect for and interests of
children, women and the elderly.
Six - Registration, Information and Research
32. A policy shall be pursued to create an integral system of population
registration and information, and to ensure its smooth functioning.
32. Human studies and population and development research will be expanded
with the use of modern research and analysis methods.
32. Measures
will
be
taken
to
train
and
re-train
national
specialists
in
demography and in population and development-related research, to increase
the
training
capacity
and
upgrade
the
training
organizationally
and
substantively to international standards.
Seven - Interrelationship Between Population and Sustainable
Development
Although the end of the Cold War has brought about a favorable change in the
global political climate, the absolute poverty, hunger, unemployment, diseases,
emigration, environmental pollution and ethnic violence, other problems still
remain causes of universal concern. As all this calls for ensuring the security of
the human being, people need to be placed at the core of social development in
the context of overall government policies in the field population and sustainable
development.
35. The
policy
of
ensuring
the
interrelationship
between
population
and
sustainable development shall be aimed at creating the conditions for the
well-being of the population on the basis of securing the balance between the
environment, population and sustained economic growth.
36. Policies shall strive to incorporate the human factor in development planning,
particularly to ensure the full use of human resources.
37. Policies will be aimed at an appropriate distribution of resources and increase
of investment in human development for the purpose of creating conditions
that ensure healthy life, high life expectancy, continuous education and
training, employment and equal participation in social and cultural lives for
all.
38. A Mongolian model of a people-centered development that suits Mongolia with
its specific climatic conditions, combination of nomadic and sedentary cultures
as well as vast territory will be developed and implemented.
39. Care will be taken to ensure a favorable environment for people's lives
through the preservation of ecological equilibrium and prudent use of natural
resources
40. Measures will be taken to inform the public of the true nature and
interrelationships
between
population,
the
environment,
culture
and
sustainable development.
Eight - Family and Social Groups of the Population
41. The policy related to the family and social groups of the population will be
aimed at implementing ideas set forth in the Constitution of Mongolia as well
as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Nairobi Strategies for the
Improvement of the Status of Women, the Vienna Plan of Action concerning
the Elderly, Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, the documents of
the Cairo Conference on the Population and Development, the Copenhagen
World Submit on Social Development, the Fourth World Conference on
Women Conference in Beijing and other UN fora.
A. Development of the Family
42. As the family is the primary environment of a person's life and the basic unit
of society, its development shall be a policy issue.
43. The Population Policy shall uphold the preservation, revival and continuation
of the progressive heritage of the traditional culture within the family.
44. The Government shall support any honest initiatives and activities by the
family
aimed
at
increasing
it's
capacity
for
independent
economic
development and augmenting its property.
45. Social services for the family shall support any honest initiatives and activities
by the family aimed at increasing it's capacity for independent economic
development and augmenting its property.
46. Government policies will be aimed at promoting male responsibility for and
participation in the development of the family, ensuring equality of family
members and eliminating all manifestations of discrimination, abuse and
violence.
47. Propaganda of violence, pornography and other inhuman and indecent
activities shall be viewed as inimical to family values and contrary to the
Mongolian tradition and culture.
B. Protection and Development of the Child
Proceeding from the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international
documents concerning children, as well as the Constitution of Mongolia, the
policy, aimed at protecting and developing children, the main resource and force
of the country's future development, and at creating conditions to their health,
education and life is formulated to include the following directions.
48. Conditions will be created in the family, school and society to educate children
so that they know the national and world cultural heritages; they will respect
and adhere to the ideas of humanness, freedom, equality and community;
they will respect the concept of a livelihood earned by productive work; and
love nature.
49. Parents and guardians bear the prime responsibility for helping children
discover the world and make right choices for their life and future work,
teaching them humanness and rearing them in sound health.
50. A policy will be pursued to make every individual, organization and mass
medium responsible for creating a social environment conducive to children's
proper upbringing and for promoting and inculcating in them progressive
tradition moral values.
51. The development of cities and other settlements in such a way that they
reflect the specifics of Mongolia's nature and the co-existing nomadic and
sedentary cultures shall be promoted as a means for the state, the family and
society to create esthetically and psychologically adequate environments for
children
and
foster in
them
sensible attitudes towards demand
and
consumption.
52. Research will be directed at studying children's intellectual, mental, physical
and physiological development in the context of Mongolia's cultural and socioeconomic specifics, creating an appropriate database and ensuring children's
well-rounded development.
53. Government policies will aimed at ensuring a safe childhood in a loving and
caring environment provided by parents, children's mental and physical
health,
and
protection
from
infectious,
diseases,
at
improving
the
environment in which they live and at teaching them the habits of a healthy
life and a responsible attitude to their own health.
54. The Government shall be responsible for the medical insurance of children
under 18 years of age.
55. Breast-feeding, the supply of appropriate and adequate baby food, monitoring
of children's physical and mental health, production of children's food
products enriched with micronutrients and vitamins, particularly with iodine,
iron, and vitamins D and C shall be promoted and supported.
56. Voluntary action aimed at protecting children from malnutrition, weight loss
and
hunger
resulting
from
a
family's
level
of
livelihood,
shall
be
uncompromisingly supported.
57. Systematic measures will be taken to ensure a continuous provision of
medical and social services to children with physical and mental disabilities.
Rehabilitative equipment, and education and vocational training tailored to
the special needs of these children will be provided.
58. Production of and trade in clothing and footwear meeting the special needs of
children's health and psychology as well as climatic requirements of Mongolia
shall be promoted and supported.
59. A policy will be pursued to improve and develop the substance and methods
of the work aimed at developing, educating and preparing children for adult
life on the basis of both the traditional culture and the universal human
values and scientific and technological knowledge.
60. Standards of pre-school, primary and secondary education will be further
improved with regard for international standards and national tradition, and
the system of their implementation will be improved substantively and
structurally.
61. A special policy in the field of teacher-training will be implemented to ensure
a proper selection of gifted and motivated persons as teachers, improvement
of the substance and methods of training and an increase of the capacity of
teacher-training schools.
62. A policy will be pursued to ensure a supply of textbooks and books on
sciences, humanities, technological design and invention, and other reference
and fiction books that would effectively facilitate children's learning and
intellectual development.
63. Cultural activities and art works meeting the spiritual needs of children in
conformity with their mental capacities will be encouraged and promoted.
64. Support will be given to voluntary organizations and movements working to
promote children's right to freely express themselves, to develop their ability
to cooperate in life, study and work based on mutual respect and a sense of
personal responsibility and to foster their coping mechanisms.
65. An information environment favorable for children's education and spiritual
development will be created by capacity designing and implementing a
program meeting the objective of a citizen of a new century and giving
children a comprehensive and systematic knowledge and the information
appropriate for their age and capacity.
66. Parents, the family and the school shall bear responsibility for detecting
children's gifts and talents from the early childhood, giving them education,
organizing children's work in accordance with their physical and mental
capabilities and skills, developing in them the knack for work, and teaching
them the science and art of achieving personal fulfillment be relying on their
own talents, interests, intellect and hard work.
67. Government policies will be aimed at educating children as citizens fully
aware of humanistic ideas, of nature of their traditional culture, and of law
and of their rights and responsibilities.
68. It will be deemed crucial to instill in children admiration and respect for the
special relationship that exists between parents and children and between the
teacher and the student.
69. Measures will be taken to create a comprehensive legal framework protecting
the rights and interests of the child and to enhance government and public of
the implementation of the concerning children.
70. Measures will be taken to protect children from oppression, exploitation,
abuse and violence by adults or society and to prevent such acts.
71. The Government shall take care orphaned, physically and mentally disabled
children and support children living in adverse conditions. A policy will be
pursued to promote adoption and foster parenting of young orphaned
children, and to support families and individuals taking care of such children.
72. The aspiration of ethnic minority children to study and communicate in their
native languages and to learn their cultural heritages shall be respected.
73. Government shall encourage and support the activities of organizations of all
types of ownership aimed at promoting the rights and interest of children and
raising funds to meet their needs.
74. Special programs aimed at promoting public awareness of the activities
concerning children, and mobilizing and coordinating national resources and
efforts shall be designed and implemented at national, regional and local
levels of government (aimags, the capital soums and districts).
C. Youth
75. The government policy shall be aimed at developing the legal and socioeconomic bases for the development of youth.
76. Every support shall be given to the initiatives and activities of youth, aimed at
protecting their health and achieving physical development.
77. Priority shall be given to improving the legal and environmental education of
youth, inculcating in them respect for the mother tongue and traditional
culture, and to creating conditions conducive to their rewarding and
productive leisure.
78. Support will be given to the needs and aspirations of youth to develop their
talents, to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to ensure their lifetime
livelihoods, to have adequate housing and to enjoy the benefits of their free
intellectual creativity.
79. The Government shall encourage the initiatives and activities of Mongolian
youth with aims of developing cooperation with young people of other
countries, actively participating in public life, developing their country and
promoting international peace.
D. Women
80. The government policy shall be aimed at ensuring equal rights of women in
political, social and economic spheres and in the family, and at fully
incorporating them in development.
81. Attention shall be concentrated on creating conditions conducive to the birth
of healthy children from healthy mothers by way of protecting the health of
girls, women and mothers, and providing them with appropriate education,
information and counseling.
82. Priority shall be attached to increasing women's opportunities for educational
and professional growth and for developing their talents and skills, and to
involving them in public life and development.
83. Efforts will b made to foster in girls and women the skills needed for good
mothering and homemaking on the basis of the traditional culture of family
life.
84. Respect for the value of the work of rearing and educating children as an
important contribution to the development of the country shall be fostered
and
promoted.
Moral
and
legal
criteria
for
its
assessment
shall
be
strengthened.
85. Attention shall be paid t assisting women in increasing their economic rights
and income-earning capacities, improving opportunities for full and part-time
employment as well as for work at home and particularly to the opportunities
for engaging in home-based small business.
86. Women's participation in political and economic decision-making shall be
increased.
E. Elderly Persons
87. The government policy shall be directed at providing the elderly persons with
an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of their contribution to the development
of the country and satisfying their cultural and economic needs, creating
conditions for their guaranteed social security, an at protecting their rights
and interests.
88. Measures will be taken to develop an infrastructure ensuring a guaranteed
livelihood for the elderly and providing them with medical, social and cultural
services, and to expand the range of subsidized services for them.
89. A policy will be pursued to encourage the elderly to share their life and work
experiences with the younger generations and teach them national cultural
traditions, to support the aspiration of the elderly to live an active life and
contribute to the country's development; and to develop an appropriate
system of recognition of their work and dedication.
90. The Government will deem it important to promote and perpetuate the longstanding traditional love and respect for the elderly, and to strengthen the
bonds of affinity between of generations.
91. Family care for the elderly will be promoted and legal prerequisites will be
created to develop residential care facilities for lonely and/or incapacitated
aged persons at the local level.
92. An effective system of management and measures will be set up to make an
appropriate use of the skills and wisdom of retirees.
F. Persons with Disabilities
93. Every support shall be extended to the activities aimed at creating conditions
for persons with disabilities to participate in social life, protecting their rights
and interests, increasing their employment opportunities and income-earning
capacities, creating jobs for them and at introducing relevant international
labor standards.
94. Measures will be taken to improve the social safety network for the disabled
on keeping with specifics and needs of social development.
95. Measures will be taken to improve research into the causes of disability, and
to upgrade the standards of the monitoring system designed to ensure safe
living and working conditions for the population.
96. All-round support will be given to appropriately designed and executed
schemes offering better educational opportunities for the disabled including
education for children with impaired sight, hearing and speech.
97. A policy will be pursued to combine appropriately the efforts of the family and
community on the one hand, and specialized professional institutions, on the
other, in achieving the physical and mental rehabilitation of persons with
disabilities.
98. Measures will be taken to enhance the opportunity for persons with
disabilities to develop their talents and to participate in social, cultural and
sport activities.
99. Those disabled persons incapable of earning livelihoods or those with no legal
guardians of custodians shall be supported by the government social welfare
schemes.
Nine - Administration of Population Policies Resources
1. National, regional and local governments shall be responsible for the creative
implementation of the Population Policy in conformity with the Constitution
and other laws of Mongolia.
2. The mechanism of implementation and monitoring of the Population Policy
shall be improved and strengthened. The broad participation and activities of
all
public and non-governmental
organizations and
individuals in
the
implementation of this Population Policy shall be encouraged and supported.
3. Importance will be attached to ensuring that civil servants of all levels are
fully informed of population and development-related issues.
4. Government leadership at all levels shall as a matter of priority pay attention
to mobilizing public support for the implementation of this Population Policy,
and create appropriate conditions for the development and use of human
resources to ensure the conditions for the maintenance of sustained
livelihoods.
5. Broadening of international cooperation in the sphere of population and
development shall be viewed as an important direction of Mongolia's foreign
policy. Cooperation with international bodies and foreign countries in the field
of human development, reproductive health and the family shall be actively
developed.