PARTNERSHIP FOR SOCIAL
ACCOUNTABILTY IN MONGOLIA
MAPPING SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
IN MONGOLIA
Independent Research Institute of
Mongolia
0
Copyright © 2010
Partnership for Social Accountability in Mongolia
Democracy Education Center (DEMO)
Aprt.#1, Baga Toiruu 44, Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
All rights reserved
This volume is a product of the researchers of the Mapping Social Accountability in Mongolia. The findings,
interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Partnership for
Social Accountability and ANSA-EAP. Partnership for Social Accountability of Mongolia or ANSA-EAP does
not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.
This study report may be copied and used for research, educational, academician or non-profit purposes without
Partnership for Social Accountability in Mongolia permission. However, this material should be cited as the
source of information as appropriate.
For more information:
Mapping study research team
Independent Research Institute of Mongolia (IRIM)
301, ‘Internom’ bldg, Prime Minister Amar’s street, Suhkbaatar district, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
www.irim.mn, telephone +976-70117101
1
Mapping study team
Team Leader:
ARIUNTUNGALAG Munkhtuvshin
Executive Director, Independent Research Institute of Mongolia
Researchers:
BAYARTSETSEG
MA, Researcher of Center for Social Responsibilities,
Lecturer, Department of Politics and Sociology, Mongolian State University of Education
ODGEREL Tserendorj
Director of “Infratest” Research and development center
Lecturer, Department of Politics and Sociology, Mongolian State University of Education
ODONCHIMEG Tsevegmid
Researcher of Independent Research Institute of Mongolia
MOILTMAA Sarantuya
Researcher of Independent Research Institute of Mongolia
SARANGEREL Lhamsuren
MA, “Infratest” Research and development center,
Lecturer, Department of Politics and Sociology, Mongolian State University of Education
TUMENDELGER Sengedorj
PhD, Director of Center for Social Responsibilities,
Lecturer, Department of Politics and Sociology, Mongolian State University of Education
Advisor
BOLD Tsevegdorj
MA, Lecturer, Sociology and Social work department, National University of Mongolia
Translator
GANKHUYAG Demid
2
CONTETS
CONTETS .................................................................................................................................. 3
PREFACE .................................................................................................................................. 4
ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................... 5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 6
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER I. ................................................................................................................................ 10
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER II................................................................................................................................ 17
MAPPING OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN MONGOLIA .......................................... 17
2.1 Government Responsiveness .......................................................................................... 17
2.2.1 Overview .................................................................................................................. 17
2.1.2 Research findings ..................................................................................................... 18
2.1.3 Conclusion and Recommendations .......................................................................... 29
2.2 Organized and capable citizen groups ............................................................................ 30
2.2.1 Overview .................................................................................................................. 30
2.2.2 Research findings ..................................................................................................... 30
2.2.3 Conclusion and recommendations ........................................................................... 48
2.3 Access to information ..................................................................................................... 52
2.3.1 Overview .................................................................................................................. 52
2.3.2 Research findings ..................................................................................................... 52
2.3.3 Conclusions and recommendations .......................................................................... 67
2.4 Social and cultural appropriateness ................................................................................ 70
2.4.1 Overview .................................................................................................................. 70
2.4.2 Research findings ..................................................................................................... 72
2.4.3 Conclusions and recommendations .......................................................................... 75
CHAPTER III. ............................................................................................................................. 78
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: MAPPING CITIZEN GROUPS AND CITIZEN
INITIATIVES ....................................................................................................................... 78
GOVERNMENT BEST CHAMPIONS ................................................................................. 85
STAKEHOLDER'S MAPPING……………………………
…………………………….88
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................... 113
3
PREFACE
Partnership for Social Accountability in Mongolia (PSAM), Civil society network, was
founded in November 2009 with a purpose to promote and exchange social accountability
(SA) knowledge and experiences among the Mongolian civil society by sharing extended
information and their building capacity in a partnership with Affiliated Network for Social
Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP). After several meetings, eight Civil
Society Organizations (CSO) which are working in the social accountability area in Mongolia
and one initiative government official joined together in its first meeting and established a
conveners group of the network ‘Partnership for Social Accountability in Mongolia’.
In order to set up and plan our work specifically to promote social accountability initiative
success in Mongolia, we agreed to conduct a mapping study of the SA situation in Mongolia
first. The study, designed to assess the present situation of social accountability in Mongolia
and to identify the pressing issues and potential solutions, was mainly centered on the civil
society organizations (working in the area of SA), the key subject for supporting and
demanding the SA, and it was carried out by mainly using the qualitative survey method. A
phone survey was conducted as well in order to validate effective CSOs working in a field of
SA in Mongolia.
In this study we used four pillars of SA which were developed by the research team of
ANSA-EAP in order to create a clearer picture of the SA situation in Mongolia. The four
pillars are as follows: (a) ‘Government responsiveness’, which considers and assesses
enabling environment of the civil society and government engagement (b) ‘Organized and
Capable citizens group’, which assesses civil society’s capacity to organize SA activities in a
field (c) ‘Access to information’, which considers availability and openness of channels that
government and its agencies are using when sharing information with the citizens and other
related stakeholders (d)’Social and Cultural appropriateness’ which refers to the basic social
and political environment that supporting or eliminating SA works in a country.
The study was conducted by three research organizations of conveners group in PSAM
between May and August of 2010. The Center for Social Responsibility (CSR) worked on the
‘Government responsiveness’ section, ‘Infratest’ Research and Training Institute worked on
the ‘Organized and capable citizens group’ section, Independent Research Institute of
Mongolia (IRIM) worked on the ‘Access to information’ and ‘Social and cultural
appropriateness’ sections.
We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the research team of ANSA-EAP, and
especially we would like to thank Angelita Gregorio-Medel, Project Director of ANSA-EAP,
Adelfo V. Briones, Research and Knowledge Management Coordinator of ANSA-EAP and
Cody S. Rabe, Research Officer of ANSA-EAP and others. Also we extend our special
gratitude to the members of conveners group of PSAM who contributed by their valuable
comments and recommendations. Finally, we would like to thank all participants from civil
society organizations, government agencies, experts from donor organizations and others.
Without your collaboration and contributions, this study would not have been possible.
4
ABBREVIATIONS
ANSA-EAP- Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific
CSO- Civil Society Organization
CSR- Center for Social Responsibility
CSC-Civil Society Council
GO-Government organization
GDP-Gross Domestic Product
DEMO-Democratic Education Center
MPRP-Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party
NGO-Non-Governmental Organization
OSF-Open Society Forum
IRIM-Independent Research Institute of Mongolia
SA-Social Accountability
PSAM- Partnership for Social Accountability in Mongolia
PWYPE- Publish What You Pay and Earn Coalition
WB-World Bank
5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Poverty Measurement Survey carried out in 2005-2009 indicated that 36.1% of Mongolia’s
populations1 live below the poverty line, with a serious shortage of food and non-food item
supply (National Statistics Office, 2005). Conversely, per capita Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) for 2005-2009 increased 2.11 times2. This situation raises the question why such
increase in GDP had brought no positive impact in poverty alleviation. This is especially to be
questioned as the mining sector has continued to develop, with the recent commencement of
investment agreements in strategically important large-scale mineral deposits. With the
mining sector boom, government revenue will probably increase, demanding oversight and
monitoring from civil society on expenditure. This has resulted in a need for the formation of
social accountability mechanisms to reduce poverty, to fight corruption and to ensure
sustainable development.
The basis for social accountability is considered to be monitoring by, and participation from
citizens and civil society in, the operation of government. This should include civil society
activity such as citizen engagement in policy-making, participatory budgeting, government
expenditure monitoring, citizen monitoring of social service delivery, citizen consultative
action, lobbying and advocacy. All of these civil society activities aim to ensure transparency
in government policy-making and implementation, creation of responsive action,3
improvement of governance and its effectiveness, empowerment of citizens, as well as
strengthening of government stability and political legitimacy by support from accountable
and participatory institutions4.Civil society, international and private organizations have
raised issues of good governance, citizen engagement, budget transparency, social
accountability and social auditing for the last few years, with some positive initial action and
outcomes in advocacy into government policy and strengthening of institutional capacity.
This study aims to identify social accountability initiatives that involve citizens and citizens
groups in strengthening government accountability and covered the areas of capacity of
citizens and citizens groups in supporting social accountability initiatives and their impact,
current situations of social institutions, implementations and regulations, required needs and
capacity demand for government and non-government organizations to develop good
governance and proper social accountability mechanism in Mongolia. Regarding to this
purpose some kind of researches such as legal and policy analyzes, documents review, indepth interviews, phone survey and web analyzes was conducted by research team.
Considering social accountability situation in Mongolia, any affairs related to establishing
citizens groups and getting registered as the legal body is regulated by Law in NGOs, General
Law on State Registration and Law on State Registration of Legal Entities and there is no
direct compression or constraints in a process of requesting to register by legal body for the
NGOs. Even though the registration office requires additional documents (not stated in law)
1
Total population of Mongolia is 2,735,800
www.8x8.bz. (2010, 07 18). Retrieved from www.8x8.bz/freetime/index.php?mcmodule=wz&wzid=677
3
Responsiveness was translated into Mongolian as such.
2
4
World Bank. (2007). The enabling environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia . Washington
DC.
6
or rejects because the applicants failed in filling out forms properly and these are all
administrative and procedural constraints in registering the NGOs. Moreover, transaction cost
to register is higher for the local NGOs because they demanded to come by themselves to
capital city, Ulaanbaatar in order to become legally accepted NGO.
Nowadays, civil society partnership with government is influencing in a positive way to social
accountability mechanism in Mongolia. With initiative from Mongolian civil society
organizations, Mongolian Civil Society Council (CSC) was established in 1 February which
embodied around 300 NGOs, citizens’ movement, labor union and several nonprofit
organizations. In 26 March, 2008, the council and Government of Mongolia signed the
“Cooperative Agreement”, which reflected to implement particular services by contracting
with NGOs, to make available enabling economical and legal environment for the civil
society the joint actions monitoring the implementation of legislation, running monitoring on
budget expenditure, cooperate on developing draft laws and policy documents, exchange
information and support each other. Though there are some good initiatives like outsourcing
the NGOs and inviting the civil society representatives for the working groups and councils,
but it is uncertain how to select the NGOs and what criteria would be required from NGOs
and how they making selection is still unclear.
As of today, 7300 NGOs officially registered at the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs. Of
all NGOs that were covered with this survey, more than 80% work in the area of environment,
mining, budget transparency, access to information, human rights and protecting the interests
of population groups; all classified as the NGOs serving for the society.
One of the good efforts of the NGOs is that citizens’ groups are joining into networks in order
to strengthen their efforts to mainstream the social accountability in recent years. 72,7% of the
surveyed NGOs was joined to a civil society network in somehow. There are several networks
that are working as effectively, for examples Citizens’ Oversight on Budget Coalition that
working a area of budget transparency which embodied more than 30 NGOs, CSC of
Mongolian NGOs which embodied about 300 NGOs, Coalition of Environment NGOs which
embodied about 600 NGOs in nationally, Publish What you Pay and Earn coalition (PWYPE)
which is working in area of extractive industry. In addition to it, the “Civil Hall” was opened
at the President of Mongolia with initiative from the OSF (OSF) designed for collecting inputs
from the citizens and other stakeholders for laws, rules and regulations through hearings,
discussions and debates. The Civil Hall organized several open discussions on the Budget
Law with participation of citizens’, civil society organizations and government organizations
and the presentation on the conceptual framework of the law was extensively discussed.
Main tools that CSOs are use in their work to advocate or claim for being accountable from
the government or its’ agencies are to conduct monitoring in a budget expenditure, public
service delivery process and procurement process. In addition to this they organize promotion
or some kind of campaign such as delivering recommendations, claim paper or requests by
using the monitoring or research results. Also they are mobilizing effectively mass media
organizations as well in order to disseminate related information to the citizens and other
stakeholders.
The key constraint identified as the study to the citizens groups for effective operation is the
lack of financial resources. The existing regulation over taxation and social insurance
payments of NGOs do not bring positive impacts on the NGOs financial capability. Lack of
funding likely makes the NGOs dependent on the funding agency including the government
even leading to the case that final outcome of any activity is made favorable to the funder,
which is a concern from this survey. Almost half of the NGOs take fund from the
7
international donor organizations when they conduct any activity in a area of social
accountability.
Furthermore, lack of human resource is identified as one of the major difficulties for the
NGOs. Very few number of NGOs whose human resource and technical capacity is sufficient
to conduct social accountability initiatives for the long term, or capacity to build constructive
engagement between government or its’ agencies are recognized and accepted by the
government.
Accessing to information regarding to the activities of public organizations is limited. At a
glance, the legal and ethical environment for government agency and officers to disclose
information make it open and transparent looks like well-created, but in reality the availability
of information is still not sufficient. Citizens encounter difficulties to access to information
from the government agencies through government officials as well as official websites.
Though the formal websites are the main tools for government to disseminate information to
citizens and other stakeholders, but the content, availability of information and effectiveness
is still very weak no meeting the demand for information.
To conclude the entire process of disseminating/receiving information from the government
organization, it is been found to be time consuming, with many steps, weak linkage inbetween the government officers and organizations and the legal; provisions regulating
this procedure is not enforced well.
Lack of historic experiences and practices of ensuring the participation of citizens and civil
society in the government decision-making causes delays to both government officers and
citizens to accept the citizens’ oversight on the government actions affecting negatively on the
supportive attitudes.
8
LIST OF TABLES
Table1. Review of legal and policy pronouncements…………..………………………......12
Table 2. Literature review sample…………………………………..………………………13
Table 3. In-depth interview sample………………………………… ……………………..14
Table 4. Status of selection of civil society organizations to perform government services and
duties………………………………………………………………………………………….17
Table 5. Support from government for NGOs to operate in the area of social
accountability…………………………………………………………………………………19
Table 6. Key activity areas of NGOS by numbers and percentage…………………………..33
Table 7. Monitoring activities conducted by organized citizen groups ……………………..36
Table 8. Policy research ……………………………………………………………………...39
Table 9. Budget analysis and watch carried out by members of the Citizen Oversight of
Budget Coalition in 2010 on local and central government budget ………………………….41
Table 10. Strength of cooperation between organized citizen groups and the government… 46
Table 11. Obstacles and challenges encountered by organized groups in partnership with
government………………………………………………...…………………………………47
Table 12.Criteria for website content analysis……………………………………………….55
Table 13.Key indicators of openness of information………………………………………...56
Table 14. Key indicators of effectiveness of information………………………………..57
Table 15.Key indicators of availability of information………………………………………58
Table 16.Govermental organization acknowledgements for official papers ………………...63
Table 17. Goverment responsibilities to citizens……………………………………………. 66
Table 18. Advantages and weaknesses of access to information from the government,
conclusions and recommendations …………………………………………………………..68
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure1. Research design……………………………………………………………..…...10
Figure 2. Relations of Social Accountability framework ………………………………...10
Figure 3. Types of NGOs
Figure 4. Stable activities of NGOs …………………………………………………………32
Figure 5. Funding source of the NGOs…………………………………………………….34
Figure 6. Activities of NGOs on Social Accountability……………………………..……35
Figure 7. Monitoring activities of NGOs by year …………………………………………35
Figure 8. Website user’s assessment ……………………………………………… ..……59
9
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research purpose and expected outcomes
1.1.1 Research purpose and objectives
In general, the study aims to develop a comprehensive map of SA concepts and practices in
Mongolia. Specifically, the objectives of the study are as follows.
1. To identify and document SAc initiatives that involve citizens and citizen groups in
strengthening government accountability.
2. To identify and describe the historical, socio-political, economic, and cultural factors
that contribute to the current practice of social accountability in Mongolia.
3. To extend the knowledge base on SAc approaches, tools and mechanisms.
4. To identify and define elements, opportunities, and entry points for SAc networking
and capability building in Mongolia.
5. To identify gaps as well as emerging issues and concerns related to SAc work in
Mongolia.
6. To create a platform for dissemination of information on SAc initiatives and to create
a network of SAc practitioners in Mongolia.
1.1.2 Expected outcomes
The study will have two expected outcomes. First, it will provide a clearer understanding of
social accountability in Mongolia, including dimensions, strategies and approaches used,
players involved, activities undertaken, and underlying gaps and needs. Second, the mapping
study, to be shared with other stakeholders, will be used as a platform to promote and advance
social accountability in Mongolia.
The expected outputs of the study will be as follows.
1. Stakeholders/political mapping.
2. Historical, socio-political, economic, and cultural contexts influencing conceptions of
social accountability.
3. Database of civil society practitioners, intellectuals and researchers, collaborators,
support, and other social accountability stakeholders.
4. Identification and assessment of social accountability approaches, tools and
techniques.
5. Identification and assessment of social accountability based on local and national
experience; lessons of demand-side governance initiatives; opportunities; and gaps and
challenges.
1.2 Explanation of key concepts
Accountability5 has two components: (i) answerability (the original meaning of
‘responsibility’), and (ii) consequences. Answerability is defined as the requirement for public
officials to respond periodically to questions on how they have used their authority, where
resources went, and what was achieved with them. There is also a need for predictable and
meaningful consequences, (not necessarily punitive; not necessarily monetary; not necessarily
individual).
5
Davaadulam, T. (2010). Good governance and Social Accounatbility terms. Ulaanbaatar.
10
Because government must account both for the use of authority and of public resources, and
for the results, internal administrative accountability must be complemented by external
accountability by feedback from service users and the citizenry.
Social Accountability refers to civic engagement in policy-making, budgeting, expenditure
tracking beyond formal accountability systems, and the actions of ordinary citizens and
groups to exact greater accountability for public actions and outcomes.
A citizen group is a general concept that may include many types of citizen engagement, such
as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), non-profit public organizations, citizen
movements, associations and alliances, etc.
Social accountability mechanism includes two key directions or components: the external or
vertical mechanism and the internal or horizontal mechanism, as follows.
External or vertical mechanism
 Election (a direct way of asking for responsibility and accountability from
government)
 Action by civil society, including NGOs and civil movements, to monitor and push
the government in a bottom-to-top way. Political science says a key function of civil
society is to ask for, and to demand from, the government both accountability and
responsibility6.
Internal or horizontal mechanisms
 Political mechanisms such as constitutional provisions, allocation of power, lawmaking organizations and law enforcement and implementation organizations, and
rules coordinating them.
 Financial mechanisms such as audits and formal financial reporting systems.
 Administrative mechanisms such as step-by-step governance systems, minimum
norms and standards applied to public organizations, rules and regulations for
governance and management, and laws and regulations demanding transparency and
openness.
 Government self-mechanisms such as anti-corruption agencies, ombudsmen and court
systems.
As key subjects or implementers of social accountability, vertical mechanisms include
extensive actions and interventions from citizens, citizen groups, civil society organizations
and independent media; horizontal mechanisms include a legal system to ensure, guarantee
and strengthen social accountability and relevant enforcement, with regulatory and
implementing agencies.
Civil society organizations include NGOs, civil movements and citizen groups.
1.3 Research design
6
Malena, C., & Janmejay, R. F. (2004). The World Bank. Participation and Civic Engagement.
“SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY. An Introduction to the Concept and Emerging Practice”
11
This survey, designed to assess the present situation of social accountability in Mongolia and
to identify pressing issues and potential solutions, mainly centered on civil society
organizations (in the area of social accountability), and key areas of support and demand for
social accountability, and was carried out using a qualitative survey method.
For overall mapping of social accountability, the four pillars, developed by the ANSA-EAP,
were extensively used in mapping social accountability in Mongolia. In detail, it includes the
following.
Figure 1. Research design
Social and cultural
approprietness
Government
responsiveness
Organized and
Capable citizens
group
Access to
information
• The feasibility and likelihood of success of social accountability initiatives are
highly dependent upon whether the political regime is democratic, a multiparty system is in place, basic political and civil rights are guaranteed and
whether there is a culture of political transparency and probity. The existence
of these underlying factors, and the potential risks that their absence may pose,
must be taken into account when planning social accountability initiatives.
Legal, institutional and socio-cultural factors will also have an important
influence on the success of social accountability activities.
• In the context of social accountability, an enabling environment for citizens’
engagement refers to the set of conditions or interrelated factors that impact on the
capacities of ordinary citizens or citizen groups to engage with government in a
sustained and effective manner. Thus, the role and effectiveness of citizen groups
as partners in ensuring good governance critically depend on the efforts of both
government and citizen’s groups to create such enabling environment.
• The capacity of civil society actors is a key factor of successful social
accountability. The level of organization of citizen groups, the breadth of their
membership, their technical and advocacy skills, their capacity to mobilize and
effectively use media, their legitimacy and representativity and their level of
responsiveness and accountability to their own members are all central to the
success of SAc activities.
• The availability and reliability of public documents and data is essential to
building social accountability. Such information is the basis for social
accountability activities, and thus its quality and accessibility is a key determinant
of the success of social accountability mechanisms. Accessibility here has two
connotations, physical access to documents, and their availability in a format that
is understandable to inquirers.
12
The methodology of surveying the framework of social accountability and their relations is
identified as follows.
Figure 2. Relations of Social Accountability framework
Government and its agencies
I level
Citizens group
II level
III level
Donor
organization
Level I: Level of government and civil society organization relationship and engagement7
Relationship and engagement systems: The government engages with civil society
organizations through (а) legal regulations, policy and program documents, and cooperative
agreements in specific areas and (b) formal websites of government organizations. Civil
society organizations engage with the government through (а) legally-established rules and
regulations, cooperative agreements and contracts, (b) demands, requests, notices and
declarations expressing opinions on certain issues, and (c) formal websites of government
organizations.
In order to measure the level of engagement or relationships between stakeholders, the
qualitative survey covered the following areas.
A: Document review, including legal documents, policy and program documents on specific
issues, and cooperative agreements between stakeholders on certain issues (What are the
existing policy and program-coordination issues regarding social accountability? When and
for what purposes were they adopted and approved? What kinds of legal regulation are
included in these documents? To what extent do policy and programs link or integrate, etc).
B. Content analysis of websites of government organizations set up to enable access to
information for other stakeholders.
C. Document review and analysis of impacts and outcomes of civil society and citizen group
action, including demands, requests, notes and declarations addressing government, and final
results of cooperative agreements and contracts between stakeholders. (How many demands,
request and notifications have civil society organizations and citizen groups submitted to
government organizations and officers How were they were resolved? What was the final
impact, result and outcome of each? etc).
Level II and III: Level of relationship and engagement between donor agencies, government
and CSOs.
Relations and engagement: government engages with donor organizations through (a) legal
regulation and coordination; (b) policy and program documents on specific issues; (c)
cooperation in different fields. Donor organizations engage with government through (a) legal
regulation and coordination; (b) policy and program documents on specific issues; (c)
demands, requests and notes expressing opinions on different issues. For engagement from
donor to CSO and vice versa, the key engagement is often in the form of programs and
projects in various areas.
7
This relationship/engagement does not mean radical accountability, but refers to day-to-day operational
engagement.
13
In order to measure progress of this type of engagement, analysis of the aforementioned legal
and policy environment was conducted. This included the following actions.
A. In-depth interviews with officers of international donor agencies and CSOs (in the field of
social accountability) for more detailed input. (How you evaluate the current situation of
social accountability in Mongolia? What are the impacting factors? To what extent do civil
societies operate in the area of social accountability? What support is needed to improve the
current situation of social accountability in Mongolia? What is the state of the policy and
regulatory environment, and how may it be improved? etc).
B. Assessment of skills and capacity of civil society organizations: identification of their
number, goals and objectives, type of activities, capacity (financial and human resources),
experience (previous work and projects, impact and outcomes, lessons), challenges and
relevant factors for civil society organizations in the field of social accountability
C. Creation of a database of interested parties and stakeholders (identifying all NGOs, civil
movements and citizen groups and locations; the number of NGOs working in social
accountability; their operations, goals, objectives and key activity directions etc).
1.4 Research sample
We defined three main areas as a priority, so that we could focus on a more specific field and
could collect important information relating to those areas, as follows.
1. Budget expenditure and its transparency.
2. Extractive industry and environmental issues.
3. Access to information.
Under this framework, we selected several government agencies as samples, and surveyed
their website content, to define the potential of access to information for stakeholders,
including citizens. The agencies were as follows.
1. Office of the President: http://www.president.mn/mongolian/
2. Office of the Government: http://www.open-government.mn/
3. Four government agencies:
- Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism: http://www.mne.mn/mn/
- Ministry of Finance: http://www.mof.gov.mn/ , budget related information of the
Ministry of Finance: http://www.iltod.gov.mn/
- Ministry
of
Judicial
and
Home
Affairs:
http://www.jurists.mn/web1/main.aspx?code=10
- Human Rights Commission of Mongolia: http://www.mn-nhrc.org/
4. Office of the State Great Khural (Parliament): http://www.parliament.mn/
5. Selected provinces and districts:
- Sukhbaatar district: http://sbd.ub.gov.mn/news.php
- Songino-Khairkhan district: http://shd.ub.gov.mn/
- Bayanzurkh district: http://www.bzd.ub.gov.mn/
- Khovd province: No official website found
- Umnugove province: http://umnugobi.gov.mn/
- Darkhan-uul province: http://info.e-darkhan.com/
14
Desk review sample
Table4. Review of legal and policy pronouncements
№
Type of the documents
Number
National laws
General
1
25
15
2
Budget related
2
3
Extractive industry and environmental issues
4
4
Access to information
4
Policy and pronouncements at both national and local level
General
1
8
4
2
Budget related
1
3
Extractive industry and environmental issues
2
4
Access to information
1
Policy and pronouncements at national level
General
1
19
6
2
Budget related
6
3
Extractive industry and environmental issues
6
4
Access to information
1
Total
52
Table 5. Literature review sample
№
Type of document
Number
Research reports (monitoring, evaluation, policy researches etc…)
General
1
Budget related
2.
Extractive industry and environmental issues
3.
Access to information
4.
Handbook and manuals
10
14
6
13
1
General
1
2.
3.
4.
Budget related
Extractive industry and environmental issues
Access to information
4
4
4
57
Total
Table 6. In-depth interview sample
Research
instruments
In-depth interview
Location
Ulaanbaatar
Source information
Sampling size
Leaders of NGO
11
Leaders of social movement
2
Initiative citizens
2
Relevant program and project
2
15
staff
Khovd/Jargalant soum/
Aimags
Umnugovi /Dalanzadgad
soum/
Darkhan-uul /Darkhan
soum/
Staff of international
organization supporting SA
initiatives
3
Governmental officials (three
levels)
4
Leaders of NGO
9
Leaders of social movement
3
Initiative citizens
3
Relevant program and project
staff
3
Staff of international
organization supporting SA
initiatives
2
Governmental officials (three
levels)
6
Total
Conducting
national
registration
Ulaanbaatar and aimags
50
- Government agencies
- Phone interview
- E-mail research
Focus group
discussion
Ulaanbaatar
NGO staff
4
Aimags
NGO staff
3
Total
7*
Bibliography for this section:
1. National Statistics Office. (2005). Strategy document to ensure economic growth and reduce
poverty. Ulaanbaatar.
2. Malena C. & Janmejay R. F. (2004). World Bank. Participation and Civic Engagement.
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: An Introduction to the Concept and Emerging Practice.
3. N. Mays, E. Roberto, and J. Popay (2001). Study of the Organisation and Delivery of Health
Services: Research Methods. In P. A. N. Fulop, Synthesising Research Evidence (pp. 188-220)
London: Routledge..
4. World Bank (2007). The Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia
Washington DC.
5. www.8x8.bz. (2010, 07 18). Retrieved from
www.8x8.bz/freetime/index.php?mcmodule=wz&wzid=677
16
CHAPTER II.
MAPPING OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN MONGOLIA
What is a mapping study?
'A mapping study is often undertaken to focus on identification of the extent, nature and range
of research and implementation issues relating to a problem, to map key concepts relevant to a
research area and the main sources and types of evidence available. A review of available
literature will help determine research gaps which a future larger study can address. A
mapping study can be conducted as a stand-alone project where an area is complex or has not
been reviewed comprehensively before’8.
In order to create a comprehensive map of the country, we defined four main pillars: Social
and Cultural Appropriateness; Government Responsiveness; Organized and Capable Citizen
Groups; and Access to Information. Mapping study findings for each of these four pillars are
given in detail in the ensuing sections.
2.1 Government Responsiveness
2.2.1 Overview
In the context of social accountability, an enabling environment for citizen engagement refers
to a set of conditions or interrelated factors that impact on the capacity of ordinary citizens or
citizen groups to engage with government in a sustained and effective manner. Thus, the role
and effectiveness of citizen groups as partners in ensuring good governance critically depend
on the efforts of both government and citizen groups to create such an enabling environment.
What is a legal and policy environment of social accountability?
The extent that the social accountability system and its implementation tools/methods are
secured by legislation forms the background for citizen groups for monitoring and overseeing
government action, and demanding responsibility and reporting. In analyzing whether the
legal and policy environment for the social accountability was created, we highlighted the
following.
- To what extent is there a legal environment for citizens to participate in government
policy and decision making?
-
To what extent does the legal environment enable citizens voluntarily to join coalitions
and establish citizen groups, to be registered as legal entities?
-
To what extent is there a legalized civic right to participate in, monitor, oversee and
demand reportage of implementation of government decisions and policy and
government services for citizens?
-
How does the government select citizen groups with which to work?
8
N Mays, E Roberto, and J Popay. (2001). Studying the organisation and Delivery of Health Services:
Research Methods. In P. A. N. Fulop, Synthesising research evidence (pp. 188-220). London:
Routledge, pp.
17
-
What is the potential for a creation of a favorable legal and policy environment for
social accountability?
2.1.2 Research findings
To what extent is there a legal environment for citizens to participate in government policy
and decision making?
Guarantees of a civic right to participate in government action, international treaties to which
Mongolia is bound, national and local laws, rules and regulations, legal documents and
strategy papers are reflected in the following.
Article 21 of the Universal Human Rights Declaration (1948) states, “Everyone has the right
to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen
representatives. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.” This
demands legal establishment of civic rights to participate in government decisions and policy.
In addition, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976) guarantees the
rights to freedom of expression and a personal point of view, and to partake directly in
government through elected representatives. The International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (1976) asserts “the right of everyone to form trades unions and join a
trades union of his choice, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, for the
promotion and protection of his economic and social interests.”
Article 3.1. of the Constitution of Mongolia (1992) states, “In Mongolia, state power shall be
vested in the people of Mongolia. The Mongolian people shall exercise it through their direct
participation in state affairs as well as through the representative bodies of State authority
elected by them.” This is an important provision for the civil right to participate in
government decision-making and policy.
Aside from the Constitution of Mongolia, the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations
(1997) clearly determines the relationship between government and NGOs, as in Article 9.5:
“NGOs may participate in developing draft resolutions of legislative and executive agencies at
their own request" and Article 9.6: “NGOs are entitled to express their positions on decisions
made by government agencies and make statements.” In addition, the opportunity to
participate in decision- and policy-making by the highest power of the state, the Parliament of
Mongolia, was granted by the Law on Sessions of the State Great Khural (2007) and the Law
on Developing and Submitting Drafts of Laws and Parliament Resolutions (2001), to some
extent. Under the Law on Sessions of the State Great Khural (2007), any draft law or
resolution is discussed in six steps; the first five steps may involve Working Groups including
experts, as follows.
16.5. Depending on the importance of the relationships and affairs that the draft law would
regulate, and its scope, the Speaker of the Parliament, Standing Committees and Party/Coalition
Groups may hold a Working Group, consisting of MPs and experts, to develop the draft legislation,
obtain opinions and conclusions to be submitted to the Parliament for discussion.
16.6. A Working Group based on Article 16.5 of this law shall operate within the scope of the
following rights and obligations.
16.6.1. May demand additional information and surveys from the initiators and other
related agencies and officers for analysis.
16.6.2. If deemed necessary, may call upon highly-skilled experts in the subject matter.
18
Article 18 of the Law on Developing and Submitting Drafts of Laws and Parliament
Resolutions (2001) states the following.
Law initiators shall get comments and inputs from central state administrative bodies, experts,
academics, NGOs and citizens on the subject matter, which may be included in the draft if
deemed necessary. Unless otherwise stated in the legislation, the law initiator shall obtain
input from citizens and legal entities in the following ways.
(a) Place a draft law on the website for no less than 10 days for public access.
(b) Directly deliver a copy of the draft to citizens and legal entities or hold meetings
and discussion.
The law on the supreme executive authority, the Law on the Government (1993), says,
“Supporting ideas and initiatives from public organizations to help develop the country,
strengthen the state and social structures and ensure implementation of government policy and
decisions may be heard, and the state shall work with these organizations on required
measures and action.” however, the law contains no provisions to get government decisions
discussed and revised by other agencies and to ensure participation from other stakeholders.
Though these legislative documents grant opportunities for citizen groups to participate in
government decisions and policy making/implementation, there is no sanction if the
government has not provided any opportunity for representation from other stakeholders, and
grants the power to government officers to reject such participation.
It is noteworthy that local government may allow participation of citizen groups in local
decision-making in compliance with the Law on Administrative and Territorial Units and
Their Management (2006). Article 24.2 states, “Government and non-government
organizations, legal entities and citizens may submit issues for discussion and resolution to the
Representative Khurals of their level (soum and district Representative Khural; bag and
khoroo Community Khural).” This law also assigns local governors to hold elections and
public referenda at all levels (presidential, parliamentary and local) and organize action to
discuss and resolve pressing issues with citizen participation. This shows that citizen groups
can legally participate in government decisions and policy.
The aforementioned laws legitimate citizen groups' participation in government decisionmaking and policy in the following ways.
-
Take part in working groups to develop draft laws and regulations.
-
Access draft laws and regulations on the website and express their opinions.
-
Deliver input and comments in response to directly-provided draft laws and
regulations from law makers.
-
Take part in meetings and discussion on laws and regulations.
-
Take part in events run by local government to gain input for draft laws and
regulations and on pressing local issues.
-
Citizen groups may submit ideas and opinions to help national development strengthen
social structure and ensure implementation of laws and regulations.
19
However, most of these provisions restrict citizen groups to waiting while law-makers and
decision-makers initiate events; these restrictions apply in the Law on Sessions of the
State Great Khural; the Law on Developing and Submitting Drafts of Laws and
Parliament Resolutions; the Law on Administrative and Territorial Units and Their
Management; and the Law on Government.
To what extent is there a legal environment for citizens voluntarily to enter into coalitions or
establish citizen groups, to be registered as legal entities?
In the Constitution of Mongolia (1992), Article 16.10 states, “the right to form a party or other
mass organization, with freedom of association with these organizations on the basis of social
and personal interest and opinion.” It also states, “Discrimination and persecution of a person
for joining a political party or other mass organization, or for being a member, shall be
prohibited,” so protecting citizens from discrimination.
Any matter relating to the establishment of a citizen group, and getting such a group
registered as a legal body, is regulated by the Law on NGOs, the General Law on State
Registration and the Law on State Registration of Legal Entities. The terminology NGO was
first introduced in Mongolia in the mid-1990s, replacing the type of organization called a
public (mass) organization. In the socialist system, public organizations were designed to
support the ruling party and mainstream party ideology. These organizations were established
by decree of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP),
then the only and ruling political party. In other words, public organizations were fully
dependent upon the government and ruling party. In 1991, law-makers began to discuss
revision of the legislation on public organizations, but action was postponed until 1997
because of lack of knowledge and expertise of law-makers. The Law on NGOs was adopted
with support from the Asia Foundation in 1997, being amended in 1998, 2003 and 2009.
In the Law on NGOs (1997), Article 4.1 says, “NGO shall mean an organization which is
independent from the state, self-governing, non-profit, and established voluntarily by citizens
or by legal entities other than state agencies (ie, organs that exercise legislative, executive and
judicial powers) on the basis of their individual or social interests and opinions.” The
progressive side of this law was to enable citizens and non-governmental bodies to establish
an NGO without government permission, instead based on their own interests, and restricts
government powers to prohibit citizen initiatives to form NGOs. In addition, there are
prohibitions on compulsion to join an NGO and discrimination because of membership or
support for an NGO. Under the socialist system, those who were denied membership of a
public organization established by the ruling party were discriminated against and received
penalties. Based on the Law on NGOs, the right and freedom to associate in one's own interest
and belief were legally established.
Even if an NGO is unregistered, it is considered to be established when the highest NGO
authority or the founders decide to establish such an NGO. Only the court may disband an
NGO if it decides the NGO does not operate within the scope of its key directions or violates
the legislation. Another possibility is for the supreme authority of the NGO (its governing
body) to disband the organization if that body should consider that the NGO has achieved its
goal or under other grounds laid down in the law. No one but the court or the board may
disband the NGO.
20
The Law on State Registration (2009) establishes a general framework of state registration,
allowing the state administrative agency in charge of state registration, its affiliates, or
Mongolian diplomatic missions and consulates abroad to grant state registration. The state
central administrative agency in charge of state registration or its rural affiliates formally
register the NGO. However, rural affiliates of the state registration office are still reported
to deny registration to a locally-formed NGO, indicating that provisions in the registration
law are not always properly enforced. Under Article 16.1 of the Law on Registration of
Legal Entities (2003), legal bodies must submit the following documents for registration.
- A certificate of formal decision by an authorized people to establish a legal body,
or a notarized copy.
- A by-law.
- Proof that the name of the legal body does not coincide with the name of any other
legal body, as certified by the registration office.
- An official receipt of payment of the government service charge.
- An application form, properly filled out.
The law also states that the registration office shall not demand documents unless
mandated in the law, but the registration office still requires founders of an NGO to submit
the following.
- Minutes of a founders’ meeting.
- A copy of the civil ID of founders.
- A detailed CV of each founder.
- Evidence of the decision of the NGO supreme authority to appoint an executive
management.
- Minutes of the meeting of executive management.
It is noteworthy that the law allows documents to be submitted by the applicants
themselves or by courier. However, founders must attend the registration office to obtain
instructions on proper filing of documents and a copy of application and CV forms;
otherwise their submitted documents may be rejected. The reason given for this extra
burden relates to a lack of information on the registration office website.
After submission of an application for state registration, the registration office should
make available its written decision within five working days. The law enables the
registration office to reject state registration of an NGO if the submitted documents are
incomplete or if it believes the aims of the organization violate provisions of the Law to
Restrict Unfair Competition.
There are often many other documents demanded in addition to those required by the law,
and many applications are rejected because they are told documentation is incomplete or
they have failed to comply with instructions for filling them in. The Law on NGOs (1997)
also states that the NGO shall be considered when the decision of the founders is made, but
the Law on State Registration (2003) states that a legal body must submit the application
no more than one month after establishment, which shows a contradiction between the two
laws.
While there is no pressure or restriction from government agencies and political parties on
freedom of association or on forming NGOs, the registration office requires additional
documents (not mandated in the law) or rejects applications by claiming applicants have21
failed to fill out forms properly; these are all administrative and procedural constraints in
NGO registration.
To what extent is there a legalized civic right to participate in, monitor, oversee and demand
reportage of implementation of government decisions and policy and government services for
citizens?
In the Constitution of Mongolia (1992), Article 3.1 indicates, “In Mongolia, state power shall
be vested in the people of Mongolia. The Mongolian people shall exercise this through direct
participation in state affairs as well as through representative bodies of State authority which
they shall elect.” Article 16.12 states, “citizens shall exercise the right to submit complaints
and petitions to government agencies and officers for resolution” and “government agencies
and officers shall have the duty to resolve complaints and requests submitted by citizens.” All
these sections serve as a legal background for implementation of government policy and
decisions, and for citizen oversight and monitoring of government actions.
In the Law on the Government of Mongolia (1993), Article 19.1 states that it is possible to
outsource other organizations to perform some duties and services assigned to government
agencies; this provision enables participation of citizen groups in government decision- and
policy-making.
The Law on State Audit and Inspection (2003) states, ‘the audit organization may get input
and assistance from NGOs and citizens in performing its inspection and audit duties. The
audit agencies may conduct audit and inspection actions in response to information provided
by a citizen if the subject matter is within the scope of the auditing agency’. This provision
allows citizen groups to take part in implementation of government inspection duties;
however, legal provisions state that getting involvement from citizens is up to the auditing and
inspection agency, which is one of the shortcomings of the legislation.
This right is also mentioned in the Law on Environment Protection (1995), which states
“public organizations shall exercise the right to conduct public oversight on implementation
of environment-related legislation, carry out site checks, demand elimination of violations,
submit opinions and comment on environment protection to central state administrative
agency in charge of environment protection and all levels of governor, organize ecology
education activities, alone or in partnership with professional organizations, and submit the
methodology and tools for environment protection to relevant agencies for effective decisionmaking.” In addition, the Government of Mongolia has identified opportunities for citizen
groups to perform the duties of government for environmental protection on behalf of
government, based on contractual obligations.
The Anti-Corruption Law of 2006 enables community and citizen groups to take part in
fighting corruption by lodging complaints and opinions and setting up a non-staff
community council to advise the agency against corruption. This council, at the head of the
Anti-Corruption Agency, shall consist of 15 members and excludes politicians and civil
servants. The council is appointed by the President of Mongolia for a four-year term. This
enables civic participation against corruption and overseeing of agency operations. The
main drawback of this legislation is that it entitles the President alone to appoint the
council. The anti-corruption legislation allows citizen groups to submit complaints and
requests to the anti-corruption agency; to provide information to the agency; encourages the
agency to support citizen initiatives to fight corruption; increases citizen group
22
participation; and encourages cooperation between the agency and citizen groups. This
enables citizen groups to participate in oversight and monitoring of the agency fighting
corruption.
Citizen group rights to participate in, monitor, oversee and demand reports on implementation
of government decisions and policy and government services for citizens are well reflected in
other legal and policy documents beyond the legislation alone. For instance, the Conceptual
Framework on Development Mongolia (1996):

Encourages citizen participation in governance and creates sustainable mechanisms to
ensure the constitutional concept of state power is vested in the people of Mongolia;

Allows direct participation in state affairs as well as through representative bodies of
the State authority as elected by citizens;

Makes government information open and transparent and uses ICT extensively to get
citizen input and allow citizen overseeing and monitoring of the government action.
The Government of Mongolia (2008-2012) strives to take decisive measures and action on
social accountability, under its Action Plan. The Government Action Plan (2008-2012)
contains a specific Section 4.5 headed Civil Society and Public Administration Policy, where
the following clear mechanisms on social accountability are reflected.
4.5.1. Reform the operational environment for civil society to enable oversight of
government action, inspection of government agencies, advocacy, and to support and
develop public-private partnership and cooperation.
 Eradicate corruption from central and local public agencies to create citizen-centered,
skilled and responsible service providers and free the public service from bureaucracy
by making it open and transparent.
 Introduce mechanisms of responsibility for budget managers and administrators for
effective expenditure of public funds, making such mechanisms quick and efficient.
 Amend the Law on Management of Public Funds to increase the powers of local
government, to create a more favorable business environment, eliminate government
bureaucracy, create citizen groups and civil society oversight of government actions,
and monitor expenditure of public funds by oversight and public discussion.
 Create legal conditions for citizen oversight and monitoring and ensure citizen rights
to submit requests and complaints when they feel their rights have been violated.
The Action Plan also says the government would aim to develop partnership between
government, private sector and civil society, and increase transparency and responsibility by
intensifying legal reforms. Within this framework, a sub-goal was developed, to “create a
permanent and on-going web-based system to monitor the status of resolution of complaints
and requests from citizens to government.”
In addition, government resolutions show some progress in ensuring citizen groups may
oversee government actions and implementation of decisions and service delivery, as follows.
1. The Government of Mongolia resolution #93, 2008, on 'Cooperation with NGOs'
principally supports a cooperative agreement with the CSC, and assigns line ministries
and governors of aimags and the capital city involvement with civil society to monitor
23
implementation of the Key Directions of Socio-Economic Development of Mongolia
and budget expenditure. This was a result of advocacy by the CSC to government.
2. In the Government of Mongolia resolution #143, 2009, an annex identifies 'Criteria for
reporting transparency of government agencies.' However, the main drawback of this
resolution is that it does not indicate how civil society should be involved in
evaluating government agencies under these criteria.
Initiated by Mongolian civil society organizations, the Mongolian CSC was established on
February 1, 2008, embodying around 300 NGOs, citizen movements, labor unions and nonprofit organizations. It has since worked as an umbrella organization, creating a bridge
between government and civil society.
In March 26, 2008, the CSC and the Government of Mongolia signed a Cooperative
Agreement to implement particular services by contract with NGOs in an economic and legal
environment enabling joint actions by civil societies to monitor implementation of legislation
and budget expenditure, cooperate in development of bills and policy documents, exchange
information and mutual support. At present, this agreement is one of the most positive steps
towards transparency of government agencies and enabling an SA environment.
The CSC has broadened its function; the Citizen Council for the Environment has reached
agreement with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, while the Council for Education,
Science and Culture has reached agreement with the relevant line ministry. The same has
happened with the Citizen Council for Social Welfare, resulting in an agreement with the
Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor. These branch councils, working with the civil society
network, have made agreements with government agencies; for example, the Minister of
Education, Science and Culture in 2009 issued resolution #150 on outsourcing to civil society
organizations for some government duties, under contract. The Minister of Social Welfare and
Labor in 2009 issued resolution #64, endorsing a regulation to outsource to civil society
organizations certain government services and duties, followed by resolution #77, which
indicates the types of services outsourced to NGOs in 2009. The resolution gave three
potential activities that could be outsourced to NGOs, namely [1] training and education; [2]
research and monitoring and [3] goods and services. As a result of partnership between the
Ministry of Environment and the Citizen Council for Environmental Issues, 34 defined
projects were last year implemented by several NGOs. In addition, cooperative agreements
were reached between government and civil society in most provinces, demonstrating
progress in mutual efforts.
Thus, the right of citizen groups to monitor and oversee government actions, service delivery,
decision and policy-making have been guaranteed by law and policy documents such as the
Constitution, the State Audit Law, the Law to Protect the Environment, the Anti-Corruption
aw, the government Action Plan, and the 93rd resolution allowing the following tools and
mechanisms.
-
Citizen groups to support government monitoring and oversight actions.
Citizen groups submit requests and demands to monitor and inspect a specific
government agency up to the highest level.
Monitoring of implementation of environment-related legislation and site checks.
Demands for corrective action for violations and breeches, with submission of the
issue to the relevant authority for final resolution.
Taking part in the Council at the Independent Agency against Corruption.
Part and full monitoring of implementation of Key Directions of Mongolia’s SocioEconomic Development.
24
However, many of these potential tools and mechanisms still depend on the will and interest
of high-ranking government officials and decision makers.
How does the government select citizen groups with which to work?
In order to ensure implementation of Government of Mongolia resolution #19 on outsourcing
civil society organizations for some government duties and services, and resolution #93 on
creation of conditions for NGO involvement in monitoring implementation of Key Directions
of Mongolia’s Socio-Economic Development, central and local NGOs and government
agencies have worked together effectively in preparatory work, and contracts have been let at
the local level. Although there have been some good initiatives in outsourcing NGOs and
inviting civil society representatives onto working groups and councils, it is still unclear how
to select the NGO.
Table 4. Status of selection of civil society organizations to perform government services and duties
National/Local
National level
Darhan-uul
aimag
Umnugobi
aimag
Hovd aimag
Selection regulations
Only in some None
areas
None
None
Criteria
Only in some Criteria set by None
areas
Ministry
of
Social Welfare
and Labor
None
If there are cases when the Yes
government has selected
'pocket' NGOs and nepotic
NGOs (run by relatives)
Yes
Yes
Yes
If the government discusses Yes
selection with the CSC
Yes
Yes
Yes
If the government selects the Yes
organization only if the
organization demands or
initiates action
Yes
Yes
Yes
The current situation in which government agencies select the NGO with which to work is as
follows.
First, some government agencies have not decided how to an NGO with which to work, and
have not developed regulations and/or selection criteria (see Table 2). The Minister of Social
Welfare and Labor approved a Regulation to Outsource to NGOs for Government Services
and Duties in 2009, saying that action to outsource to any NGO should be publicized in the
media. The resolution also says that a Working Group should select any NGO, but the
Working Group has no representation from civil society. It also gave basic criteria for
selection of an NGO for outsourcing for government services, as follow.
-
The NGO must have been set up to serve society, working for the wellbeing of society.
The NGO must have a proven record for at least three continuous years of operation in its main
area of operations.
The NGO must have experience in and skills of operation in the fields of labor, social welfare,
human development and protection of human rights.,
The NGO must have sufficient financial and human resources.
25
For other line ministries and governors' offices of aimags, soums, districts and
Ulaanbaatar, there are not yet any approved regulations similar to the above. Darhan-uul
aimag government agencies generally comply with the resolution approved by the
Minister of Social Welfare and Labor.
... We would be willing to use NGOs to run consumer evaluations, but there is no
professional survey organization. Therefore we plan to have one representative from
each NGO (from an interview with a government officer in Darhan-uul aimag).
... The Ministry has a special advisory council to ensure human rights, with 30
members representing government and non-government organizations. We also
allocate some funding to safeguard human rights, the expenditure of which is
monitored by council members. We do not really have any detailed criteria, but we
chose criteria according to the area in which we work with NGOs, such as required
skills etc (from an interview with a ministry officer).
There has also been a failure to establish regulations on NGO selection, without set criteria for
high-ranking officers to select NGOs in an open and competitive selection process, and NGOs
are claimed to have been selected with conflict of interest. Such claims of unfairness were
extensively discussed in interviews with NGO officers and management (see Table 2 and
quotes below).
... For the last three years, ministries have set up kinds of artificial NGOs. Ministries
then look as if they are working with civil society. Some ministers have even financed
the NGOs that are 'in their pocket' (from an interview with a civil movement leader).
... Ministries patronize their 'own' NGOs without criteria or selection process. Some
government officers - civil servants - have established NGOs, which they use to
monitor, so that these NGOs work only for the government (from a group interview in
Darhan-Uul aimag).
... Organizations that belong to government officers or former soum governors are
often funded by government for project proposals. Some high-ranking officials use
their own powers to set up an NGO, to get government funding (from a civil society
consultative meeting in Hovd aimag).
... Our organization submitted a project proposal to conduct a survey land eroded as a
result of mining operations in the 21 provinces. We have approached many agencies
since 2007, but the response has always been that they have no budget. Later we have
found out that the government had hired a private company to do exactly the same as
we proposed. They used our proposal (from a group interview in Ulaanbaatar city).
Despite the above drawbacks, due to a lack of detailed regulations for the selection of NGOs
to perform government duties and services, some aimags are taking strenuous action to
overcome such difficulties.
- The Governor’s Office of Darhan-Uul aimag complies with criteria (at least three
years of sustainable operations, with own office etc) as approved by resolution of the
Minister of Social Welfare and Labor in selecting NGOs (see Table 2).
-
The CSC is undergoing internal discussion on how to propose experienced and skilled
NGOs, in a process widely used in all areas where the survey was conducted.
Third, government agencies are not pro-active, working only with NGOs when these NGOs
propose or demand cooperation (see Table 2).
26
... In order to enable NGOs to monitor government action, the legal environment needs
improvement. Recently we did carried out monitoring in the countryside in partnership
with the Professional Inspection Department, though we were unpaid. Quite simply,
the Inspection Agency considered that public involvement in monitoring is vital, so
they invited us to take part (from an interview with a civil movement leader).
2.13 Are there any potential ways to create a favorable legal and policy environment for
social accountability?
Over 80% of individual interviewees, citizen groups in the focus groups and NGOs, all
considered that there is not an effective legal environment to operate in social accountability.
Many respondents said the legal environment was insufficient, but that the situation had been
improving over the past three years, as exemplified by some positive results at the policy level
in the signing of agreements with the government. The reasons they gave for believing the
legal environment was not favorable included the following.
First, legislation covers citizen group monitoring of government action in general; while the
legal environment supports these citizen groups, this depends solely on the wishes and
interests of high-ranking government officers (see quotes below).
... There is a resolution on cooperation, but we do not see any tangible action or funding
for this type of work. This is related to the weak legal environment. Setting up the CSC is
just a beginning (from a group interview in Darhan-Uul aimag).
... Some government agency managers do not accept that NGOs are entitled to monitor
budget expenditure. The law should have clear provisions on this issue. This would ease
our work (from an interview with a government officer in Hovd aimag).
... For the School Tea Break program, schools refused monitoring, so we had to talk to the
Governor’s Administration and persuade them to issue a decree to the schools (from an
interview with a NGO officer in Hovd aimag).
... When we manage to persuade the relevant officer and reach consensus, after some time,
everything works well. But the situation is unstable; when the official changes, we have to
start again. So we should not be so dependent on any individual (from an interview with a
NGO officer in Ulaanbaatar city).
Also, the involvement of citizen groups and NGOs in monitoring public procurement is
limited and insufficient; it is dependent not only on the wishes and interests of the decisionmakers, but is also affected by their lack of knowledge and skills on how to allow civil society
into monitoring of government action. Such dependence of NGO and citizen group action on
decision-makers could be resolved by creating a favorable policy and legal environment, to be
implemented both at national and local levels. Any action in social accountability is often
initiated by NGOs and citizen groups rather than government.
... There is a need to improve the legal environment and the existing legislation by
creating the background and conditions encouraging NGOs to monitor government action.
The government itself does not have much interest in working with NGOs, but only start
after we push them.
In order to enforce the public right to take part in decision-making, especially in issues of
common interest, the legal environment definitely needs to be improved. Some respondents
proposed tangible ideas for improving the legal environment, such as the following.
27
... There are some issues that should be included in the legislation as obligations.
Specifically, this includes adopting a new Law on Administrative Procedure. By
establishing legal ethical codes and conduct of government officers, civil society and
even an individual could prosecute an official. At present, as there is no legal
requirement to listen to comments and opinions from NGOs and citizens, government
officials can do so or not. The law should include everything that covers procedures of
government agencies, such as getting public comment, reporting to citizens,
undertaking monitoring jointly or running evaluations etc (from an interview with an
officer of a donor agency).
Citizens ought to be represented in a working group to select NGOs for outsourcing of
government activities, and section criteria should be clearly described in the legislation.
Within the framework of NGO and citizen group demands, some cooperative agreements
have been signed, and ministries and higher-level government agencies have issued
resolutions to support the initiative. Signing cooperative agreements and implementing such
agreements should include the CSC, the network of civil society. Such joint efforts would
produce better results in improving the legal environment. In addition, monitoring the NGO
selection process for performance of some government duties would play a key role in
ensuring fairness and oversight of the process.
... NGOs should join together to get stronger. Currently we work separately and it is
sometimes unclear what we are doing (from an interview with a NGO officer in DarhanUul aimag).
Second the key constraint on effective operation by citizen groups is a lack of financial
resources. The existing regulations over NGO taxation and social insurance payments do not
impact positively on NGO financial capability. Lack of funding may make an NGO dependent
on a funding agency such as the government, at least potentially leading to the final outcome
of any activity being canted in favor of the funder, a possibility revealed by this survey. This
affects the legal environment of social accountability. It is therefore important for NGOs to
improve the legal environment concerning taxation and social insurance payments; this was
mentioned several times during the survey.
... We may have an evaluation project, but we sometimes are wary about giving
negative conclusions in our report because this may have a negative effect on our
future work (from an interview with a NGO leader in Dundgobi aimag).
... When citizens and businesses pay income taxes, 1% of this tax should go fund
specific action. NGOs should also report and present their work to qualify for that 1%.
This is an open type of funding. An NGO may get funded by an agency once or twice,
but may get pressure to produce skewed results. This is like the way the media
currently serve their owners (from an interview with a NGO leader).
... Though NGOs can be funded from operations, it is truly important to have some
funding that is independent from political parties and other agencies (from an
interview with an officer of donor agency).
... The legal requirement to pay tax on donations from citizens and businesses to
NGOs, and to pay social insurance for part-time and temporary staff, is an NGO's
main financial burden. This needs to be changed. At first the law did not have this
provision, which was added later on (from an interview with a citizen).
28
Third, using the court (judicial) mechanism is vital in creating systems for social
accountability.
... In my opinion, all decisions and regulations from parliament and government agencies
should comply with the Constitution. The Constitutional Court monitors compliance with
the Constitution, which states that a citizen is entitled to make application to the
Constitutional Court for corrective action if he believes that legislation violates
Constitutional provisions (from an interview with a civil movement leader).
Table 5. Support from government for NGOs to operate in the area of social accountability
Aimag and city
Cooperative agreement
At national level
Yes
If government allows
monitoring
If government allows
consumer evaluation
If government allows
participation in tender
selection process
If the government has
an officer in charge of
working with NGOs
Support in office space
Yes
Yes
Umnugobi
Darhan-Uul
Hovd
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Under
discussion
Under discussion
Under
discussion
Under discussion
No
No
Yes
Yes
CSC
Environment
Yes
on
Yes
A number of government organizations take action if there are no regulations relating to social
accountability. The Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism at the national level;
Governors’ Offices in Umnugovi, Khovd, Darkhan-Uul, Uvurkhangai and Dornogovi
provinces; and Governors of some soums at the local level, are champions of social
accountability. These organizations and officials effectively implement National Government
resolution #93 (Cooperation with NGOs) and Government resolution #19 (Civil Organizations
Performing Some Government Duties under Contract). The Ministry of Nature and
Environment and Tourism has included NGO recommendations into a bill; the Ministry of
Nature and Environment and Tourism works with the CSC on the Environment under
contract; members of the CSC on the Environment are members of the Minister`s Council and
the Environment Evaluation Committee. For example, the Ministry of Nature and
Environment and Tourism put some 34 specific government duties under contract with NGOs
in 2010. In local areas, government organizations use NGOs to provide social accountability
as an established CSC and Civil Hall, with civic organization participation to oversee state
procurement and tender processes, while NGOs perform government duties under contract.
Uvurkhangai and Dornogovi provinces take note of Mercy Corps (international organization)
research results, as a member organization of Partnership for Social Accountability in
Mongolia.
2.1.3 Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on survey findings, the following recommendations are made in order to improve the
legal and policy environment for social accountability.
29
1. Add the following regulatory statements to the legislation:
a. allow participation of citizen groups in government decision- and policymaking and evaluation of implementation, as a duty of government agencies;
b. reflect comments and opinions from citizen groups in decisions, or supply
grounds for refusal if not reflected;
c. reflect comments and opinions from citizen groups in decisions and ask for
responsibility from officials in response to citizen complaints;
d. invite citizen groups in the Working Group to select NGOs to outsource
government services, and ensure citizen participation in developing regulations
and criteria.
2. Adopt an Administrative Procedure Law to formalize ethics and conduct of
government officials.
3. Exempt from taxation all donations and funding from business to NGOs, and cancel
the legal obligation to pay social insurance for part-time non-permanent staff. The key
tool to get these proposals included in the legislation is joint action from citizen groups
in a united demand to law-makers.
2.2 Organized and capable citizen groups
2.2.1 Overview
What is an organized citizen group?
The key players in social accountability are organized citizens, civil society organizations and
NGOs. The core and outcomes of organized citizen action plainly depends on how well they
are organized institutionally, technically and in capacity, on experience gained and used, on
tools and cooperation - all serving as core to effective social accountability interventions.
In assessing the action of organized citizens in the area of social accountability, we used the
following questions/criteria.
1. What existing organized groups work in the area of social accountability? What is their
understanding and perception about social accountability?
2. What projects and programs do these organized groups implement? What is their
experience level and what tools and mechanisms do they use?
3. What do they think of the present level of government partnership and advocacy action
and how do they evaluate the outcomes of these types of activity?
4. Identify obstacles and challenges encountered by the organized groups. Identify potential
solutions to these obstacles and challenges.
2.2.2 Research findings
What existing organized groups work in the area of social accountability? What is their
understanding and perception about social accountability?
Issues of social accountability have been key in all areas. This survey aimed to assess the
present activities of Mongolian NGOs in the area of social accountability, with an emphasis
on mining, environment, budget expenditure and information availability/accessibility. An
understanding of the term 'social accountability' is generally expressed in two ways: social
responsibility and social accountability. In the Mongolian language, the word responsibility
implies duty, obligation, performance of duty, while the word accountability is closer to
reportage, reporting performance of duty and be responsible for action. The ultimate goal of
reporting responsibility is to create an accountable governance. As of today, numerous
30
surveys and research projects have been carried out into social accountability, government,
non-government and international organizations. The Ministry of Finance, World Bank,
UNDP, Open Society Forum, Asia Foundation, Globe International, AusAID, Mercy Corps,
Mongolian Press Institute, Women for Social Progress Movement, Zorig Foundation and the
Human Rights Development Center, have all conducted surveys on social accountability,
highlighting citizen participation in government decisions and budget expenditure, the impact
of mining on the environment, transparency of the extractive industry, responsibility,
corruption, bureaucracy, election monitoring, human rights, public freedom and media
freedom.
Aside from surveys and researches on social accountability, the first handbook of its kind,
titled Social Accountability, was published in 2010, with a detailed introduction on social
accountability. The handbook includes a definition of social accountability as citizen
oversight, referring to the idea that citizen oversight is a key function of social accountability.
The overall understanding of respondents on social accountability can be described as
follows: 'Social responsibility is action by NGOs, citizen movements and citizens working
with the government, monitoring government activities, participation and overseeing of
government action.'
Excerpt
Social accountability means “People are responsible for each other. Those who earn more should receive
food that meets their needs in wellbeing and security, but they should also spend some of their income to
benefit others. Social responsibility in highly-developed countries is higher, which results in reduced poverty
and increased livelihoods. But there is still inequality in other countries. So the idea is, if you earn money,
you should spend some of it on some target group for social development. That is what I understand as
social responsibility. Mongolians have a nomadic civilization, so we are always responsible for others and
for our relatives.”
Social responsibility is “NGO intervention in government action to participate in and oversee government
action.”
(Interview with officers of local government)
Organized citizen groups
In the Law on NGOs, Article 4.1 states, “An NGO is an organization independent from the
state, self-governing, non-profit, established voluntarily by citizens or by legal entities other
than state agencies (ie organs that exercise legislative, executive and judicial powers) on the
basis of individual or social interests and opinions.” NGOs in Mongolia are in two categories:
serving society and serving members. Civil society organizations are classified in structure
and organization, from NGOs (including civil movements and citizens), special organizations
(such as trade unions and the Red Cross), and associations (political parties and religious
organizations). In 2002, the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs had registered 3,200 NGOs,
of which 2,586 served society, while 614 served members. There are now 7,300 NGOs
officially registered at the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs. Of all NGOs covered in this
survey, over 80% served society, working in the areas of environment, mining, budget
transparency, access to information, human rights and protection of the interests of groups.
One: General profile of the NGOs covered by the survey
The Mongolian Social Accountability Overview and Mapping Survey looked at 197 NGOs, of
which 20% were permanent and stable, while the other 80% were non-permanent and not
operating regularly.
The NGO profile was as follows.
31
Of all respondents representing NGOs, 34.8% were male, 63.9% female; 91.9% had
university education, 3.1% had high school or vocational education and 0.62% had only
secondary education. Survey findings demonstrate that NGO operations may not be stable but
work at intervals; sometimes silent and sometimes active.
Figure 3. Types of NGOs
Figure 3 shows registered NGOs and their operations, stable or not.
In Figure 4, NGOs are shown that began main operations from 2001, with some growth and
restoration from 2006.
Figure 4. Stable activities of NGOs
In activity areas, NGOs include those in the areas of environment, nature protection,
reclamation, democracy and civil education, women, gender equality, citizen empowerment,
capacity building, health, social welfare, reproductive health and protection of citizen
interests.
32
Table 6. Key activity areas of NGOS by numbers and percentage
Activity areas
Number
Percentage
Environment, nature protection and reclamation
25
15.5
Education/democracy and civil education
28
17.4
Training, research and evaluation
9
5.6
Advocacy and participation
2
1.2
Family and children
5
3.1
Women and gender equality
19
11.8
Citizen empowerment, capacity building, protection of interests
20
12.4
Serving society/ society centered
21
13
Health/reproductive health
14
8.7
Media, information dissemination
4
2.5
Working for people with disabilities
3
1.9
Legal consultation
3
1.9
Human rights
7
4.3
Ultra poor citizens
6
3.7
Agriculture and animal husbandry
5
3.1
Interests of residents
1
0.62
Social welfare
14
8.7
Business development
4
2.5
Extractive industry transparency
1
0.62
Trade unions
2
1.2
Fighting corruption
1
0.62
Unanswered
3
1.9
Total
197
100.0
Finding and strengthening NGO positioning was more important than capacity and finance. In
terms of funding, the main sources were as follows: international agencies, membership fees,
public donation, investment, service income, donations from business and government; 13.7%
had no funding source. NGOs operating actively reported that they had an average of 5
funding sources.
33
Figure 5. Funding source of the NGOs
The Open Society Forum, UN, World Bank and Mercy Corps provided most of the funding
for NGOs and civil society organizations, according to qualitative survey findings.
Two: Human resources
As to NGO respondent gender, 58.4% were female, 49.1% male. They represent almost all
ages. NGO staffs are generally divided into full-time, part-time and volunteer. Most NGOs
have up to five full-time staff, with over 20 volunteers and part-time staff.
Three: Activities in social accountability
Respondent NGOs generally work in the following areas: monitoring, evaluation and
oversight 19.9%; advocacy 23.0%, no social accountability action 52.8%; unanswered 4.3%.
Of all NGO respondents, 72.7% were involved in a civil society network, 24.2% were in no
network, and 3.1% did not respond.
34
Figure 6. Activities of NGOs on Social Accountability
What projects and programs do these organized groups implement? What is their experience
level and what tools and mechanisms do they use?
In overall, most citizen groups in social accountability run a monitoring project, followed
public procurement and budget transparency, capacity building and networking. In addition,
civil education, strategic advocacy, and transparency of information are key areas where
NGOs have gained considerable experience.
A. Monitoring
In 2004 organized citizen groups started budgetary monitoring (formulation and expenditure
of central and local government budgets) and monitoring government services, with support
from the Open Society Forum. So far, over 100 NGOs have been involved in monitoring
activities.
Figure 7. Monitoring activities of NGOs by year
The Open Society Forum has implemented a monitoring grants program, aiming to increase
NGO intervention in government action to ensure transparency and accountability. This
35
program beginning was an important step in encouraging NGOs to believe that NGOs are
entitled to monitor government action and institutions, and demand accountability based on
monitoring results. The grants program has played a key role in building NGO capacity. Since
the first monitoring project began, over 100 NGOs have learned monitoring methodology and
conducted monitoring of government services, policy implementation, donor aid and loans.
Table 7. Monitoring activities conducted by organized citizen groups
Topic
National level
Local level
Budget
- Formulation and expenditure of public agency
- Citizen participation in
equity
the local budget
- Expenditure of the reserve fund of the
- Expenditure of
Songinohairhan district governor
Governor's Reserve Fund
- Expenditure of the Chingeltei district
- Services fee income
government on street lighting and establishing a
- Local budget monitoring
green area
- Expenditure of Health - Income and expenditure of waste management
Insurance Fund
fund in Bayangol district
- Monitoring of Public
- Formulation of budget income from interest and
Procurement
fines
- Development of
- Citizen oversight of local budget formulation
gateway- budget
- Expenditure of Science and Technology Fund
monitoring
- Selection of vendors for construction and urban
- Monitoring of the
development sector work, funded by the
operations of Aimag
Mongolian Development Fund and government
Development Fund
budget
- Operation of the Health Support Fund and its
financial management
- Advocacy, capacity-building of public agencies
to ensure budget transparency
- Financing of political parties
- Expenditure of Special Fund supporting
employment for those with disabilities
Environmen
t and mining
Access to
information
- Process of licensing exploitation of minerals
- Activities on environment protection
- Payments and taxes from mining companies to
the local budget
- License monitoring
- Tuul River basin
- Expenditure of Environment protection Fund
- Transparency of information of government
agencies
- Violations of free speech rights
- Content of Transition Period program
- Supporting freedom of expression and free media
- Content of websites of government organizations
- Implementation of judge’s decision to restrict
rights
- Roles of citizen representatives in collective
settlement of disputes
- Monitoring reforestation
- Status of businesses in
the Eastern Mongolian
Protected Area in
environment reclamation
- Openness and
transparency of
information at local
government agencies
- Openness and
transparency of
information at
government agencies
- Citizen participation in
rural areas
36
- Recommendations from the Independent AntiCorruption Agency
- Improving responsibility of citizen
representatives to ensure openness of court
hearings, legal background for court decisions and
enhancing the legal environment for selection of
representatives
- Activities of public radio
and TV of Gobi-Altai
aimag
- Implementation of
Governor’s action plan to
improve citizen
participation
Source: OSF Annual Report, 2005-2009
The overall scope of activities of NGOs working in monitoring is expanding, as verified by
the fact that 47 organized citizen groups (15 local and 32 national) were selected to run
monitoring in 2009. The monitoring projects included transparency of public services,
government responsibility, budget transparency, the environment, health, education, social
welfare, human rights and extractive industry. Most were involved in monitoring government
services, and local and central government budget expenditure. Recently, organized citizen
groups in rural areas have begun monitoring local budget transparency, the environment,
citizen participation and public procurement, and they are developing cooperation with
government agencies based on monitoring results.
Excerpt
Over a three-year period, over 90 NGOs were involved in the OSF monitoring program,
learning monitoring methodology and gaining practical experience about government
services, policy implementation and foreign aid and loans by implementing short-term
monitoring projects. NGOs monitoring implementation of policy and government decisions on
human rights, the extractive industry, social welfare and budgets joined a network, showing
positive steps towards more extended and professional operations in the future.
Source: OSF Annual Report, 2008
Organized citizen groups implemented monitoring projects and presented the results for the
concerned government agency, followed by an advocacy campaign in reaction to the
monitoring results. For instance, NGOs monitoring the budget and public services presented
their findings at meetings, displayed posters and covered notice boards with the results,
published stories, presented the findings to government officials and ran training sessions. The
Open Society Forum said that the entire of society, including government agencies, had begun
to accept monitoring results, so NGOs were playing an important role in making government
actions transparent and accountable. All outcomes and impacts of NGOs, citizens and citizen
group monitoring, their gains in professional approach, methodology and funding, clearly
show that the open Society Forum had made a valuable contribution to these organizations
and groups.
Government Resolution #93 stated that support for NGOs to monitor public procurement
ensured procurement was open and transparent, as well as including NGO representatives in
the tender selection process for public funds, which created favorable conditions for civil
society organizations to ask the government for accountability and reporting. Initiatives have
taken place such as publicizing public procurement, and tender evaluation committees
included representatives of civil society. In Umnugobi aimag, tender evaluation committees to
37
select vendors for public procurement include civil society representatives. A consumer
survey and evaluation of government agencies was carried out by NGOs as a best start-up for
effective activity and cooperation between government and civil society. Many local and
central government agencies now include in their plans some provision for cooperation with
civil society, according to the findings of the qualitative survey. CSOs, NGOs and the
government are playing the most important roles as they contribute to development of social
accountability.
B. Initiatives to ensure budget transparency
Organized citizen groups, NGOs and expert agencies formed under the initiative of budget
transparency and monitoring began with budget monitoring and analysis in 2006. They started
discussions and forums in partnership with the Civil Education Center and the Open Society
Forum (OSF), especially when local governments were revising and discussing their
upcoming year budget, bringing citizen representatives in with the government to discuss
budgetary issues in 2007. Some NGOs, such as the New Administrative Initiative, the Local
Governance Development Foundation, IRIM and the Mongolian Education Alliance ran a
campaign named Glass Wallet in cooperation with the Governors’ offices and Citizen
Representative Khurals of Baganuur and Bayanzurh Districts, holding open day events by
government agencies, publicizing budget-related information and organizing public
discussions on the budget. Publishing a hand book entitled Having A Glass Wallet to expand
the scope of the Glass Wallet campaign and raise public, government and NGO awareness of
the campaign was one of the most important activities in this area.
Example: Tripartite partnership agreement model
The administration of Bayanzurh district and the Citizen Representative Khural,
in partnership with the IRIM NGO, developed a model tripartite agreement, to
help create mechanisms for citizen participation and monitoring of the
formulation and expenditure of the budgets of government organizations in the
district, and to create conditions for effective cooperation by ensuring budget
transparency. In addition, regulations on the creation of a transparent budget were
developed jointly and attached to the model agreement. This agreement delineates
the potential cooperation of stakeholders in running a transparent budget Glass
Wallet campaign, upgrading transparent budget regulations and publicizing the
need for a transparent budget for the community.
(Source: IRIM, 2009)
Some noteworthy initiatives in this area include the New Administrative Initiative NGO,
which monitored implementation of new regulations to boost citizen participation in budgetrelated activities in the Baganuur district; IRIM developed a handbook on citizen participation
in budget discussions after developing models and testing. The Umnugobi aimag branch of
the Rural Women's Support Foundation monitored expenditure of the Governor’s Reserve
Fund and managed to get included new provisions in the regulations, such effective
expenditure of the fund and clarification of monitoring and inspection. The Women Leaders
Foundation is working with members of parliament to improve accountability and
responsibility in public procurement.
Policy research
38
To mainstream the social accountability system, support citizen and civil society participation
in policy development, is essential, along with capacity-building in policy research and
analysis. For this, the Open Society Forum started a Policy Research Grants Program in 2004.
Since then, there has been the publication of 25 research reports proposing alternative
solutions to policy research. Policy research topics have included the creation of mechanisms
to improve citizen and civil society participation at the local and central levels of government
decision-making; creation of transparency of budget and finances; and encouraging citizen
participation in local and central government budget expenditure. In 2009, new topics were
added to the line, including social accountability in the environment.
Table 8. Policy research
Year
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Policy research
- Funding election campaigns
- Media and press freedom and IT opportunities
- ICT development in rural areas
- Ways to fight white collar crime and fraud
- Central and local government - suitable balance
- To Purchase Products and Services by State Property
- To Increase Civil Participation in Decision-making: Legal and
Institutional Environment
- To Reform Public Administration and Public Units and Public and Social
Service Quality and Access
- Budget and finance centralization and independence
- Legal support for NGO participation in decision-making
- Mining sector demands and educational sector supply
- Civil participation in Citizen Representative Hurals in 2007
- Encourage civil participation in aimag and soum Citizen Representative
Hurals in policy and decisions
- Encouragement mechanisms for NGO and civil participation in
government monitoring and evaluation
- Relationship between medical institution service quality and financing
- Methods to develop legal and activity environment to support
investigative media
- Legal procedure to stop the mining sector
- Micro-economic policies to share mining sector profits
- Funding for political parties
- Judicial empowerment and independence
Strategic advocacy
Two NGOs - the Human Rights and Development Center and the Huvsgul Lake Owners carried out strategic advocacy work in 10 cases of appeal in the courts concerning the
environment in 2007, serving as a model for protection of the common public interest and
giving the NGOs considerable experience and capacity in this field. Strategic advocacy
became one of the main tools of social responsibility to encourage government and
government officials not to violate human rights. Specifically, the July 1 2008 case of public
riot could have been resolved more peacefully using these tools as against how government
agencies violated human rights, especially the right to life. NGOs such as the Coalition of
Mongolian Environmental Civil Movements, Lawyers’ Association for the Environment,
Women Lawyers’ Association, Zorig Foundation and the National Center against Violation
39
started strategic advocacy in cases concerning the violation of human rights, environmental
pollution, and breech of the public interest (OSF, 2009). These NGOs are using strategic
advocacy as a main tool in cases of human rights violation, the environment, land disputes,
privatization and licensing, and to unveil legal provisions that do not match reality.
Civic education
NGOs like the Academy of Political Education, OSF, the Human Rights and Development
Center, Mercy Corps, Democracy Education Center and Soyombo Movement direct their
activities towards development of social accountability through civic education. There are
fewer organizations operating in this area than in others.
B. Networking
Organized citizen groups are uniting in networks to strengthen efforts to mainstream social
accountability. For example, the Citizen Oversight of Budget Coalition, the Civil Council of
NGOs, the Coalition of Environmental NGOs, and the PWYPE Coalition. In addition, the
Civil Hall has been opened by the President, at the initiative of the OSF and designed to
collect input from citizens and stakeholders into laws, rules and regulations through hearings,
discussions and debates. Civil Hall held open discussions on the Budget Law, involving
citizens, civil society and government organizations, when the conceptual framework of the
law was extensively discussed. Organized citizen groups are networking and becoming more
systematic institution and these phenomena is taking place quickly. In this report, we have
provided details of two networks, the Citizens’ Oversight of Budget and PWYPE, the former
concerned with budget transparency and the latter with the environment and extractive
industry.
Civil Society Consul
The CSC of NGOs was created on February 1, 2008, by CSOs and NGOs. Its aim is to
regulate the relationship between government and CSOs. The CSC and the Mongolian
government formulated Resolution #93 to create conditions for NGO involvement in
monitoring implementation of Key Directions of Mongolia’s Socio-Economic Development.
Central and local NGOs and government agencies worked together in preparatory work to
outsource to NGOs in government services and contracts were signed at the local level, with
further elaboration in the future. DEMO has been appointed to coordinate with the CSC and
regularly update NGOs via their own website, www.demo.mn
The CSC has shown that CSOs and NGOs are making lots of effort and working hard to
achieve recognition by the government and its organizations. The CSC is setting an example
of hard work which has paid off as their recognition helps continual progression in their
mission.
Citizen Oversight of the Budget network
NGOs are not only effectively engaged in budget monitoring, but 13 NGOs are gaining
practical experience in other areas as they set up the Citizen Oversight of the Budget Coalition
in 2008. The coalition runs the network and information portal www.tusuv.mn from where
information related to budgets is publicly disseminated. Network member organizations work
on observation and analysis of budgeting and expenditure of all district governments of
Ulaanbaatar city, collecting budget-related information, monitoring, publicizing its
observation findings to the public and government officials etc.
40
Table 9. Budget analysis and watch carried out by members of the Citizen Oversight of
Budget Coalition in 2010 on local and central government budget
Venue
Monitoring areas
Capital city
Bayangol
district
Sukhbaatar
district
Songinokha
irhan
district
Bayanzurh
district
-
- Ulaanbaatar Fund, a reserve fund for the Mayor
- Income from privatization of municipal property
- Expenditure of funds allocated to political parties with seats
in the Ulaanbaatar city parliament
- Tender for roof repairs of second maternity house
- Expenses for settlement of land disputes and reclamation
(700 million MNT)
- PR and media expenses (190 million MNT)
- Central Cultural Palace (893 million MNT)
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Governor's Reserve Fund (Local Reserve Fund)
- District Development Fund
- Khoroo Support Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Waste management and removal service fund
- Funds for political parties holding seats in the Ulaanbaatar
city parliament
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Governor's Reserve Fund (Local Reserve Fund)
- District Development Fund
- Khoroo Support Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Waste management and removal service fund
- Funds for political parties holding seats in the Ulaanbaatar
city parliament
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Governor's Reserve Fund (Local Reserve Fund)
- District Development Fund
- Khoroo Support Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Waste management and removal service fund
- Funds for political parties with seats in the Ulaanbaatar city
parliament
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Governor's Reserve Fund (Local Reserve Fund)
- District Development Fund
- Khoroo Support Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Waste management and removal service fund
- Bayanzurh-One heart program 850000,0
Responsible
organizations
IRIM
Progressive
Union
Local
Government
Development
Foundation
Consumer
Foundation
Women for Social
Progress
Movement
Zorig Foundation
Education
Alliance
41
Khan-Uul
district
Baganuur
district
Dundgobi
aimag
-
- Unallocated local expenses
- Bayanzurh Development program 500000,0 MNT
- Funds for political parties with seats in the Ulaanbaatar city
parliament
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Reserve Fund of the Governor (Local Reserve Fund)
- District Development Fund
- Khoroo Support Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Waste management and removal service fund
- Funds for political parties with seats in the Ulaanbaatar city
parliament
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Governor's Reserve Fund (Local Reserve Fund)
- District Development Fund
- Khoroo Support Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Waste management and removal service fund
- Funds for political parties with in the Ulaanbaatar city
parliament
- Expenditure of 500 million MNT for MPs
- Reserve Fund of the Governor (Local Reserve Fund)
- Aimag Development Fund
- Social Welfare Fund for Senior Citizens
- Emergency Fund
- Funds for political parties with seats in the aimag parliament
Center for Human
Rights and
Development,
Zuv Tusgal
Nuurentein lch
NGO
Steps
Without
Boundaries NGO
Members of the Citizens Oversight of Budget network also undertook advocacy action to
ensure government budget transparency and citizen participation, resulting in Resolution #93.
This was also the result of initiatives and advocacy by the CSC led by DEMO; Government of
Mongolia Resolution #93 states that citizen participation is an obligation in government
actions as the best way for the Coalition to achieve its designated goals. Resolution #93
(March 12, 2008) on cooperation with NGOs, instructs aimag and Ulaanbaatar Governors to
enable civil society organizations to monitor government budget expenditure and
implementation of Key Directions of Mongolia’s Socio-Economic Development. The
Governors are required to make annual reports to the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs no
later than the end of the first quarter of the following year. The resolution also requires the
Minister of Justice and Home Affairs to present a final consolidated report to Cabinet in the
second quarter of the following year. Government of Mongolia Resolution #143 (May 14,
2009) also approves the criteria of openness of government agencies, including access to
information, transparency of human resources policy, financial transparency and procurement
transparency. All of these were positive actions, enabling NGOs to ask for social
accountability and government agencies to report on their social accountability.
-
Budget monitoring tools
Select the object or agency for monitoring; collect preliminary data and discuss with
coalition members; gather detailed information (media resources, reports, audit reports,
financial reports from all sources including citizens); request government organizations
42
and officials both verbally and in writing for more information if desired; observe budget
expenditure; analyze all data gathered and arrive at conclusions; discuss monitoring results
among members; prepare a budget information sheet and distribute; advocate (demand
responsibility or corrective action from the agency and/or officials); evaluate budget
transparency according to criteria; arrive at a final evaluation.
Source: Citizens’ Oversight of Budget network, tools for advocacy to ensure transparency
of government budget, 2010
In addition, network members provided input into bills for budget transparency to enable legal
participation of NGOs and citizens.
PWYPE Coalition
In 2006, helped by the Open Society Forum, 15 NGOs formed a new coalition called PWYPE
coalition for transparency in the extractive industry, to strengthen mechanisms of social
accountability in the mining sector. At that time the National Council of the Extractive
Industry Transparency Initiative had no citizen representation, so this new Coalition and OSF
became members of the National Council. The Coalition is currently working to support the
Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, disseminating public information, analyzing
mining sector incomes, and holding fruitful discussions among stakeholders, including
government, companies and civil society. The Coalition has also held multi-stakeholder
discussions on government transparency, stressing the Extractive Industry Transparency
Initiative. It has also developed recommendations to the government in partnership with other
stakeholders, such as the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Trade
and Industry, the National Council of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, the
National Mining Association, companies, coalitions and networks. The PWYPE Coalition
works with the US-based Revenue Watch Institute, the international PWYPE coalition and the
World Bank.
Transparency Initiative, disseminating information
Monitoring and
evaluation
Manual and
leaflet
FORUM,
CONFERENCE
AND MEETING
Study visit and share
experiences
Advocacy&
information
In 2009, Mongolian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative underwent an audit
reconciliation, and the Open Society Forum disseminating the audit reconciliation report to
the International Secretariat of Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. The coalition
worked on a preliminary civil society evaluation of the Extractive Industry Transparency
43
Initiative, which was presented to the Secretariat and the Multi-Stakeholder Working Group
of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. The coalition also held a discussion with
the civil society organization to revise preliminary reports of international validation of the
Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. It currently uses the following tools and
mechanisms to ensure transparency as part of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
 Comments on the final report of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative validation,
especially on five indicators concerning Mongolia, which were delivered to the
International Secretariat of Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
 Publication of the validation report in the media and on websites.
 A press conference on the final results of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative
validation.
 Submission of demands to the National Council and Working Group re the findings of the
validation report.
 Representation of civil society on the Working Group and the National Council of
Mongolia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
 Advertisement of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
 Learning from other countries.

Making open and transparent Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative information on
mining companies.
What they think of the present level of partnership with government and advocacy action and
evaluation of outcomes of these types of action.
The Constitution of Mongolia, the Law on the Government of Mongolia and Government
Resolutions #19, 93 and 143, as well as decrees of line ministries, all coordinating activities
related to outsourcing to civil society organizations, ensuring procurement transparency,
recruitment of government officials in a competitive selection process, allowing civil society
to monitor government policy, service quality, demands for responsibility and accountability
and approaches to government agencies and officials for transparency. Organized citizen
groups are working towards finding the best ways to work with the government, advocate on
the government policy and make decisions within the existing legal framework.
Partnership agreement
Civil Council of Environment NGOs
The interview findings show that environmental NGOs have made great progress in working
in cooperation with the government and implementing government rules, regulations and
resolutions on partnership with civil society. For instance, the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism and the Civil Council of Environment NGOs signed a cooperative agreement with a
four-year term, with performance assessment annually. This demonstrates that organized
citizen groups have gained considerable experience in building partnership agreements and
tripartite agreements with the government. The qualitative survey findings demonstrate that
environmental NGOs have made important steps towards partnership with government.
44
Excerpt
For this year, we have contracted with the Ministry to complete 34 activities, as mandated by
the contract annexes. The council currently relays NGO voices to the government, and we are
striving towards bringing the NGOs under a single arrangement. Key mechanisms under
which we work with the government include building contracts and having representation on
the Ministry policy council. We also aim to do a good job in building our own capacity. We
need to be highly capable so that we can effectively work with the government. With even
better knowledge and skills, we will be able to push the government for better action.
(In-depth interview with respondent, UB)
Six hundred NGOs concerned with the environment have joined to establish the Citizen
Council of Environment NGOs, with a 9-member governing board and 3-person secretariat.
The administrative costs of the council are funded by the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism, while planned operations are funded by various donors. In addition, the Ministry
provides office space and furniture for the secretariat. In 2010, the council plans to complete
34 activities presently under contract with the Ministry, which make good steps towards
mainstreaming social accountability. Government Resolution #143 states that government
agency actions will be evaluated by independent organizations like NGOs and the required
funding allocated to line ministries. Within the framework of this resolution, the council plans
to carry out monitoring and analysis on access to implementation of government policy and
decisions on environment such as combating illegal tree-felling, enforcement of laws
prohibiting mining in river basins and forests, implementation of water laws and other
programs.
Tools and mechanisms that the Citizen Council of Environment NGOs work with
government (Individual interview, Ulaanbaatar).
 Contracts.
 Representation on the policy council of the Ministry, ie having a delegate on the
Minister’s council and program work groups.
 Get acceptance of the proposition that civil society organizations should have a
higher capacity and the council should have higher status.
 Jointly plan action with detail programming of who will be responsible for what
 Improve human resources capacities.
 Build council abilities to work closely and effectively with the government.
 Build council knowledge and skills to push the government.
The government is more interested in working with umbrella organizations, and especially in
outsourcing to NGOs of government services. Under this policy, the Citizen Council of NGOs
and the Citizen Council of Environmental NGOs are not umbrella organizations per se, but
are being used effectively to build partnership with the government as a coalition of CSOs,
representing their interests to the national government, and promoting common goals of more
than 300 civil society organizations (CSOs) in Mongolia.
Civil Society Council
As a result of hard work by CSOs and NGOs over a number of years, producing the
framework of Government Resolution #93 of 2008, the Citizens’ Council of NGOs was
established, uniting NGOs for more effective cooperation with government. After numerous
45
meetings with high-ranking government officials, the council completed a number of
important activities. These include [1] initiate celebration of Civil Society Day; and [2]
achieving Government Resolution #93, opening the door wide for NGO cooperation with the
government. Currently the council operates at three levels: at a national level, working with
the government in agreeing cooperative agreements and developing joint action plans; at the
international level, monitoring and evaluating human rights, MDGs, women and gender
equality; and at the local level, capacity building of citizen groups, strengthening council
branches, training, advocacy and information dissemination.
Darhan Uul aimag council action plan for government cooperation in 2010.
 Get approved a cooperative agreement and ensure proper implementation.
 Celebrate Civil Society Day by Governor's decree, hold meetings and other events.
 Develop general guidelines for activities in Darhan-Uul aimag, under the framework
of resolution #64 of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor.
 Appoint representatives of civil society to tender evaluation committees and the
Livelihoods Support Council.
 Monitoring expenditures on government programs, projects and funds in partnership
with professional organizations.
 Establish an information network of local NGOs.
 Implement training and advocacy activities on human rights, gender equality, child
rights, work safety and ecology education.
 Hold an NGO Open Day.
 Promote NGOs in local media.
 Organize a participatory campaign on environmental protection.
 Encourage NGOS to report annually on their activities to the local Governor and to
parliament, and give awards to leading NGOs.
Table 10. Strength of cooperation between organized citizen groups and the government
Level
Government
NGOs
Resolutions
and
regulations
supporting
Contract
between
Civil Society Consul
National
NGOs (eg Resolutions #43, 93)
& NGOs
level
- Cooperative agreement signed
- CSC established
- Government agencies appoint staff to
- Government agencies celebrate Civil
working with civil society
Society Day
- CSC established
- Civil society network established
Hovd
- Successful monitoring of public
- Tripartite agreement on outsourcing
procurement (School Tea Break
government activities
program)
- NGOs outsourced for some government
- Tripartite partnership agreement
activities
- Tender evaluation committees given
NGO representation
- NGOs outsourced for some government
activities
- Government staff appointed to work
with NGOs
- Cooperative agreement reached
- CSC and network established with
Umnugobi
- Civil society hall established
agreement with Governor
- Appointment of NGO representation on - Local Governor’s Reserve Fund starts
tender evaluation committees
funding NGO activities
46
Darhan-Uul
- BGO survey of quality and delivery of
government services
- Tripartite agreement between
Governor’s Administration, Trade Union
and Employers’ Association
- Cooperative agreement to work with
CSC
- NGO representation on working groups
and in other activities
- Government accepts NGOs and civil
society
- Civil Hall established at the local
parliament
- Civil Society network established
- CSC develops action plan in cooperation
with the Governor’s Administration,
approved
- Tripartite partnership program
implemented
What obstacles and challenges are encountered by organized groups? Identify potential
solutions to these obstacles and challenges.
Previous surveys agree with this survey in identifying two major difficulties encountered by
civil society organizations. All respondent NGOs said that the two main pressing issues that
they face are financial stability and human resources. Presently, no NGO (except the Citizen
Council of Environmental NGOs) has a stable funding source such as long-term government
contracts for certain duties. Civil society, and specifically NGOs, are essential and decisive in
creating and mainstreaming a social accountability system. All respondents to this qualitative
survey indicated that a stable financial resource was the key problem and obstacle. Although
there have been some positive steps in working with the government through NGO networks
and councils using policy and legal backgrounds, stakeholders still find obstacles to stable
cooperation, said respondents from umbrella organizations.
Table 11. Obstacles and challenges encountered by organized groups in partnership with
government
Level
Government
NGOs
- NGO law is outdated
- No mechanisms on what level to work with
National
- NGOs cannot unite their views and how to establish cooperation
level
and activities
- Government officers in charge of civil
- No detailed regulation of
society are weak and bureaucratic interns of
openness and access to
knowledge
information, lack of information - While some ministries and agencies respond
officers (mainly attached as a
to requests for cooperation, they have no
minor task)
experience of working with NGOs
- No mechanisms to ensure long-term stable
cooperation
- NGOs require funding of
- Government officers have little knowledge
Hovd
administrative costs and feel
about social accountability
suspicious of government
- Poor legal environment for NGO
- Few NGOs working in a stable participation in government action
manner
- Government agencies do not support NGOs
- Weak and slow implementation of
Umnugobi - Some NGOs inactive
cooperation and enforcement of rules and
regulations
- Where there is a legal environment, there is
no enforcement
47
DarhanUul
- NGOs should join together and
empower
- NGOs do not report their
activities
- No initiative
- Government chooses to work only with
experienced NGOs
- Government officers fear that they will be
unemployed if they use NGOs
- Financial difficulties and lack of support
- No legal environment
- Government information is secret
- No support for NGOs
- No trust in NGOs
Government organizations say NGOs always criticize government as incapable, and viceversa. This was found to be a main problem for both parties; it seems that CSOs and the
government have had continued conflict. Some NGO respondents to this qualitative survey
said that the government is not interested in working with NGOs, but high-ranking officials
form their own 'pocket' NGOs for money laundering. On the other side, leaders of highly
capable citizen groups or NGOs say that too many NGOs have weak capacity, which inspires
the government to ignore them. Some say that the NGO-government cooperation will always
be only on paper, while some argue they have experience of working with the government,
according to survey findings. However, NGOs are improving fast, forming networks and
coalitions. However, there is a need to cover all organization network members and provide
information equally, serving as a genuine network, according to NGO respondents. For
instance, respondents claimed that implementation of the Government resolution promoting
cooperation with NGOs is weak.
2.2.3 Conclusion and recommendations
The survey findings demonstrate that the core institutions playing a key role in establishing
social accountability, demanding better government accountability and reporting, are
obviously organized citizen groups, civil society organizations and NGOs. The ultimate goal
of the social accountability is to create accountable, transparent and open governance.
Conclusion1. Today, NGOs and CSOs play pivotal and leading roles in mainstreaming civil
society in Mongolia. Mainstreaming social accountability depends on government and civil
society's understanding and acceptance of social accountability. The survey findings
demonstrate that most government officials said that social accountability is the duty of
individuals, society and business fulfilling their duties towards the government, while most
CSO respondents said it is oversight and participation of the public and NGOs in government
policy, decision-making and action.
Recommendations
General level
1. Organize widespread
accountability.
and
broad
awareness-raising
action
towards
social
Government level
2. Focus awareness-raising action on government officials, advocating understanding and
positive attitudes about social accountability, and persuade them that the government
itself needs to understand its role in establishing social accountability
CSO and NGO level
3. Inform all levels of the public about activities, projects and programs on social
accountability; increase public awareness and knowledge. It is especially important
48
that the public becomes aware of the consequences of social accountability, creating
accountable and reliable government organizations and offices, including those of
President, Parliament, courts, and media.
4. To succeed in achieving a social accountability system, CSOs and NGOs need to work
with government organizations, using all methods, mechanisms, and versions.
5. When CSOs and NGOs discuss social responsibility, they need to be clear on
starting strategies and tactics. For example, to create transparency in budgetary
processes, CSOs and NGOs should make contracts for occasional/seasonal
projects/works/jobs with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Nature,
Environment and Tourism to share responsibility, monitor the Ministry of Nature,
Environment and Tourism, procure and monitor purchases of snacks for secondary
school lunch programs and bedclothes for student dormitories with the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Science. Our research shows there are many CSOs and NGOs
that are well-recognized for work they have completed in regard to social
accountability. CSOs and NGOs need to create a procedure on how to measure the
results of work as mentioned above. They have being carrying out successful research
and action regarding social accountability, monitoring, advocacy, policy research and
strategic advocacy. They now need to act on research and action results, such as
developing their own plans, strategies and tactics as tools to finalize research work and
action.
Conclusion2. The survey shows that CSOs and NGOs play a considerable role in the social
accountability system. Many NGOs work in environment conservation, democracy, civic
education, women empowerment, gender equality, capacity building, citizen engagement,
rights and interest protection, health, education and social welfare. For NGOs, funding was
and is the key obstacle for sustainable operation. During the survey it was commonly
observed that respondents misunderstand CSOs and MGOs, understanding civil society as
only comprising NGOs.
Recommendations
Government level
1. The core for stable and effective operation of CSOs and NGOs is funding. The
government needs to include in budgets outsourcing to NGOs in delivery of some
government services as well as budgeting for action to be performed by NGOs.
2. As well as the government creating a favorable legal and policy environment for social
accountability, it also should become more socially accountable by giving citizens,
CSOs and stakeholders access to information on what the government does to ensure
the social accountability,
3. Government should have a civic counsel, networking and alliance minister. In
addition, line ministers, agencies and departments need to collaborate with NGOs
working sustainably and in different areas and expand its relationship with them.
General level
4. Researchers, NGO representatives and other stakeholders should work together to
develop an exact definition of social accountability, to clarify what social
accountability actually is (based on the mapping survey on civil society), for example
distinguishing between CSOs and NGOs.
CSO and NGO level
49
5. CSOs and NGOs should focus more on achieving sustainability and proficiency,
working more in accordance with NGO purposes, general direction, human resources,
and capacity.
6. The research results seem to indicate that one of the biggest problems for NGOs is
sustainability of human resources. Thus NGOs pay more attention to active work on
human resources and capacities.
Conclusion3. Citizen groups formed for social accountability mainly work in monitoring,
budget transparency, capacity building and networking. To make their operations more
effective, the Open Society Forum, Mercy Corps and other international organizations provide
considerable financial support.
Recommendations
Government level
1. To mainstream social accountability, NGOs and CSOs are working hard to achieve
sustainability in funding, mainly self-funding. Therefore it is recommended that there
be inclusion in national and local government budgets, funds to outsource to NGOs
and CSOs to deliver services to the public.
2. The government needs to develop policies of collaboration with NGOs for social
accountability.
International donor organizations level
3. NGOs and CSOs working for social accountability, with good impact and stable
operations, have been until now supported by national and international donors. These
donor organizations have been asked to provide, as well as financial support,
professional, methodological and technical assistance to help NGOs specialize in
social accountability in a specific sector,
CSO and NGO level
4. NGOs need to promote, advertise and explain to each other their planned actions
towards social accountability, and share how to use provided and available lessons
learned from each other’s experience.
Conclusion4. As a result of the efforts and advocacy of CSOs and NGOs, government
organizations have started to take action to enable social accountability. Such positive
outcomes and actions should be improved and established in practically all sectors.
Recommendations
Government level
1. Government organizations have started signing partnership agreements of cooperation
with NGOs and CSOs at all levels (local, provincial and municipal). NGOs and CSOs
now need to take initiatives to ensure implementation of obligations and compliance
with responsibilities, followed by demands on the government for compliance with
duties and organization of accountability actions step-by-step, sharing knowledge and
experiences with all stakeholders.
2. Survey respondents said they wanted to improve their knowledge to work more
effectively with the government. NGOs and CSOs need to build their own capacity,
identify flexible tactics and strategies, adapting to suit the context, and constantly be
on the lookout for potential cooperation with government (note the experience of
Environment and CSC).
50
3. The Government and State Great Hural (Parliament draw up plans annually with CSOs
and NGOs. This annual plan should include a list of activities, programs and projects
in social accountability. To complete successfully the year's list of work, there should
be separate lines of guidance, identifying who is going to do what (government or
CSOs and NGOs) and clearly indicating separate rules and responsibilities etc for
government, CSOs and NGOs.
CSOs and NGOs
4. Government organizations and institutions have contracted with CSOs and NGOs to
draw up and start work in the various levels - region/soum/aimag/Ulaanbaatar. To
evaluate work completion and account for responsibility, CSOs and NGOs must work
regularly, creatively and sustainably, and follow up on work completion of work and
responsibility in all the regions. The experience should then be shared with other
CSOs and NGOs, identifying what was done effectively and what went wrong etc.
5. Respondents suggested that staff of CSOs and NGOs need to be at least as
knowledgeable and informed as government staff. Thus CSOs and NGOs need
constantly to renew or change tactics, strategies and mechanisms as needed and look
for all possible or potential opportunities to work with government.
6. There is a need to develop systems of evaluation of social accountability and select a
few ministries for pilot testing.
General level (for IOs, academic organizations, and researchers)
7. Provide expert assistance to develop systems of evaluation of social accountability.
8. Study and learn from successful experience of social accountability in other countries,
looking at their opinions on social accountability, at what level, using what systems of
measurement etc, and adapt and apply suitable mechanisms for Mongolia.
Bibliography for this section
1. ANSA network. (2010). 4 pillars for the Social Accountability.
2. Citizens Oversight on Budget network. (2010). Tools for advocacy to ensure the transparency
of government budget. Ulaanbaatar.
3. Civil Council of Environment NGOs. (2009). Annual report. Ulaanbaatar.
4. Davaadulam, T. (2010). Good governance and Social Accounatbility terms. Ulaanbaatar.
5. IRIM research institute. (2009). Tripartitate partnership agreement model.
6. Law on NGOs (1996).
7. Mercy Corps. (2010). Annual report. Ulaanbaatar.
8. Open society forum. (2005-2009). Annual Report. Ulaanbaatar.
9. The World Bank, Social and Development Department. (2007). The Enabling Environment for
Social Accountability in Mongolia . Washington, D.C.
51
2.3 Access to information
2.3.1 Overview
What is accessibility to information?9
Availability and reliability of public documents and data are essential to building social
accountability. Such information is the basis for social accountability activities, and its quality
and accessibility are key determinants of success of social accountability mechanisms.
Accessibility here has two connotations: physical access to documents, and their availability
in a format that is understandable to inquirers. Because not all information is in documents,
access also involves access to people (officials) and places.
How it is measured?
1. Whether legal regulation, policy, rules and regulations enable access to information
(from government officers, organizations for documents and information) for citizens.
2. Whether there are mechanisms for complying with and enforcing these legal
documents, rules and regulations, and if so, how they work. To what extent does the
government provide conditions for citizens and civil society organizations to gain
access to government information (aside from that classified as state secret) quickly
and efficiently (free from hindrance). How open are they?
3. What are the obstacles and challenges for government to grant access to information
for citizens and civil society and to meet their information needs?
2.3.2 Research findings
 Legal environment ensuring access to information
International conventions to which Mongolia is bound and domestic legislation that fully
guarantees people’s right to seek and receive information from government and its bodies
It is guaranteed by international convention and related legislation of Mongolia that there is a
public right to seek and receive information, excepting only that which the state and its bodies
are legally bound to protect as secret (Constitution of Mongolia, 1992).10
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted by Mongolia in 1974)
Article 19 of this Covenant guarantees the right to expression, regardless of interference.
1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to
seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontier, either
orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of choice.
3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special
duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall
only be such as are provided by law and are necessary
9
Information means informative documents and facts regarding products, services and activities of government
organizations, as well as basic information about the organization, as requested and needed by citizens, citizen
groups and other stakeholders and deemed appropriate by them.
10
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 (Palais de Chaillot, December 10, 1948).
52
(a) To respect of the rights or reputations of others;
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public
health or morals.
Aside from aforementioned international treaties and domestic legislation, other Mongolian
legislation also indicates how Mongolia should comply with international treaties. These
include that “Mongolia shall fulfill in good faith its obligations under international
treaties to which it is a Party” (Constitution of Mongolia, 1992).
An international organization that named ‘Article 19’ has developed a number of important
documents, including Johannesburg Principles (1995) and Freedom of Information Rights:
International Principles of Information Freedom Bills (1999). Both have been accepted by the
UN. These documents indicate that the right to know and the right to information should have
precedence over the interests of government officials, high-ranking officers and organizations,
and restrictions for national security should only be made by legislation, with clear and
detailed provisions.
Provision 2.2.5 (Freedom to Information and Expression) of the National Human Rights
Program approved by the Parliament of Mongolia in 2003 states, “Create legal conditions for
citizens to ensure the right to seek and receive access to information, and for government
agencies to provide access to information at request of the media and citizens, to ensure
transparency of operation by state executive, legislative and judiciary agencies and officers,
eliminating restrictions set by legislation on state secrets," and this task was assigned to the
Government of Mongolia.
The right to access information for citizens of Mongolia is often restricted by numerous laws
on state secrets, agency secrets, personal confidentiality etc.
This assessment report mainly touches on the issue of state secrets, as regulated by the Law
on State Secrets and the Law on the List of State Secret Information.
A survey conducted by the Globe International NGO and by ‘Article 19’ revealed that
existing laws have the following shortcomings and drawbacks.
• The scope of secrecy is too broad;
• Duration for confidentiality of information is too long;
• Law on the List of State Secrets overrides the Law on State Secrets;
• Sanctions stated in Criminal Law imposing eight years of imprisonment for disclosing a
state secret contravene the Johannesburg Principles;
• Many laws, including the Law on National Security, the Law on Foreign Trade
Arbitration, the Law on Citizens Submitting Requests and Complaints to Government
Agencies and the Law on Geodesy and Cartography, contain provisions relating to secrecy
and confidentiality, which contravene the General Law on State Secrets.11
 Mechanisms for availability and accessibility of/to information (information
dissemination tools and their impact)
When assessing mechanisms for accessibility and availability of information, the survey team
conducted its work in two main directions: first by assessing the channels that government
11
Glob International NGO. (2006). State secret and freedom for information .
53
uses to disseminate information and the impact; second by assessing the ability of citizens and
civil society organizations to receive government information by request.

CHANNELS OF GOVERNMENT DISSEMINATING INFORMATION, THEIR EFFICIENCY
Channels that government uses to disseminate information can be classified into two main
categories:

PERMANENT
Permanent channels can be understood as those used by government or its agencies regularly
to disseminate information to citizens and to other stakeholders.
2.1.1 Official websites
The key channels by which the government disseminates information for the public and other
stakeholders are websites run by government organizations. We carried out an analysis of the
websites of some selected government agencies for availability of information, as follow.
1. Website of the Office of the President of Mongolia: http://www.president.mn/mongolian/
2. Website of the Government of Mongolia: http://www.open-government.mn/
3. Websites of four line ministries:
- Ministry of Nature and Tourism: http://www.mne.mn/mn/
- Ministry of Finance: http://www.mof.gov.mn/ , Ministry of Finance website for
budget transparency: http://www.iltod.gov.mn/, Government procurement website:
www.e-procurement.mn
-
Ministry
of
Justice
and
Home
Affairs:
http://www.jurists.mn/web1/main.aspx?code=10
- National Human Rights Commission: http://www.mn-nhrc.org/
6. Official website of the State Great Khural (Parliament): http://www.parliament.mn/
7. Governor’s office of Ulaanbaatar and its districts:
- Suhbaatar district: http://sbd.ub.gov.mn/news.php
54
- Songinohairhan district: http://shd.ub.gov.mn/
- Bayanzurh district: http://www.bzd.ub.gov.mn/
- Hovd aimag: No official website have found
- Umnugobi aimag: http://umnugobi.gov.mn/
- Darhan-Uul aimag: http://info.e-darkhan.com/
Criteria for analysis and key questions
In content analysis of websites of selected government agencies, the following criteria were
used. Key questions to measure each criterion and a scorecard for criteria were developed,
followed by identifying the availability of information in each website.
Table 12. Criteria for website content analysis
Criteria
Factor to be measured
Directions of question
Availability of information provided
by government for citizens on
products and services delivered by the
government12
Availability of information
If the information is disseminated in a
timely way, at certain intervals and
frequency.
Effectiveness of information
Number of times website is accessed
– in terms of content and coverage
Accessibility to information
- Whether the agency’s operational
direction, structure, intro and division
of duties are clearly expressed.
- Whether the website contains
information
on
legislation
coordinating agency operations.
- Whether the agency’s financial and
operational reports are displayed on
the website.
- Whether audit report is on the
website.
- Whether it is possible to get
information on agency activities.
- How frequently is the website
updated?
- Whether the duration for use of new
info is sufficient.
- What are the opinions and feedback
from users on effectiveness of
information?
- Whether the content of website
meets the requirements of citizens
and other interested stakeholders.
- How often is website is accessed?
- Whether there is an easy version of
operational and financial reports for
the citizens.
- Number of opinions, comments and
feedbacks in the website.
- Are there language options on the
website?
Outcomes of information analysis
ACCESSIBILITY of information on the websites of government agencies
The primary step, or the basis for citizen group oversight and monitoring of the operations of
government, is the availability of information. The assessment of social accountability at its
12
Information accessibility means the ability of citizens to receive, check and download information regarding
government services, service quality and distribution.
55
primary level depends on the openness and transparency of information on government
products and services.
The UNDP settled on transparency as one of the key indicators for assessing good
governance, measured by how open and transparent the information is. Openness of
information should mean that the information about structure, operations and systems of any
central and local government agency needs to be clearly available to anyone and the amount
of information need to be sufficient to allow oversight and monitoring of activities 13.
Compliance with this principle was assessed by content analysis of websites of selected
ministries and local government agencies, as follows.
In terms of openness of information, the Ministry of Nature and Tourism website scored
highest.
Using the UNDP-identified good governance criteria and other criteria for measuring
openness of information, analysis on openness of information was conducted on websites of
the following agencies. The analysis used 10 questions, and final results are shown below
(Table 13)
Table 13. Key indicators of openness of information
#
Selected websites
1
2
3
4
5
Ministry of Nature and 5
1
3
3
5
5
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Tourism
Office of the President of
Mongolia
State
Great
Khural
(Parliament of Mongolia)
National Human Rights
Commission
Governor’s Office of
Songinohairhan District
Governor’s Office of
Suhbaatar District
Ministry of Justice and
Home Affairs
Governor’s Office of
Bayanzurh District
Government of Mongolia
Umnugobi aimag
Darhan-Uul aimag
Ministry of Finance
Hovd aimag
6
5
7
5
8
5
9
0
10
5
Total
41
5
5
5
5
5
0
0
0
0
1
26
5
5
3
5
0
0
0
0
0
3
21
5
5
5
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
20
5
5
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
15
5
5
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
13
3
3
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
12
5
3
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
11
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
5
3
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
3
3
3
0
8
8
6
6
0
The highest score for each question is 5, so the maximum possible score for an agency cannot
exceed 50. If we consider the criteria are met if the agency scores 70% of the maximum, only
one (the Ministry of Nature and Tourism) out the 13 agencies qualifies providing an open
environment for information access for citizen groups and other stakeholder sufficient to their
needs. Ranked second, with over 50% of the maximum possible, was the Office of the
President of Mongolia, identified as a website that offers a partly-open environment for
13
UNDP. (2008). Public administration and democratic governance:Government serving for its
citizens. Ulaanbaatar; p14
56
information. Websites with 50% or less of the possible score are classed as websites with
insufficient openness of information.
EFFECTIVENESS of information on websites of government agencies
Indicators of openness of information are insufficient in the assessment of transparency of
information; effectiveness of information is another key criterion for assessment of
transparency of information.
Websites of rural aimag governments are insufficient in terms of the criterion of effectiveness
of information
Four issues were checked against the criteria for assessment of effectiveness of information,
such as how often the website is updated, whether the information entered on the website
allows use in terms of timing etc, with the following results.
Table 14 Key indicators of effectiveness of information
№ Selected websites
1
1 Ministry of Nature and Tourism
5
Office
of
the
President
of
Mongolia
2
5
3 Darhan-Uul aimag
5
4 Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs
5
5 State Great Khural (Parliament of Mongolia)
4
6 Governor’s Office of Suhbaatar District
4
Umnugobi
aimag
7
4
8 Government of Mongolia
5
9 National Human Rights Commission
4
10 Governor’s Office of Songinohairhan District
4
11 Ministry of Finance
4
Governor’s
Office
of
Bayanzurh
District
12
2
13 Hovd aimag
0
2
4
3,5
4
3
2,5
2,5
1
4
1
2
0
0
0
3
5
1
3
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
4
5
3
0
3
3
3
4
0
3
0
3
0
0
Total
19
12.5
12
11
10.5
10.5
9
9
8
7
7
2
0
As in the previous section, only the Ministry of Nature and Environment reached the
threshold of 70% to meet the criterion for provision of effective information on its website.
Websites providing only partly effective information (scores of over 50% of the maximum
possible) include the Office of the President of Mongolia, Darhan-uul aimag, the Ministry of
Justice and Home Affairs, the Parliament of Mongolia and the Governor’s Office of Suhbaatar
district (highlighted in grey in the table).
Currently, agencies’ websites are used not for making information open and accessible, but
only for agencies to seem to be open.
Under the E-Mongolia project, implemented by the Information and Communication
Technology Authority for 2005-2012, all government agencies created websites to
disseminate information to the public on their activities. However, the websites largely turned
out to be tools to make the agencies seem to be open and transparent, rather than tools to
make information open and accessible.
57
Excerpts
“When we approach government agencies for information, they just say that we should enter
the website. They also say, “The website contains everything.” When we check the website, it is
unclear and incomplete and we are unable to find information. Titles of reports or documents
are in the website, but rather than linked to the real document, they are always empty”
From an interview with a NGO officer
The main reason for the poor effectiveness of information availability relates to the fact that
many agencies have no designated officer in charge of their website; rather, it is just
subsidiary to the main duties of an official, a secondary assignment, resulting in failure to
update the websites regularly in a timely way.
AVAILABILITY of information on websites of government agencies
While government information should be open and usable, the amount of information
available and accessible should be sufficient to meet the various demands and needs,
including accessibility to various types of information.
None of the selected government agencies and local governments met this criterion of
availability of information
Website analysis used four key criteria, such as whether the content of information was clear,
how many language options were available and how many users were able to gain access,
with the following results (Table 15).
Table 15. Key indicators of availability of information
# Selected websites
1 Ministry of Nature and Tourism
2 Government of Mongolia
3 Office of the President of Mongolia
4 Darhan- Uul aimag
5 Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs
6 Parliament of Mongolia
7 Governor’s Office of Suhbaatar district
8 Umnugobi aimag
9 National Human Rights Commission
10 Governor’s Office of Songinohairhan district
11 Ministry of Finance
12 Governor’s Office of Bayanzurh district
13 Hovd aimag
1
4
2,5
0
0
1,5
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
Total
5
3.5
3
3
2.5
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
For availability of information, the maximum possible score was 20; the highest score earned
from all agencies was 5, showing that there is a general poor availability of information on the
selected 13 websites.
Asked about content and quality on the selected websites, of 430 citizens receiving services
from these agencies, 28% said they got the information they wanted from the websites, 16%
said that the information on the website was insufficient, while 20% of respondents said the
websites did not contain any useful information.14
14
Openness and Transparency of Government Information; Globe International NGO, 2008, Ulaanbaatar.
58
Figure 8. Website user’s assessment
The result shown above demonstrate that government agencies generally do not provide
sufficient and adequate information through their websites for citizens.
Overall conclusions of website analysis
The analysis of availability, accessibility and effectiveness of information on websites of
government agencies shows the following.
 Openness of information on websites is insufficient
Key information of organizational structure, system, allocation of duties and responsible
persons, important criteria for openness of information, were placed on the websites, but the
most important information, financial and operational reports were generally missing or
inaccessible. In addition, access to information on activities is limited. Based on these results,
openness of information on the selected websites was insufficient.
 Effectiveness of information in the websites is insufficient
The most important criterion for measurement of effectiveness of information availability is
the ability of website users to receive and use the information supplied. In other words,
information on an event should be entered on the website at least two weeks prior to the event,
before the time it is actually needed for effective use. However, website information usually
offers historical information; information about an event is often placed on the website only
one or two days prior, making it difficult or impossible to use the information effectively.
 Availability of information on the websites is insufficient
Common shortcomings on the selected websites were: that the website has no access counter;
there is no clear evidence they are used or successfully accessed; website information is
unclear and difficult to understand for citizens; there are no clear directions for users on how
to find required information; there is only one language option (except on the website of the
President); and there is no cross-flow of information and feedback.
2.1.2 Officers of government agencies
Government officials, within the scope of their work, should report on work within the
structure of government agencies both horizontally and vertically. In other words, they should
report on work to their higher administration as well as to other stakeholders and citizens, as
part of social accountability. In Mongolia, the formal legal document coordinating reportage
of government activities and government official operations is Government Resolution #143,
59
which identifies criteria for government agency transparency. Some statements in the
resolutions are as follows.
1.3. Information, other than that restricted by legislation, regarding the operations of the
agency, shall be provided to citizens free of charge and without hindrance through
systematic activities.
1.5 In developing government policy documents and draft resolutions for common
compliance, inputs from relevant government and non-government organizations,
academic institutions, experts and citizens shall be collected and reflected if deemed
necessary.
1.6. There shall be a permanently-operating hotline as a sealed box for receipt of requests,
complaints and opinions of citizens, and actions shall be taken in response to input from
citizens.
1.7. Requests and complaints shall be resolved within the legally-approved period and such
responsiveness shall be mandatory and normal.
Main outcomes of the survey
 At a glance, the legal and ethical environment for government agencies and official to
disclose information in an open and transparent way seems to be well-created; however, in
reality the availability of information is still insufficient. Citizens encounter difficulties to
access to information from government agencies.
Excerpt 1.
“When we approach a government official for information, they mistakenly believe that some outsider
wishes to inspect his/her operations, so they often refuse. That is a common occurrence. After the tripartite
agreement between government, civil society and the private sector, the situation has become much better,
and they have started giving information, if reluctantly. I would say that it is still difficult to get
information from the government formally.”
From an interview with a local NGO officer...
Research by the Globe international NGO indicated that of 330 citizens surveyed by phone,
65% had to wait for between one month and two years for their requests to a government
agency to be resolved. Of this group, 35% waited for up to one month, 21% waited for 7-12
months, 17% waited 4-6 months and 12% waited over 24 months. This clearly demonstrates
that the work of government agencies is highly bureaucratic.15

As the job description of government officials does not include a formal statement on
provision of information to citizens, officials feel they have no official responsibility
to allow access when a stakeholder requests for information. This sometimes serves as
15
Glob International NGO. (2008). Openness and transparency of government information.
Ulaanbaatar.
60
a background for an informal relationship between a government official and those
seeking information.
Excerpt 2.
“The government agency is responsible for the huge task of delivering public services to citizens. As it is
a huge and detailed job, we do not always have sufficient time to provide every single piece of
information requested. Generally, the task of providing information is not always reflected in our scope
of work.”
From an interview with a local NGO officer...
“Sometimes we use personal connections to get information from government agencies. This rural aimag
is small, and we know each other, so it is easy to find personal connections; but it's probably much
harder to get information in a large city.”
Excerpts from a participant of the consultative meeting in rural area
Outcomes of individual interviews show that many government agencies have no specificallydesignated officer in charge of information provision and dissemination; instead the job is
given to an official as a secondary task, and officials thus feel reluctant to provide public
information.
 The mind-set and habits of government officials about sharing information with the
public in an open and transparent way is often conservative and incorrect. If someone
asks for information, they take this as violation of their rights and often refuse to give
access to information.
Asked to evaluate information availability for citizens, government officials evaluated this
situation at a 3 (within a 1-5 range), showing that citizens still lack the opportunity to get
information from government officials and agencies, and relevant enabling mechanism has
not been created.
2.1.3 State Information bulletin
This bulletin is printed weekly, with 48 editions annually. It largely offers legislative
amendments, presidential decrees, new laws, parliamentary and government resolutions,
Constitutional Court decisions, Supreme Court explanations and comments on legislation. In
compliance with legislation, it also publishes income and revenue declarations of highranking government officials, information from the Independent Anti-Corruption Agency, and
National Human Rights and Freedom reports. The bulletin has a current circulation of over
4,000, distributed through four postal delivery companies. All government agencies, including
rural Offices of Governors and Citizen Representative Khurals, subscribe to the bulletin.
However, it cannot be classed as a sufficient source of all required government information
for stakeholders.
NON-PERMANENT
The term non-permanent can be understood as channels used by government or its agencies
irregularly in the dissemination of information to citizens and other stakeholders.
2.1.1 Media16
16
Though the media provide an important channel/tool for information, they were not included in the survey
scope. Therefore, only conclusions from the qualitative survey are referred to here.
61
The media are considered the main source for ensuring openness and transparency of
information for both government agencies and other stakeholders engaged in social
accountability. The media are often referred to as the fourth estate or watchdogs. However,
media as key tools for information openness and transparency, often with highest possible
effect, are not often used as channels to disseminate information to the public.
Some main outcomes of the survey
 Asked what resources and channels does your organization use to disseminate
information for the public, a minority of public officials responded 'media,' while most
said 'website.'
 Though agencies disseminate information through the media, the information is
always passed to a journalist. In addition, the media cannot cover all agencies at all
times, so the agencies do not use the media often (usually only during or before special
events or activities).
 Government agencies are more interested in disseminating only information they deem
important and useful; in other cases they have no habit or culture of extensive use of
media.
2.1.2 Printed materials (brochures, leaflets) prepared by government agencies
Asked “What resources and channels does your organization use to disseminate information
for the public?” many government officers responded 'brochure' and 'printed reports.'
However, NGOs and other interested stakeholders responded that these materials are often
unavailable and hard to find. In general, it is true that printed materials are not being often
used.
2.2 ASSESSING OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INFORMATION WHEN CITIZENS AND CIVIL SOCIETIES
REQUEST INFORMATION
To assess opportunities to get information, we conducted a mini-survey, asking about the
number and content of complaints, recommendations or requests received by a selected seven
government agencies from civil society or citizens on issues relating to social accountability
in the last two years.
Main goals of the mini-survey
1. To determine citizen and citizen group attempts to gain information from government
organizations.
2. To analyse goverment organization acknowledgement processes concerning requests,
petitions, representaions, proposals and statements17 from citizens and citizen groups
17
The following terminologies were taken from the Law on Settlement of Statements and Complaints by Citizens
to Higher Administrative Bodies and/or Officials (Article I, Provision 4, 1995).
Complaint means a petition submitted to a higher administrative body and/or official for protection of infringed
rights and legitimate interests instigated by an illegal administrative act. A complaints can comprise a statement,
declaration, application or written request.
Opinion is a suggestion from a citizen for enhancement and/or reform of a state matter to local governance
organizations and higher officials.
Notification means a request submitted by a citizen respecting implementation of human rights and freedoms as
specified in the Constitution and other legislation of Mongolia. Citizens may jointly submit the notification
Complaint means a request to restore the interest, freedom and/or right of a citizen which is protected by a law
of Mongolia and has been violated by activity and/or decision of a State Organization and/or state official. A
complaint shall be submitted to a higher authority of the organization which is claimed to have violated the
foregoing rights.
62
3. To determine experiences, methods and mechanisms of cooperation between
goverment organizations and citizens.
The survey was conducted between January 2008 and December 2009. The main goal was to
focus on acknowledgements from govenment organizations such as the Office of the President
of Mongolia, State Great Khural (Parliament of Mongolia), Government of Mongolia
National Human Rights Commission, Ministry of Nature and Tourism, Ministry of Justice and
Home Affairs, and Ministry of Finance, to requests, petitions, representaions, proposals and
statements from civil society organizations. However, it proved difficult to obtain such
information fully because some of goverment organizations were very slow to acknowledge
and there was a multitude of levels in the decision-making process. It may be that all these
processes are necessary in checking and assessing information, and the time taken to
acknowledge may be justifiable.
The result of the analysis
The analysis team twice sent to addressed goverment organizations officially stamped papers
asking for information about requests, petitions, representations, proposals and statements
from citizens and civil society organizatations during the last two years. In each attempt, we
faced slowness of response by the goverment organization mechanism; it usually took so
much time that deadlines would be missed. We needed to ask again and again for the
information. Thus it can be seen that a citizen will find it difficult to find proper information
from a goverment organization and must attempt again and again. The following chart shows
acknowledgments for petitions, representaions, proposals and statements from citizens and
civil society organizatations.
Table 16. Govermental organization acknowledgements for official papers
The following chart shows goverment organization acknowledgements of requests, petitions,
representations, proposals and statements by citizens and civil society organizations.
63
64
№
Name of goverment Request to a goverment organization
organization
1. State
Great
Khural
(Parliament of Mongolia)
2.
2
Government of Mongolia
During the 1996-2000 parliament, 28.6% of all the letters from citizens were proposals,
which fell to 11 during the next parliamentary period. It can be easily shown that most
of the letters were just requests for resolution of personal difficulties, not relating
directly to policy.
Though numbers overlap, requests, proposals and demands receuived in 2008
numbered 183; in 2009 there were 152; and in the first half of 2010 there were 56. In
the years of Parliamentary and Presidential elections the number increased but mostly
were not related to political issues, for which there were few.
Letters with political context were received from citizens and citizen groups, with more
addressed to the Prime Minister than to the Government. Most requested charititable
help for their organizational activity. Receipts from citizens were more personal, related to
matters such as salaries, pensions, grants and requests for residences. During elections the letters
Acknowledgements
organization
3
3
National Human Rights
Commission
4.
4
Ministry of Finance
goverment
No information received.
The resolution rate for letters addressed to the
Goverment in 1992-2004 was comparatively high.
However, on resolution of citizen requests, it was
observed that the most applications were to lower
level organizations or positions, and were recorded
as resolved. There were no notifications or reports
on the matters from lower level organizations and
positions.
mostly request charity, while in autmun they aks for help with school fees.
3.
from
It must be emphasized that National Human Rights Commission was the most
bussinesslike and fastest of all in acknowledging citizen and citizen group petitions,
representations, proposals and statements.
Of requests, petitions, representations, proposals and statements between January 2008
and December 2009 to the National Human Rights Commission, most were from
goverment organizations and requests for cooperation.
No information
There were few applications from civil society organizations to the Ministry of
Finance. Last year there was an application relating to the agreement concerning Oyu
Tolgoi from a protest demonstration. There were only 5 applications from civil society
organizations to the Ministry of Finance, but we need to have a proper understanding of
this. In recent years it has been observed that NGO applications have increased,
especially related to Oyu Tolgoi. Applications to the Minister of Finance are mostly
related to personal requests for charity, especially addressed to the Minister of Finance
and the State Secretary.
No information
5.
5
Ministry of Justice and
Home Affairs
6.
6
Ministry of Nature and
Tourism
Analysis of applications to the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs concern mainly
the following issues; Court Decision Implemetation process; disagreements with
Prosecution, Court of Appeal and Retrial Court decisions; Constabulary decisions and
action; re-examination of slowness of examination; petitions for reversal of decisions;
estimates of loss with Savings Union collapses; actions of advocates and notaries;
selection of lawyers; job applications, descriptions and dismissals; and seasonal issues.
There were also there are many applications for registration, terms and addresses of
organizations.
The date and timetable for receipt of citizen
proposals is advertised on the internet. The
proposals must be sent in written form or through
the internet, and by January 2010 all proposals and
petitions are to have been resolved and dealt with
the sender notified.. All issues are examined by
related agents of the Minister of Justice and Home
Affairs and the issues decided.
By the end of 2008 there were 138 applications to tghe Ministry of Nature and
Tourism; about 45% of all NGOs applied to the Minister. This number has been
increasing year by year. They mainly relate to Nature and its protection; the number of
NGOs that wish to run activities related to this is increasing, and there is an expansion
of cooperation between the Ministry and NGOs. Proposals from civil society
organizations are not just pressure, requirements and demends, but often are good
quality suggestions on how to resolve problems cooperatively.
At least 5 proposals and petitions from the
community and 2-3 proposals from NGOs are
addressed to the Ministry of Nature every month.
All these issues are decided within the legal term.
65
It is not possible, by examination of acknowledgement from goverment organizations to citizens
and citizen groups, to determine absolutely whether they matters are dealt with in a responsible
and honest way, respecting human rights and a healthy democracy. The following chart shows
expert analysis of goverment responsibility to citizens, openness of action by goverment
activities and opportunities for citizen attendence at goverment activities.Most are below
average. Public expression of goverment acceptance for citizens is negative.
Table 17. Goverment responsibilities to citizens18
Content criteria
№
1.
Criteria
Expert analysis of goverment
citizens
responsibility to
Very
good
0
Good
poor
1.7 %
Avereg
e
32.5%
47.9%
Very
poor
17.9%
0
0
7%
7.2%
33.9%
52.3%
43.5%
36.9%
17.3%
3.6%
6.8%
33.1%
29.8%
17.2%
19
2.
3.
Experts analysis of openness in goverment activity20
Expert analysis of opportunity for citizens to attend
4.
govermental activities 21
Public representation of goverment acceptance by 8%
citizens22
The summary leads to the following conclusions.
1. Plenty of time is needed. Accessing information unrelated to personal life and unrelated
to secret classifications takes a great deal of time.
2. There are various levels. To find information from a goverment organization, a formal
written application must be delivered to the organization secretary. This must be
approved by the relevant Minister and State Secretary . It is then forwarded to a civil
servant, who often receives the proposal but offerws no answer. This occurs most at the
Ministry of Nature and Tourism and the Ministry of Finance.
3. Not transferable duty. Because job duties are not transferrable in goverment
organizations, there is often nobody in charge of information exchange from the past. Ths
was ascertained from a staff member in the Ministry of Finance, who was unable to
access information from past years.
4. Not enough law implementation As in 1-2 in chart 6 items about resolution of
applications from citizens regarding government organizations and staff, they are just
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Mongolia, UNDP, ‘The project for 5th conference of countries with new
or reestablished democracies’ (2006); Indicators of Democratic Government: Evaluation and Situation of
Mongolian governance
19
Sociology research that conducted in framework of elaborating Indicators of Democratic Government 2005
20
Also there
21
Also there
22
Sociology research that conducted in framework of elaborating Indicators of Democratic Government .2005
18
66
answered by reference to policy and the law. Often this is insufficient to resolve the
specific application, with no affirmation or explanation regarding their request.
5. Deception of an environment that onlt seems to conform Between the appearance of
attending to citizen applications and the reality there is a wide gap. Time and space
apears to be allocated for citizen applications, requests and proposals. here seems to be no
difficulty in attending tothe application, and there seems to be a comfortable enviroment
for attention to proposals and decision-making; in reality it is very difficult to have
proposals and requests dealt with by staff.
2.3.3 Conclusions and recommendations
Conclusion1. Citizens and the other stakeholders obtain the guaranteed right to access to
information from all level government organizations, but still the legislations include
contradictory provisions i.e. Law on State Secret and Law on List of State Secret impacting
negatively on the citizens’ rights to information.
Recommendation:
Government organizations:
1. Analyze all legislations related to access to and dissemination of information in order to
improve the integration of legislation and amend the contradictory provisions.
2. Revise the state secret categorized information and identify the classifications clearly by
describing the list of classified materials.
Civil society organizations:
3. Raise public awareness on legal provisions related to citizens and civil society to submit
demand and requests to government organizations and run training and advocacy.
4. Conduct analyses on the contradictory legislations regarding the accessibility to
information, which contradict each other and take a follow up advocacy action.
International organizations:
5. Support the government and civil society for amendment to legislation, work with them
and run an independent and third party advocacy.
Conclusion 2. Though the formal websites are the main tools for government to disseminate
information to citizens and other stakeholders, but the content, availability of information and
effectiveness is still very weak no meeting the demand for information. The tools and the
effectiveness of these information tools are summarized below.
67
Table 18. Advantages and weaknesses of access to information from the government,
conclusions and recommendations
Information
dissemination
channels
Advantages
- Most organizations already
Organization’s
had a website under the
website
government run E-Mongolia
program
- The websites provide primary
information
about
the
organizations
An
attitude
towards
Officers
providing information
to
citizens with push from the
civil society was observed
Media
Print materials
Weaknesses
Conclusions and
recommendations
- The websites were
opened for just to have a
symbolic website
- No designated person
to run the website and
lack of funds
Include the website
administration duties
in the Scope of Work
of officers
- No designated person
to
provided
the
necessary information
when needed
- Impossible to directly
approach the officer for
information
Lack of designated
budget for information
dissemination causes the
government
organizations stay idle
with no initiative.
Have
separate
regulation
on
provision
of
information
to
citizens and civil
society with separate
rules and procedure
Reflect the required
funds in the budget
Prints out the organization’s Lack of funding results
intro and other info and in limited numbers and
distributes to citizens during shortage of distribution
the Open Day events
Reflect the required
finding in the budgets
of
government
organizations
With the initiative of media
and journalists, there is a
growing dissemination of
information to the public about
the government organizations
and their actions.
Conclusion 3. To conclude the entire process of disseminating/receiving information from the
government organization, it is been found to be time consuming, with many steps, weak
linkage in-between the government officers and organizations and the legal; provisions
regulating this procedure is not enforced well.
Government organizations:
1. Make structural change to minimizing the required steps of disseminating/receiving
information and clarify the procedure for access to information for the citizens.
2. Include the information dissemination as the duty of the government office in a well
termed way in their Scope of Work, develop the standards for transparency of
information and have a responsibility system of government officers for not ensuring the
transparency.
Civil society organizations:
3. Develop criteria to assess the accessibility to and availability of information and run
follow up analyses on a permanent basis as well as conduct advocacy work towards
68
improving the accessibility to and availability of information of government
organizations.
4. Raise public awareness on accessing to information from the government organizations,
procedures of accessing to information and whom to approach for the information.
International organizations:
5. As a third party organization or a bridge connecting two sides, international organizations
need to take some concrete actions towards the government and the civil society i.e.
technical and methodological assistance to NGOs and proposing recommendations and
advice to government organizations.
69
2.4 Social and cultural appropriateness
2.4.1 Overview
What is social and cultural appropriateness?
The parameters for social accountability are largely determined by the existing political context
and culture. The feasibility and likelihood of success of social accountability initiatives are
highly dependent upon whether the political regime is democratic, if a multi-party system is in
place, if basic political and civil rights are guaranteed and whether there is a culture of political
transparency and probity. The existence of these underlying factors, and the potential risks that
their absence may pose, must be taken into account when planning social accountability
initiatives. Legal, institutional and socio-cultural factors will also have an important influence on
the success of social accountability activities. The matrix of main factors affecting the maturity
of any Social Accountability mechanism should be considering as follows.
70
Matrix of main factors that affect the maturity of a Social Accountability mechanism
А. Maturity of civil society
Citizens groups, founded
by government
Citizens movements
Traditional
life
style:
Households were living in
a group in one land
B. Political culture
Democratic experience
Bureaucrat
culture
state
and
bureaucrat
Citizens’ support for civil
society
C. Economical situation
Centralization in both political
and economical environment
CULTUTE AND MENTALITY
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Organized and independent
citizens group
High rate of poverty
71
2.4.2 Research findings
A. Civil society development and formation
Traditional lifestyle of Mongolians, in which households were in groups in a particular area,
could affect the building of the initial stages of an informal civil society
Development of Mongolia’s civil society can obviously be sourced from the khot ail (group of
families living in closer neighborhood) community, an integral part of the Mongolian traditional
nomadic civilization and lifestyle. The lifestyle and culture of Mongolians is not settled23, but
nomadic, with families living in groups in close neighborhood, sharing a collective practice of
labor in everyday life, celebrating holidays and overcoming natural disasters. This has served as
the foundation for Mongolians initially to join into informal groups. From this tradition, Mongols
have learned and created the following.
1. A culture of resolving problems by joining into groups when faced with a difficult
situation that may be impossible to overcome individually.
2. It has generated a way of labor management and social responsibility among the
members of the small group.
3. Mongolian traditional lifestyle of a group in the khot ail could have helped build a
positive attitude to acceptance of citizens as a group for other citizens and local
government. After some period of time, it becomes an official administrative unit, which
we now call now kheseg.
The Citizen Revolution in the 1900s was the first informal citizen movement in Mongolia
After the long years of Manchu occupation, the first civil movements were formed in the 1900s,
rejecting the occupation and demanding independence in small groups. Mongolia was formally
accepted as an entity by its neighbors in 1924. The group system that dates back to the khot ail
tradition serves as a background to formation of civil movements, wherein citizens joined
together and developed well-managed and structured citizen movements.
Citizen groups, founded by the government, were the foundation of an independent civil society
in Mongolia
The first formal civil society organizations were established during the socialist period, when
socially active groups generally comprised youth, students and women. However they were
formed with a top-down approach, not by any citizen initiative but by the government as part of
its policy. In goals and objectives, funding and activity, they were just a part of the government,
supporting its policy. The ultimate goal of these organizations was to support the government
and persuade people into compliance; in short they were like government supporter clubs.
Organized and independent citizen groups and the democratic revolution in the 1990s
In a number of countries, the formation of civil society has been closely linked to the collapse of
communism. This occurred in Mongolia in 1990, when a legal and operational environment for
civil
society
was
created.
Mongolia’s
new
constitution,
ratified
in
23
From the Statistical Yearbook of Mongolia in 2009, 38, 4% of total population living in a rural areas and main
economical resource of that population is from the livestock husbandry.
72
1992, declared and guaranteed freedoms stated in international covenants on civil and political
rights and laid the foundations for civil society.
The phases of civil society efforts during regime change are here given chronologically.
- In 1989, movements opposing the totalitarian system were established. The Democratic
Union, New Progressive Union and Students’ Union joined with a single goal, and
implemented strategies for development of a civil society. Initially, the movements
demanded the introduction of democratic views, but it was necessary these movements to
deal with the situation of the time. If they had directly opposed the old system, this could
have led to military intervention.
- In March 1990, with a public demonstration of over 90,000, the ruling Political Bureau
resigned and a multi-party system was instituted. The old institutions dropped certain norms
and characteristics and the old political system weakened with accelerated changes from an
openly autocratic system to a democratic one, creating a civil society. The change from the
old system to the new one seemed to be in unity, but key players in this civil society started
to differentiate. Movements and unions started to exert their own political will for various
goals and concepts; they separated into social democrats, liberal democrats etc. It is
noteworthy that the Democratic Union remained an NGO.
- The 1992 Constitution declared development of a civil society (not establishment) as a
mission, and the civil society was legalized. This enabled the formation of a different
political culture and democratic institutions, and the limits on state power enabled the
establishment of many civil society organizations. Today, there are over 7300 NGOs, 25
political parties and thousands of business organizations, demonstrating the development of
civil society.24
B. Political culture
Democratic experience
In Mongolia, we do not have political roots supporting mechanisms or principles of social
accountability
Though Mongolia’s history of statehood dates back 2,20025 years, but democratic governance,
with citizen participation and a free market economy, dates back only 20 years. After the
kingdom was replaced by communist governance early last century, Mongolia remained under
single-party rule for 70 years, with a centrally-planned economy and a totalitarian system.
Freedom House research claims that Mongolia had been classified as 'not free' with a score of
4.00 up to the mid 1990s; 'partly free' with a score of 2.5 between 1991 and 2002; and 'free' with
a score of 2.00 since 200326. This indicates that Mongolian regimes had never (except in the last
24
How Mongolian civil society has developed, including their present success and difficulties, is described in detail
in the 2nd section of ‘organized and capable citizen groups.’
25
University, Shikhii hutag (2009). Mongolian state law, historical tradition and current situation. Ulaanbaatar:
Soyombo printing.
26
Freedom house. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.freedomhouse.org.
73
20 years) respected citizen civil and political rights. The current political culture in Mongolia
clearly demonstrates that the well-rooted culture in Mongolian politics is a bureaucrat system.
Bureaucratic state and bureaucratic culture
From the ancient times, the state was the top priority and worship totem for Mongolians. Citizens
worshiped the state as a god and even called government officers 'statesmen.'
Such an attitude to the state was even expressed in proverbs like “Someone against the king,
loses his head as someone against the dog loses his sleeve,” “The state has an iron face to show
its people,” and “May the state emblem bless you.” Because of such a mentality towards the
power of the state, understandings of the term 'public agency' differs from that elsewhere. The
understanding of ‘public organization’ is more like a state administrative organization in
Mongolian, showing power over the normal citizen perspective. This tradition of respect for the
state and the 'statesman' has an influence on both sides of state-citizen affairs, citizen
participation and NGO operations. Thus, depending on specific peculiarities of Mongolian
society, there is a tendency to disregard civil society, discourage active forms of citizen
participation, depend consistently on the government and demand the state to supply everything
needed. This tendency is still strong and well-rooted in Mongolian society27.
Such a mindset and tendency persists among government officials and citizens, permitting a
heavy government bureaucracy, exerting a negative impact on mainstreaming social
accountability and delaying partnership with government in access to information and in
monitoring and oversight of government actions.
Citizen support for civil society
Mongolia was under the control of the Manchu Dynasty for over 200 years, up to the early 20 th
century, which subservience has left traces in the mindset and approach to the Mongolian state.
During the Manchu occupation, Mongolia had no king; its government, capital city and all power
were under the Manchu ruler; Mongolia had nothing but a local governance system. Since then,
citizens had retained a fear of government officials, tending to flatter and bribe them, a negative
mindset which is a basis for today's extensive corruption.
The 70-year communist system also impacted on the general mentality about the state. All affairs
were regulated by the ruling party, with strict control, and hundreds of people were sent into
exile for opposing the party and the state. Such a strict regime deepened the extent Mongolian
mindset, specifically in fear of the state. Throughout history, citizens have had no opportunity to
monitor government action or demand responsibility and accountability until the citizen
democratic revolution took place. D. Ganhuyag, in his Mentality of Mongolians, said28:
Mongols have a tendency to seek charismatic leaders and then perceive the individual
representing the state as the state itself. This brings about the belief that that individual is
more powerful and capable than anyone else. Therefore it is a common ambition to
become a chairman, not to be satisfied with being an ordinary person. But the
27
IRIM. (2010). Handbook for 'Glass wallet' program designed for government officers. Ulaanbaatar.
28
Gankhuyag, D. (n.d.). Mentality of Mongolians. Ulaanbaatar.
74
Mongolians are sure that their fate is decided by the state, not by themselves, and seldom
accept that government policy may be nonsense. Instead they prefer to follow, dependent
on a person of higher position. For a Mongolian, the state is the sole truth and heavenly
thing, so their own attitude is to accept governance by the state, with no opposition.
The many years of accepting that 'the state exists for the king,' a mentality of flattery during the
Manchu occupation and the communist total command of everything, damaged any chance of
Mongolians seeing themselves as self-dependent and self-controlling29. We have had a
democratic system, with respect for the human rights, guaranteed citizen participation and
government accountability, for no more than 20 years, so the mentality created in 2,000 years has
not been significantly changed at either citizen or government level. This produces considerable
delays and obstacles to mainstreaming social accountability.
2.4.3 Conclusions and recommendations
The main social and economic factors, the fundamental basis for social accountability, are
consolidated in the following matrix. Experience of countries moving from restricted civil
participation to democracy demonstrates the need for a considerable amount of investment and
resources to change the public mentality and mindset. There is only a weak government
emphasis on Mongolian civic democracy education, which has sometimes been delegated to civil
society, bringing about only a very slow change - or no change at all - in the public mindset
towards participation in decision-making and governance procedure.
Conclusion1. Two main factors are keys in a social accountability environment as a result of
Mongolian culture and mindsets: [1] a small group system, based on herder families living in a
neighborhood was fundament to citizen group initiatives; and [2] a lifestyle closely tied to the
environment and nature has brought about a traditional attitude towards environmental
conservation, key to improvement of a cooperative and participatory capacity specifically
towards issues of the environment and nature.30 However, few citizens take an active role in
response to breaches of basic human rights or in defense of political and economic rights; seldom
is a consolidated effort to be observed.
Recommendation
Civil society organizations:
1. In order to conduct social accountability-related activity, CSOs need to involve citizen
participation, by teaching the value of democratic principles, human rights and civil
education. There should also be advocacy of a strategic plan to strengthen citizen groups
for social accountability.
29
Sosormaa, C. (2008). From state administrative policy to PUBLIC administrative policy. Ulaanbaatar:
Bit press LLC.
30
At present, environment and nature conservation is the sole sector in which civil society initiatives have been
accepted, resulting in effective cooperation with government organizations responsible for handling environmentrelated issues.
75
2. Plan advocacy aimed at the government for the establishment and implementation of a
staged civil education system and policies for improved public knowledge and
background.
3. Civil society organizations in environment conservation are more able to conduct
activities based on citizen experience and practice in environment conservation.
4. The prerequisite for any activity towards civil participation in social accountability is
raising public awareness on the importance of the activity.
Government organizations
5. Government organizations which are to meet citizen demands and needs for services
should work with civil society (organized forms of citizen groups), provide them with
information and sustain such partnership in all sectors (environment, budget and
financing, human rights) in a favorable environment. This would contribute towards
animating the inactive attitudes of citizens.
6. Develop a democracy education curriculum and standards for all levels in the education
system; conduct policy environment analysis for effective implementation (if there is an
extant policy and program, make an impact assessment).
7. Run well-planned activities to raise public awareness, including civil education on
democracy and human rights, building practical capacities to suit the specifics of citizen
knowledge and education level.
International organizations
8. Conduct research into relevant practical activities and methods, based on international
best practice and success, and provide technical and methodological support to both
government and civil society.
Conclusion2. A lack of experience and practice in achieving participation of citizens and civil
society in government decision-making retards both government staff and citizen acceptance of
citizen oversight of government action, negatively affecting supportive attitudes.
Recommendation
Civil society organizations:
1. Civil society organizations should disseminate information on past projects, activities and
successes to all citizen stakeholders, along with changes in circumstance or decisions as a
result, so showing that what a civil society organization does can turn dreams into reality.
2. For the civil society to be fully accepted by government, and for long-term advocacy,
they need to build internal capacity (human resources and advocacy) and learn advocacy
skills affecting government organizations and other stakeholders. They also need to build
internal capacity using past experience.
3. There is a steady demand for a long-term development policy in the fields in which these
organizations work, with sustainability. A single one-off activity or project does not
really demonstrate effective outcomes for either government organizations or citizens,
and consequently neither government nor citizens will be ready to accept civil society
and its importance.
Government organizations
76
4. It is necessary to pursue a specific policy towards changing the traditional mentality of
government officials by studying international best practices in government service, its
essence and procedures, followed by adaptation of such practices in Mongolia.
5. Public sector innovation must be deepened in many ways.
a. One criterion for selection of public officials ought to be that they have completed
relevant training, such as in ethics of public officials (transparency and
accountability) and the principle of accessible service delivery in public
organizations.
b. All levels of government organizations need to engage in and build partnerships
with citizen groups and civil society organizations.
c. Any assessment of government agency quality of service delivery, processes and
transparency should be carried out by independent civil society organizations or
similar, rather than assessed by the government agency itself.
International organizations
6. It is recommended that international organizations work with both civil society and
government organizations under a long-term policy, providing technical and financial
assistance that yields better results. Civil society organizations receive core technical and
financial assistance from international organizations, according to many surveys. With this in
mind, any project implemented in social accountability is fully dependent on the policy of the
funding international organizations. If donor funding ceases, projects also cease, often with
no tangible outcomes. This should impel the need for long-term policies enabling civil
societies to concentrate on a single sector, with better results.
Conclusion3. A highly-centralized governance structure causes higher levels of poverty, with
negative impacts on citizen participation in social accountability.
Recommendation
Civil society organizations:
 There is no civil society organization which is engaged in decentralization, policy
research and analysis. As the budgetary law is under revision, civil society organizations
looking at budget monitoring have joined as a network, setting a good example of
effective action and initiative.
Government organizations
1 There is a need for step-by-step, effective action for decentralization, requiring
participation from citizens and civil society organizations.
2 Practices of other countries should be studied, and simple tools that fit the Mongolian
context should be adopted.
International organizations
3 As international organizations could take a more neutral position between civil society
and government organizations, they also have the potential to be active partners and
supporters for a decentralization policy.
77
4 International organizations should provide effective support to policy implementers of
decentralization, NGOs and independent consulting teams by research into international
best practice and experience in policy formulation and decision-making, support efforts
to develop Mongolia-specific versions, and concentrate on advocacy work with
involvement from all stakeholders.
Bibliography for this section
1. Freedom house. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.freedomhouse.org.
2. Gankhuyag, D. (n.d.). Mentality of Mongolians. Ulaanbaatar.
3. RIM research institute. (2010). Handbook for 'Glass wallet' program designed for government
officers. Ulaanbaatar.
4. National statistical office of Mongolia. (2009). Mongolian statistical yearbook. Ulaanbaatar.
5. Sosormaa, C. (2008). From state administrative policy to PUBLIC administrative policy.
Ulaanbaatar: Bit press LLC.
6. UNDP. (2008). Public administration and democratic governance:Government serving for its
citizens. Ulaanbaatar.
7. World Bank. (2007). The enabling environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia .
Washington DC.
8. University, Shikhii hutag (2009). Mongolian state law, historical tradition and current situation.
Ulaanbaatar: Soyombo printing.
CHAPTER III.
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: MAPPING CITIZEN GROUPS AND CITIZEN
INITIATIVES
Civil Society Organizations initiated activities, outcomes and achievements in promoting
social accountability
Civil societies which work in areas of budget transparency, mining and environment, access to
information and human rights protection are selected/targeted in the mapping study and below
are a few examples of their initiatives and achievements. List of 160 civil societies with active
activities in the field of social accountability and the description of their main activities are
included in the research report appendix.
1. Budget transparency
Organization name: Open Society Forum
78
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities: Offering grants to non-governmental organizations involved in budget
monitoring
Achievements: Since 2005, the organization has offered 35 grants to support budget monitoring
implementation for NGOs. As a result of these monitoring, in 2008, thirteen/13 NGOs which
were interested and involved in budget related activities of civil society formed the network
named “Citizens’ Oversight on Budget” and aimed at improving the openness and transparency
of information on budget, encouraging active engagement in budgeting process and overseeing
budget performance and spending. Furthermore, it has successfully implemented the “Glass
wallet” campaign with a goal to increase budget transparency, in cooperation with Ulaanbaatar’s
districts authorities since 2008.
Organization name: Public Administration New Initiatives and Local Governance
Development Fund
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities: Promoting civic participation in budgeting/budgetary process
Achievements: It implemented the “Glass wallet” open budget campaign financed by OSF,
while creating partnership with local authorities and a regulation on promoting civic participation
in budgeting process was issued by Citizens’ Representative Council as a result of the campaign.
Also the campaign pressured the insertion of articles dealing with mechanisms on promoting
civic engagement in budgeting process within the new Budget law of Mongolia.
Organization name: IRIM research institute
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities:
 Creating an constructive engagement between local authorities, NGOs and citizens in
regard to budget transparency
 Conducting analysis of budget policy of Ulaanbaatar city and monitoring on budget
spending by special funding of local government.
Achievements:
 Implemented the “Glass wallet” open budget campaign, while creating partnership with
local authorities and a regulation on promoting civic participation in budgeting process
was drafted by IRIM. In addition, the organization developed indicators of budget
transparency which are designed especially for civil servants, guidance on how to use
these indicators, training programs based on Glass wallet campaign’s
findings/experiences and manual for trainings. At the same time to organizing open
budget campaign, trainings and advocacy on promoting civic engagement are being
carried out. At present, these trainings involved more than 300 civil servants.
 The long-term and regular monitoring on Ulaanbaatar city’s budget policy and spending
is launched.
Organization name: Mercy Corps International NGO
Level or region of activities: Especially in 12 aimags
79
Initiated activities:
 Design local policies, increase civil society participation in decision making process,
strengthen CSOs’ capacity in building partnership between the government, private
sector and civil society and contribute to openness and transparency of public
procurement activities.
Achievements:
 As a result of advocacy work conducted to establish partnership with government
organizations, CSO’s partnership committees were created in each 9 aimags. The
partnership committee maintained equal participation of local authorities, local civil
society and private sector and organizes regularly an annual forum on evaluating the
committee’s activities.
 Monitoring on public procurement activities in 11 aimags were conducted by local
NGOs which received small grants from Mercy Corps and monitoring on “Lunch”
programs of secondary schools in xx aimags were conducted and their main findings and
recommendations were published as a book and disseminated to public.
 In the frame of “Transferring some public services to non-governmental organizations by
contract Law”, services such as some social welfare services and supplying some raw
materials to schools and kindergarten are announced publicly as a bid and currently, there
are in total xxx NGOs which work under this kind of contracts.
 It is implementing different trainings for strengthening local governmental and nongovernmental organizations as well as public sector’s capacity. By the third quarter
(from April to September) of 2010, 32 trainings of 12 types have been organized and
involved around 1100 participants from governmental, non-governmental organizations
and public sector. Trainings cover a broad range of areas such as information on public
procurement law and on budget transparency law, development, advantages, challenges
of tripartite partnership and ways to overcome them, public administration reform, NGOs
management, how to design a project, conduct a monitoring and organize an advocacy
campaign and enhance human resource capacity of NGOs etc.
2. Extractive industry and environment
Organization name: Open Society Forum, PWYPE Coalition
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities:
 PWYPE, the coalition of NGOs was established with the purpose of promoting
transparency in extractive industries, building accountability and civil society’s control in
extracting sector.
Achievements: With the help of new articles in the Minerals law of Mongolia such as 44.10
which were first initiated by the coalition, each year companies operating in mining sector and
license holders are submitting and reporting their revenue and spending within the next year’s
January to public. It contributed the building of legal framework for openness and transparency
of the extracting sector. Further, Government resolution number 80 clarified functions and roles
80
of government bodies involved in extractive industries in promoting transparency within the
sector.
Organization name: “Centre for Ecological Research” NGO
Level or region of activities: At local level /Darkhan-Uul aimag/
Initiated activities: Organize trainings and publicize advertisements on environmental
remediation at both Darkhan-Uul aimag and at northern region of Mongolia.
Achievements: Established local branch of “Mongolian Environmental Civil Council” and
‘Tanin medehyi’ Council within the Darkhan-Uul aimag’s governor office, in 2010. The civil
network covering 11 types of activities with participation of 70 NGOs from 120 at Darkhan-Uul
aimag was created. An agreement concerning collaboration between civil society and the
governor office in the sphere of public control and monitoring was signed by the parties.
Organization name: “Mongolian Environmental Civil Council”
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities: Organize trainings and publicize advertisements on environmental
remediation at both Darkhan-Uul aimag and at northern region of Mongolia.
Achievements: Partnership agreement was signed with governmental bodies in order to demand
commitment and responsibility from government and to establish cooperation.
3. Human rights protection and civic engagement/participation
Organization name: Democracy Education Center /DEMO/
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities: The Center has implemented ‘Capacity building program for NGOs’ with a
goal to strengthen and develop a sustainable NGO sector in Mongolia, and “Democracy
Education” program which is to support generation of knowledgeable, responsible and active
citizens through increasing their democracy education.
Achievements:
 Provided training and consultations to NGOs, encouraged networking among NGOs as
well as the cooperation among NGOs and government and created a data network
containing all information relevant to NGOs.
 Provided trainings such as human rights education, democracy at schools, civil
participation, civil education, youth leadership and self-management and developed
training manuals for each topic.
 Built capacity among CSOs and offered democracy education for citizens and other
stakeholders.
 Has been working as a coordinating organization for Mongolian CSC since 2008
 Influenced the legal recognition of the civil society day
 The governmental resolution number 93 was ratified and after three years of its adoption,
NGOs benefit from easier and more open access to governmental organizations.
Organization name: Academy of Political Education
81
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities: To increase democracy and civil education of citizens.
Achievements: The academy provides trainings for four different target groups:
 “New Generation Civil Maturity” training for school children
 “School of democracy” for herders
 “Democracy education” for teachers
 Local Community Partnership/ Relationship between state and citizen for citizens
4. Access to information
Organization name: Globe international NGO and Open society forum
Level or region of activities: Ulaanbaatar city
Initiated activities: Freedom of press and information
Achievements: Annual “Mongolia freedom media report” is prepared and published. Since
2005, monitoring on violations of journalists’ rights is regularly conducted. In 2009 the Globe
International revised and improved the previous “Law on right to know” which was submitted to
Parliament in 2007 for ratification, however it is still under suspension. Moreover, several
research, training and advocacy projects to strengthen capacity among journalists were
successfully implemented.
Organization name: Press Institute
Level or region of activities: At national level
Initiated activities: Media monitoring
Achievements: Short and long-term trainings for strengthening their professional capacity of
journalists and for development of electronic journalism are provided each year and annual
consumer research, in-depth study and monitoring are conducted. Also, the institute organized
trainings for public relations staff of Anti-Corruption Agency and State Professional Inspection
Agency on how to develop and expand their public relations.
82
ANNEX 1. Summary of the government correspondence for the citizens
83
№
Name of agency
Response of government
agency to our official
request
Number of complaints and
recommendations
Yes or no
From citizens
1.
Office
of
President
the
No
2.
Office of the State
Great
Khural
(Parliament)
No
3.
Office
of
Government
Yes
the
Average time to
respond
More than 30
days
Meaning of complaint and
recommendation (top three
themes)
From NGOs
In 2008, 183
In 2009, 152
Response of the government
agency to citizens and NGOs
who apply
Yes
No
The documentation related to
personal issues
First half of
2010, 56
4.
Human
Rights
Commission
of
Mongolia
Yes
One week
2008-2009, 35
5.
Ministry of Nature,
Environment
and
Tourism
Yes
Within 30 days
In 2008, 138
6.
Ministry of Judicial
and Home Affairs
Yes
One week
7.
Ministry of Finance
Yes
Within 30 days
In 2009- 195
1. Request
2. Offer to work in partnership
3. Recommendation
Yes
1. News and comment
2. Issues related to the lands
protected by government
3. Training and advocacy
1. Jurisdiction issues
2. Complaint related to subagencies
1. Issues related to the process
of contract with Oyu-Tolgoi
2. Request
84
ANNEX 2. GOVERNMENT BEST CHAMPIONS
№
1
2
Government organizations: champions
Affiliation
Social accountability initiatiaves and reached success
Ministry of Nature, Enabling environment
Environment
and - Government Resolution #93 on Cooperation with NGOs
Tourism
- Government Resolution #19 on Civil Organization To Perform
Some Government Duties Under Contract
- Government Resolution #93 (2008) on Cooperation With NGOs a cooperative agreement with the CSC, assigning line ministries
and governors of aimags and capital city to involvement with
civil society in monitoring implementation of Key Directions of
Socio-Economic Development of Mongolia and budget
expenditure.
- Government Resolution #143 (2009) on Criteria for Reporting
Transparency of Government Agencies.
- NGO comments included in draft law to protect rivers and their
environment
- Procedure of Information access through webpage renewed and
approved
Activities of NGOs under contract:
- Citizens Council for Environment performed 34 activities under
contract in 2010
Collaboration:
- 4-year contract with Citizens Council for Environment
- Contracts with Citizens Council for Environment on SocioEconomic Guidelines and programmes each year
- Ministers Council includes Head of Citizens Council for
Environment
- Selection Panel includes member of Citizens Council for
Environment
Governor`s Office Enabling environment
of
Umnugovi - Article in Representatives Meeting Resolution on provision of
Location and level
National
Contact address
Ministry of Nature,
Environment
and
Tourism
United
Nations
Street
5/2
Government
building
II
Post
Office
46
Chingeltei district
15160
Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia
Local
Governor`s Office,
Umnugovi province
85
province
3
civil society organizations
- Article in Key Directions of Socio-Economic Development and
Action Plan of Umnugovi province on collaboration with NGOs
- Tripartite Partnership committee established
Activities by NGOs under contract:
- Evaluation of citizens for public services
- Monitoring of distribution of 50,000MNT for local population
- Monitoring of health services in Province Hospital
- Monitoring of school tea break program, services of kindergarten,
toilet upkeep at Trade Center
- Monitoring of budget expenditure of Governor`s Office
- Promotion of Government Reform and Participatory Budget at
aimag level and procurement of government works and services
by local CSOs and business
- Selection panel for procuring government works, services include
representatives of NGOs
- Promotion of public services at aimag level and procurement of
government works and services by local CSOs and business
- Super priority organization established in 5 soums, based on
results of Forum of Leadership Women
Collaboration:
- Administrative Initiatives NGO
- Glass Wallet
- Councils of people with disabilities
- Bayar Bahdalaa Huvaaltsaya NGO
Governor`s Office Current situation:
Local
of Khovd province
- 53 civil society organizations registered at aimag level
- Network of civil society organizations established in 2009
- Tripartite Partnership Committee established
- Promotion of local civil society organizations to procure
public services and works and strengthening of partnership in
rural area.
- Contribution to making tender processes open and
transparent at aimag level
Activities by NGOs under contract:
- Organized open and transparent bidding for school tea break
Telephone: 23283,
99098347
Gantuya
Head
of
Dalanzadgad Soum
Governor's Office,
Umnogobi
Telephone:
99092692
Enkhtuya
Head
of
Dalanzadgad Soum
Governor's Office,
Umnogobi
Telephone:
99071188
Narandorj
Head
of
Development Policy
Department, Aimag
governor's
office,
Hovd.
Telephone:
99432442,
93017023
Altangerel
Head of Finance
86
program at Zereg and Bulgan soums
4
5
Governor`s Office Current situation:
of
Darkhan-Uul
- CSC established in 2010
province
- Tripartite Partnership Committee established
- Citizens Hall established
- Economics Forum established
- Network of Women Organizations
Collaboration:
- Social development – Women`s Movement NGO
- Superiority organization
Governor`s Office Current situation:
of
Uvurkhangai
- Tripartite Partnership Committee established
province
- Promotion of local civil society organizations to procure
public services and works and strengthening partnership in
rural area.
- Organized open and transparent bidding for school tea break
program in 2 soums,
Local
Department, Aimag
Governor's Office,
Hovd
Telephone:
99432131
Governor`s Office,
Darkhan-Uul
province
Department
Social Policy
Local
of
Togtohsuren
Aimag Governor,
Uvurhangai
Telephone:
99113454
Adiya
Head of Policy
Development Dept,
Aimag Governor's
Office, Uvurhangai
Telephone:
99389364
Myagmar
Deputy Governor,
Arvaiheer
soum,
Uvurhangai
Telephone:
93077676
6
Governor`s
Office Current situation:
Local
Enkhjargal
87
of
Dornogovi
province
-
Tripartite Partnership Committee established
Contribution to making tender processes open and
transparent at aimag level
Organized open and transparent bidding for school tea break
program in 2 soums, Dornogobi aimag.
Head
of
Development Policy
Dept,
Aimag
Governor's Office,
Dornogobi
Telephone:
990442222
Batbayar
Deputy Governor,
Sainshand
soum,
Dornogobi
Telephone:
96521111
ANNEX 3. STAKEHOLDERS MAPPING
88
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
Name
№ Organization
of Founded
year
Accessing
2004
information in Gobi
desert region
Contact information
Core
areas
Dolgormaa
Providing
Civil council of Dund-gobi
opportunity
to the aimag
access information
Phone survey
Humanity
activities
Ulaanbaatar
Phone survey
Natioanal
Phone survey
Tel:99597013
activity Collaboration
Location
Type
survey
of
Dundgobi
aimag,
Saintsagaan sum,Khuns48
1
Amidral center
1997
Batchuluun,
Tel: 91190101,
UB,
Ikh
toiruu-15,
National college -401
2
Association
education
partnership
3
for 2004
UB, 1st khoroo, Ch-U- Education
Ch15/1,
Network
of
education centers 2004,
International step
by step coalition 1998, International
debate committee,
-1998,
Civil
council
for
education -2008,
Citizen oversight
the budget -2008,
National network
for
educational
civil
society
organization
2010
89
Bat-munkh
foundation
sansar 2010
4
Bulgan aimag, Rashaant Nature
sum
environment,
health and youth
Civil council of
the environment
Civil council of Khovd aimag
the aimag
Phone survey
Civil
society UVs aimag
network of the
Uvs
aimag’s
supported
by
Mercy Corps
Phone survey
Bayan-Altai
2000
Тogtohbaatar
Tel:99434032
Bayarmaa
foundation
2001
Unurjargal,
Tel:99459812,
aimag,Ulaangom
Jargalan hospital
Best club
2004
Ganbold,
5
nature
environment
Reproductive
Uvs health education
city,
6
Bulgan aimag
Training
and Civil council of Bulgan aimag
advocacy,
the aimag
strengthen citizens
Tel: 98219918
Phone survey
Phone survey
Bulgan aimag,
7
Borjigdai mergen
2009
8
Branch council of 2000
the organization of
people
with
disability in Uvs
9 aimag
Center
for
Children’s rights
Tsetsgee,
98889303 Education
Khentii
aimag,
Undurkhaan, 3rd bag, 88
Sambuu,
To protect and Civil council of Uvs aimag
strengthen people the aimag
with disability
Tel:22582, 91457899
Phone survey
Phone survey
Network of the
anticorruption
UB, 8th khoroo,Bilig
deed surguuli- 208
- Network for
protect children’s
right -2010,
National
Phone survey
National
Phone survey
Organizational
network
for
children’s
participation 2010
10
11
Khentii aimag
Center
for 2006
Bayarbileg
, Women’s
Demo, Civicus
90
Development
Tel:96014228, UB, BG participation
district,14th
khoroo, development
Tenger-Eel LLC
Center
for 2008
ecological education
Tuyatsetseg
Nature
environment
Tel:88093879
Civil Council of
the Environment
National
Phone survey
Phone survey
Ulaanbaatar,KHU , 2nd
khoroo, Khivs company
12
Center for gender 2002
equality
Ganbaysgah,
Preventing human Экbaj
Tel:99187446,365858,U trafficking
B, 6th khoroo, Liberty’s
square, 2-1
National
Center for Human 1998
rights
and
Development
Urantsooj Tel: 325721
National
Center for protecting 2004
women’s right with
disabilities
Dulamsuren
13
14
Research, training,
documents
UB, Chingeltei -211238,
violations, helps
Liberty’s square 2\1,
capacity building
UB-211213,
of NGOs on report
writing, lobbying
To protect and Civil council of Uvs aimag
strengthen women the aimag
with disability
Tel: 95456115,
15
Uvs aimag
Center for Rural 1994
women’s
16 Empowerment
UB,
5th
khoroo, Women
Partizan’s street 48-2
empowerment
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs
National
Phone survey
Phone survey
Center for Rural 1994
women’s
Empowerment
Erdene-bileg,
To support rural Civil council of Dund-gobi
Tel:88597777 Dundgobi women’s
the aimag
aimag, Saintsagaan sum development
, Aimag’s library
Phone survey
Challenge of the 2002
Khongor
Land
movenment
Batnasan, Tel:99449359
Phone survey
17
18
and
Bayankhongor
Bayankhongor
aimag,
sum,
Nature
environment
Civil council of Bayankhongor
the aimag
91
federation
cooperation
Children’s
development center
2005
of
the
Davaanyam,
Tel: To
support
99188869, UB, 9th development
of
khoroo, Baruun bayan the ger district
uul-13-31
National
Phone survey
Civil council of 2007
the aimag
Zoljargal, Tel: 99598686
To
provide
engagement
Dundgobi
aimag,
between
local
Saintsagaan
sum
,
government and
Mandakh school,
local NGOs
Dundgobi
Phone survey
Civil council of the 2008
Bayankhongor
aimag
Oyungerel,
Tel:99449169
Bayankhongo
r Img
Phone survey
Civil Council of the 2009
Environment
Tel:70131400
Civil Council of the 2008
Environment
Batbold, Tel:99113499, Build partnership
91913498, 70131400
with government
regarding through
UB, SB district
environmental
issues
Civil council of the 2008
environment
UB, 5th khoroo, Bar- To
protect
Impex- 207
environment
by
provide
engagement
of
NGOs
19
20
Bayankhongor
Bayankhongor
ZDTG
aimag,
sum,
Engagement
partnership
local NGOs
and
of
21
22
23
24
www.irgenii.zuwlul@g
mail.com,
m.amraa2000@yahoo.co
m
Nature
environment
Coalition of the National
Mongolian NGOs
National
National
Interview
Phone survey
Phone survey
92
25
Civil council of 2010
the
NGOs
in
Khovd aimag
Narantuya,
Engagement
Tel:99434433, Khovd partnership
aimag, Jargalant sum , local NGOs
ZDTG-405
Civil well women’s 2003
committee
Bazar,
Tel:99098741,
UB,
SB
district,
Yildverchnii
Tuv
Zuvlul, 3-14
Committee
Scauts
for 2003
Narangarav,
To protect youth’s National Network Dund-gobi
Tel:99697456,
23784 rights
of
Mongolian
Dundgobi
aimag,
Women’s NGOs
Saintsagaan
sum
,
Department of children
Committee
lawyers
of 1921
26
27
Oyun, Bunjaa
and
of
To
support
women’s political
participation
in
decision making
level
Law’s advice
Tel:99452222,
99457848
28
Consumer
foundation
for
protect consumers’
29 rights
Oyuntuya, Tel:99083883
Consumer
Rights 1990
Protection
Association
in
30 Bayankhongor
Renbuu, Tel:99447340 Protects
Bayankhongor aimag, consumers’ rights
Bayankhongor sum , 1st
bag
Consumer
Rights 1990
Protection
Association in GobiAltai
Ochirbat, Tel:99489218, Protects
99035988,23799 Gobi- consumers’ rights
Altai aimag, Yesun
bulag sum, ZDTG, 3rd
place-2
31
Khovd aimag
Monfemnet:
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs
Civil
society
network of the
Uvs
aimag’s
supported
by
Mercy Corps
National
Interview
Phone survey
Phone survey
National
Phone survey
National
Phone survey
Bayankhongo
r
Civil council of Gobi-Altai
the aimag
Phone survey
Phone survey
93
DEMO
2002
32
Badamkhand,
Tel: Democracy
310560, 99290575
education for the
citizens and other
related
stakeholders
Phone survey
Interview
National
Phone survey
Development center 1993
of Mongolia
Dulamsuren,
Education
Tel:99113556 UB, SB
district, 6th khoroo
Development
of 2007
Gobi-Naran center
Dundgobi
aimag, Democratic
Civil council of Dund-gobi
Saintsagaan
sum
, development,
the aimag
Department for child
transparency
of
the
government
and
citizens
participation
in
local government
Phone survey
Development
window
2008
Munguntsooj,
Tel:88909899,
70119020UB,
district, 1st khoroo
Development’s
Nisora foundation
2005
Altanchimeg,
Tel: Human rights
463324, 99093738, UB,
BZ district, 1st khoroo,
Tokyo’s street, 14А-502
Dulguun Kherlen
2002
Ganbat,
99568100, Training for better Civil council of Khentii aimag
Khentii
aimag, living ways and the aimag
Undurkhaan , 1st bag,
access
to
information
Phone survey
2002
Purevsuren,
99142550, UB,
Phone survey
33
34
35
Monitoring
evaluation
SB health sector
36
37
Environment
38 development
Tel: nature
BG environment
Publish what you
paid
National
and Network
in reproductive
health
for
National
Phone survey
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 2005,
Network
for reproductive
health
-2006,
Экбаж Mongolian
network-2005,
National
Phone survey
- Civil Council of
the Environment -
National
94
committee:
environment
women
district,18th khoroo, 271
and
2008,
Monfemnet:
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs
Eviin bagana
2001
Ariunbold,
Family
and
Tel:99112134, UB, BZ children’s safety
district, 13th khoroolol, living condition
40- 1-А
National
Phone survey
Food coalition
2007
Urantulkhuur,
Tel: Food security
99192139,
UB,
Chingeltei district, 4th
khoroo
National
Phone survey
39
40
Foundation
to 1999
support sub-urban
area development
Enkhsaikhan,
Tel:91181891, UB, BZ
district, 13th khoroo –
Uliastai-1011
To
protect
people’s
rights
who living a suburban areas
National
Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 2004, - Network
for reproductive
health -2003, Network to protect
children
National
Phone survey
Gender center for 1997
sustainable
development
Amgalan, Tel: 325627,
99182317, UB, SB
district, Diplomat- 9573
To
support
citizens
participation
by
conducting proper
researches
and
advocacy
and
collecting
database
National
Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 2000,
National
Phone survey
41
42
-National
federation against
children’s
overworking
2009
-Network
for
95
reproductive
health
-2006,
National council
for
preventing
crime -2003
Glob International
1999
Naranjargal,
Media and press Civil Council of
Мunkhburen,
Tuul freedom
the Environment
Tel:324627,
315326,
Conducting media
99189576,
324764
monitoring
and
Ulaanbaatar,Chingeltei
advocacy work for
district, 6th khoroo,
independence of
Diplomat- 95-70
the
press
institutions
National
Phone survey
Group development 2008
committee
Adaya, Tel:99795160
Monfemnet:
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 2009
National
Phone survey
Gunj center
2004
Undrakh, Tel:99050355, To protect young National Network
96004709, UB, BZ ladies’ rights
of
Mongolian
district, 6th khoroo 68-2
Women’s NGOs 2005,
Network
for reproductive
health
-2005,
Эkbaj-2007,
Network
for
children’
protection
National
Phone survey
Gyn galuut NGO
2003
Purevdorj,
Tel: Nature
88942172 Tuv aimag, environment
Bayandelger
sum,
Galuut bag
Tuv aimag
Phone survey
National
Phone survey
43
Gender equality
44
45
46
47 Human
rights’ 1998
Oyundelger, Taivan
Human
rights
96
education center
Tel:99235103 88118194
education
UB, KHU district, Aris
shirnii, 26-8
I-E-C center
information
for 2000
48
Khan
foundation
Altai 1994
49
Oyunchimeg,
Trainings
and Civil council of Arkhangai
Tel:99339233
workshops
for the aimag
aimag
Arkhangai
aimag, marginal groups
Tsetserleg city, ZDTG, and
business
B corpus
groups
Phone survey
Yavgaan, Tel:99080004 Nature
Ulaanbaatar, BG district, environment,
13th khoroo, 3-57
history. culture
Phone survey
Khan
Khentii 2004
association
Ganhorol,
Tel:99845563, Khentii
aimag, Undurkhaan , 1st
bag,
Khugjliin khelkhee
2006
Dolgor, Tel: 91193364, Children
UB, BZ district, 5th woman
khoroo, 15th khoroolol,
2
Khurgalag
consociation
1997
Oyungerel,
Citizens’
Tel:98219826 Selenge empowerment
aimag, Mandal sum
Civil council of Selenge
the environment
aimag
Phone survey
LEOS-Bulgan
1995
Uranchimeg,
Tel: Women’s
99338595,
Bulgan development
aimag, 2nd bag, school
№3
Civil council of Bulgan aimag
the aimag
Phone survey
50
To
promote Civil council of Khentii aimag
citizens ability to the aimag
participate
decision making
level
51
52
53
National
and Network to protect
children-2008,
Monfemnet:
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs2007, Network for
reproductive
health -2007
National
Phone survey
Phone survey
97
LEOS
1998
Togtuunbayar, Khovd
aimag, Jargalant sum
Khovd-em” LLC, 2nd
floor
Loving gift
2008
Altantsetseg,
Activities against Civil council of Khovd
Tel:99439788, Khovd corruption
the aimag
aimag, Jargalant sum,
Central library, 2nd floor
Interview
LWBP/LEOS/
1995
Tsendsuren,
Tel: Women’ political
99714173,
UB, participation
Chingeltei district, 13th
khoroolol, 68-2
National
Phone survey
Mongolian citizens 1998
alliance
Zanaa,
Tel:99031777, Women
right,
Baga toiruu, 44 UB46А human
right,
-9
gender’s equality,
civil society
National
Phone survey
54
55
56
57
Monitoring
and Civil council of Khovd aimag
project evaluation the aimag
in public service
delivery process
and
advocacy
works
National
Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 2004,
Interview
Network
to
support Romans
principle -2004,
Women’s
development
in
East
Asian
countries -1999,
World conference
for democracy 2006, Community
of
Democracy2008,
"Women
watch " east Asian
countries, 1 of
July committee98
2008,
Mongolian
1998
committee for rural
children’s
development l
Bandi,
Tel:99252584,
UB, BG district Office
of the Bayangol district211
Activities
to
decrease
children’s dropout
rate from the
school
National
Phone survey
Mongolian
elders 2005
free committee
Baasan, Tel: 99256920, To protect elders’
UB,SB district, 1st right
and
to
khoroo
support
their
participation
in
decision making
level. To claim
transparency from
the government
National
Phone survey
Mongolian
Employers’
Federation
Dashdorj, Tel:99056887 Protecting
Zavkhan aimag, Uliastai supporting
sum, Jinst bag
interests
Employers
58
59
2001
60
Mongolian
environment
development
61 association
Mongolian
association
happiness
1997
family 1994
of
62
Mongolian female 1992
lawyers’ federation
63
Zavkhan
of
Basandorj,
nature
Tel:99116539, UB, Baga environment
toiruu, MUST-2-103
Enkhtaivan’s
89-3-701
Phone survey
Civil Council of
the Environment 2008
National
Phone survey
avenue Reproductive
Millennium
health service for challenge account,
the citizens
network of the
reproductive
health
National
Phone survey
National
Phone survey
Nyamjav, Tel: 322212,
96013009, UB, SB
district, 8th khoroo,
Youth avenue 2-1
Law consulting,
Research
and
advocacy
regarding human
rights issues.
National
Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs
-2005,
99
- Network
reproductive
health -2001,
Mongolian mother 2008
environment
64 salvation foundation
National
Phone survey
Uranchimeg,
Risk management Demo-2009
Tel:99069033, UB, BZ consulting
district, 6th khoroo, 257
National
Phone survey
Mongolian women’s 1924
association
Erdenechimeg, Ariunaa
National
Phone survey
Mongolian women’s 2000
foundation
UB, 6th khoroo, Baga Social sector
toiruu, 44-4
Mongolian
Management
confederation
Risk 2008
65
66
Narantsetseg,
Tel:88621967
khoroo
for
Nature
UB,18th environment
Protecting
women’s interest
Tel:328336, 99095474
and rights
UB,
Chingeltei
district,Sambuugiin 3-11
- Network for National
international
women foundation
-2001,
Phone survey
- Network for no
boarder
grant2002,
- Network for
American women
foundation-2003,
- Network for
women
foundations
in
East Asia and
pacific countries 2004
67
68 National
center 1999
Tel:99266279
Activities
and Civil council of Darkhan-uul
Phone survey
100
against violence in
Darkhan
No boarder step
Darkhan-Uul
Darkhan sum
2004
promotion against the aimag
Interview
aimag, violence
Bauyarsaikhan,
Tel:
99724869, UB, SB
district, 8th khoroo, IT
Park- 3-320
- Food coalition
National
Phone survey
Interview
National
Phone survey
- Publish what you
paid
National
Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs
- Oversee ‘Oyutolgoi’
69
Oversight for Oyu- 2010
tolgoi
UB, Baga toiruu 44-6
Political education 1997
academy
Enkhbat, Tel:99599069, To
contribute Civil council of Dund-gobi
Dundgobi
aimag, citizens’ political the aimag
Saintsagaan sum,ZDTG education
Phone survey
Press Institute
Мunkhmandakh,
Tel:350002
70
71
1996
Environmental
Civil Council of
issues and human the Environment
rights
Supports
media Civil council of
transparency
the
Mongolian
programs
and NGOs
UB, SB district, Ikh
conducts
media
toiruu 11B, 20/347
monitoring
National
Phone survey
Interview
Publish what you 2003
paid
Batpurev, Tel:88119090
National
Phone survey
Interview
Red
cross
Zavkhan
Amarjargal,
Public
Tel:99034966 Zavkhan delivery,
aimag, Uliastai sum, welfare
Jinst bag
72
73
in 1956
74
75 Renovation
2005
Bayarkhuu,
Transparency in Coalition of the
extractive industry people
with
sector
disable
Public
service
social
sector ANSA-EAP
Zavkhan
National
Phone survey
Phone survey
101
Tel:99188187 UB, SB innovation
district
Interview
Research center in 2000
environmental
issues
Darkhan-Uul
aimag, Research, training, Civil council of Darkhan-uul
University
of and
advocacy the aimag
Agriculture 3rd floor- regarding nature
№308
and environmental
issues
Interview
RMI
2007
Undram, Tel:70111767 Transparency in
UB, SB ditrict, Amar’s extractive industry
street 2, tavan Bogd sector
plaza-104
Phone survey
Sain tus center for 2005
development
of
western region
Togtoh,
Badamhand, To serve society
Tel:99459639,
and training
50459639 Uvs aimag,
Ulaangom
city,
Tsedenbal’s street-31
Sanative foundation 2009
of the land
Ganbaatar,
Land structure and Civil council of
Tel:99980834 UB, SB land management. the
Mongolian
district, IT park 4-405
Social welfare
NGOs
National
Phone survey
Sant
foundation
maral 1994
Sumati,
99116373
Tel:350543, Conducts surveys
including sociopolitical polls
UB, SB district, 8th
khoroo,
Inter
nom
building
National
Phone survey
Shine
movement
tosgon 2006
Tsoggerel,
Hunchin Media
Tel:99459086,
98451112
Khentii
Phone survey
National
Phone survey
76
77
78
79
80
81
National
DEMO:
Civil Uvs aimag
society network of
the Uvs aimag’s ,
women’s network
82
Suvd,
Tel:96662219, Social welfare
99789556
UB,
Chingeltei,17th khoroo
Children’s
participatory
organizations
Supporting
center 2009
83 for
the
youth’s
Itgel, Tel:99459851 Uvs Information
aimag, Ulaangom city, technology
Civil council of Uvs aimag
the aimag
Step
coalition
forward 2007
Phone survey
Phone survey
102
comparative skill
10th bag, 2-64
Taliin jims NGO
2009
Enkhtur, Tel: 99194624 Nature
Sukhbaatar
aimag, environment
Tumentsogt sum,1st bag
Transparency
foundation
2004
UB, SB district
84
Transparancy
mining sector
Civil council of Bayankhongor
the environment
in - Publish what you Ulaanbaatar
paid
Phone survey
Phone survey
Interview
- Partnership in
Social
Accountability
85
Tyin-Dolin
movement
2002
Khorloo, Tel:99739379 Nature
Bayankhongor aimag, environment
Bayankhongor sum ,
Civil council of Bayankhongor
the aimag
Phone survey
Ulz river movement
2003
Otgontsetseg,
Nature
Tel:99744101 Khentii environment
aimag, Binder sum
Civil council of Bayankhongor
the aimag
Phone survey
86
87
Women for social 1998
progress
Dundgobi
aimag, Democratic
Civil council of Dund-gobi
Saintsagaan sum,ZDTG development and the aimag
education
,
citizens
participation, fair
elections:
research, advocacy
and monitoring
Phone survey
Women for social 1992
progress
R.Burmaa,
99117596,
Phone survey
88
89
90 Women
lawyers 2004
Byambajav,
Tel: Democratic
development and
education
,
citizens
participation, fair
elections:
research, advocacy
and monitoring
- Network for fair
election-2008,
National
National
Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs
To protect women Civil council of Dund-gobi
Phone survey
103
federation
Dundgobi
Women
foundation
in
leader 2001
91
Women life center
2005
Tel:99599233 Dundgobi lawyer’s right
aimag,
Saintsagaan
government building
the aimag
Bolormaa,
Gender equality
and
women’s
Tel:99099143,
11th
effective
Government building,
participation
in
1st floor, 115
decision making
level, human right
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 1996,
National
Phone survey
Adaya, Tel:99818199,
Monfemnet:
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs ,
Mongolian
women’s
foundation
National
Phone survey
To
socialize
women living a
vulnerable
situation
and
female-headed
household
92
Women’s council in 1942
aimag
Densmaa, Tel:99081272 Protecting
Dundgobi
aimag, women’s rights
Saintsagaan sum,ZDTG
Civil council of Dund-gobi
the aimag
Phone survey
Women’s
development
environment
Amaraa, Tel:99192064, To
increase
UB, BZ district, 6th citizens
khoroo, 29-29
participation the
protection
of
environment
- Civil Council of
the Environment 2008,
Phone survey
93
2002
and
94
Women’s movement 1998
for
social
development
95
Youth generation
96
2003
S.Budjav,
99592011,22150
National
Monfemnet:
National Network
of
Mongolian
Women’s NGOs 2005
Procurement and Civil council of Uvs aimag
public
service the aimag
delivery
monitoring
Phone survey
Tel: To protect youth’s Civil council of Dund-gobi
rights
the aimag
Phone survey
104
Dundgobi
aimag,
Saintsagaan
sum
,
Department for child
Zorig foundation
1998
Gerelmaa, Tel: 315444,
99163272,
UB,
Enkhtaivan’s avenue 714-210
97
To advance formation
of democratic society
and support political
reforms in Mongolia.
The
principal
objectives
of
the
foundation
include
spreading democratic
values in the society,
strengthening human
rights, freedom and
social
justice,
respecting
and
promoting pluralism
and improving the
system of transparency
and accountability of
state and government
to the public.
Networks of the
Mongolian NGOs2007, PWYPE and
earn and ear-2008,
Council
of
anticorruption2009
National
Phone survey
Social movements
№ Name
1
Ongi river movement
Founded year
Contact
information
2001
Munkhbayar
Core activity area
Location
Type of survey
Environment (mining),
Tel:99823551,
327781
Dundgobi aimag,
Saikhan
Ovoo
sum
2
‘Protecting
voters’
right’
2000
Judag,
Advocacy work for the issues
Phone survey
105
movement
3
‘Yndesnii
movement
Tel:55151067
related to the election and vote
Validation
workshop
Interview
Soyombo’
2005
UB
Human right
Phone survey
Chagnaadorj
4
Phone survey
Tel:9919971
‘Ariun suvarga’ Movement
2004
UB,
Chingeltei
district,7th khoroo Nature environment
Government Officials
№
Affiliation
Contact information
1
Cabinet secretariat office
Oyuntungalag, officer of the public affair
2
Department of finance, Local government building, Khovd aimag, Khovd aimag
Local government office
Mongolia
Interview
3
Department of finance, Head of department of finance, Umnugobi Umnugobi aimag
Local government office
aimag
Interview
Location
Type of survey
Interview
Local government building, 23243, 99091894
4
Documentary office of the Secretariat citizens petition and complain
Local government
14th Bag, Local government building,
Darkhan-uul aimag
Interview
Contact number: 23694
5
Governor of the Local Local government building, Khovd aimag, Khovd aimag
government office
Mongolia
Interview
6
Ministry of Justice
Interview
Senior specialist
Ulaanbaatar
106
and Home Affairs
7
Social policy department, Local government
Local government
aimag, Mongolia
building,
Darkhan-uul Darkhan-uul aimag
8
Social policy department, Head of Social policy department
Local government office
14th Bag, Local government building,
Darkhan-uul aimag
Interview
Interview
Contact number: 23694
9
Social policy department, Head of Social policy department
Local government office
14th Bag, Local government building,
Interview
23283, 99098347
Donor organizations
№ Name
Contact information
Core activity area
1
Adrian Ruthenberg, Country Director
Reducing poverty rate, supporting
sustainable development by conducting
policy research and professional study
in developing countries
Asian Development
Bank
aruthenberg@adb.org
Itgel Lonjid
Social Sectors Officer (Education, Health, Social Security and NGO
Relation) ilonjid@adb.org
UB- 46, Natsagdorj street, МCS plaza 2nd floor 4 2nd Floor MCS
Plaza Bldg.
4 Seoul Street, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Tel.: + 976-11-329 836 / + 976-11-323 507 / + 976-11-313 440
Mailing Address:
-- Mongolia Resident Mission
-- P.O. Box 1083
-- Central Post Office
-- Ulaanbaatar 15160
107
-- Mongolia
Fax: + 976-11-311 795
Email: adbmnrm@adb.org
Website: www.adb.org/mnrm
2
World bank
Ph: (+976-11)-312-647 ext. 207
Fax: (+976-11)-312-645
sjamba@worldbank.org
MCS plaza,5th floor,
Reducing poverty rate, supporting
sustainable
development
by
conducting policy research and
professional study in developing
countries
www.wolrdbank.org
3
AusAid
www.ausaid.gov.au
Strengthen good governance and
sustainable
development
in
developing countries
4
Canada Fund
www.acdi-cida.gc.ca
Environmental
sustainability,
human
rights-democratization,
development and good governance,
gender equality, poverty reduction.
Private sector development
5
UNDP
Barkhas, Governance Program expert
Contributing
implementation
process of MGD by supporting and
building partnership with the
government and its’ agencies
Davaadulam, Governance Program expert
Tur-Od, Governance Program Officer
Tel: 976-11-330597
Fax:976-11-330598
Orient Plaza
G. Chagdarjav Street 9
1st khoroo, Sukhbaatar District
Ulaanbaatar-14210
Mongolia
6
UNICEF
Ms.Bolor Purevdorj
Communication Officer
Protecting children’
implementing projects
rights
by
108
UNICEF Mongolia
Mobile: 976-99 11 26 52
Email: bpurevdorj@unicef.org
UNICEF Mongolia
Ulaanbaatar-46, 210646 Mongolia
Street Address: 12 United Nations Street
UN Building 2,
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Phone: 976-11-312217, 312183, 312185
Fax: 976-11-327313
E-Mail: ulaanbaatar@unicef.org
Website:www.unicef.org/mongolia
7
USAID
USAID/Mongolia
P.O. Box 1021
Ulaanbaatar-13
MONGOLIA
Phone: 976-11-312390
Fax: 976-11-310440
Implementing projects to enhance
good governance by strengthening
civil society
Swiss Agency for
Development and
Cooperation
Cooperation Office of the Embassy of Switzerland - Consular Section
Ulaanbaatar
“Tengeriin Tsag” Centre
Olympic street 12, Khoroo 1
Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Po/Box 37, Ulaanbaatar 210648, Mongolia
Reducing poverty rate, supporting
sustainable
development
by
conducting policy research and
professional study in developing
countries
Phone
+976 11 331422
Fax
+976 11 331420
Email
ulaanbaatar@sdc.net
International NGO
109
№
Name
1
Adventist Development and Relief Chris Jensen
Agency International
Country Director
/ADRA/
Contact information
webmaster@adra.org.mn
Core activity area
Implementing projects for the
marginal groups and poor livelihood
enhanced capacity.
www.adra.org.mn
info@adra.org.mn
Telephone: +976 11 315 730
Fax: +976 11 311 970
Ulaanbaatar City, Chingeltei District,
6th Khoroo Diplomatic Corpus Building #95,
Entrance #2, Office #15
PO Box 1038, Ulaanbaatar, 210613, Mongolia
2
Asia Foundation
Meloney C. Lindberg, Country Representative,
MongoliaUnited Nations Street 18
P.O. Box 1003
Ulaanbaatar-13
Mongolia
Gender equality issues, economical
growth and reform, rule of law in
Asian countries
Tel: + 976 (11) 330-524 or 323-413
Fax: + 976 (11) 311-497
Email: generalmg@asiafound.org
4
Mercy corps
Country Director - Dominic Graham
Manager for Economic Development Programs- Jeton
Starova
Director of Administration - E. Tugsbileg
24 Peace Avenue, Bayanzurkh District
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Tel:(976-11) 461145
Fax: (976-11) 461048
E-mail: postmaster@mercycorps.org.mn
110
5
Save the children
www.savethechildrenmongolia.mn
Protecting children’ rights
Tel: 976-11-329371, 329365,
Fax: 976-11-329361
6
World Vision
Mr.Warren ferdinandus, Country Representative
Tel: 976-11-345323, 345464
Fax: 976-11-345322
warren_ferdinandus@wvi.org
Implementing projects reducing
poverty, supporting livelihood of
poor families, protecting and
advocating social welfare related
issues.
7
International Republican Institute
www.iri.org/countries-and.../asia/mongolia
Advances freedom and democracy
worldwide by developing political
parties, civic institutions, open
elections, good governance and the
rule of law
8
German Development Service
(DED)
DED
P.O. Box 35
Ulaanbataar 210 648, Mongolia
E-Mail: mng@ded.de
Rural development and management
of Natural resource, economic and
employment
promotion,
Social
health, and promotion of democracy
9
Asian Research Center (ARC)
Asian Research Center
Conducting and supporting long and
short term research and policy
development on social, political and
economical issues
National University of Mongolia, 1st building, №210.
10
UNICEF
Initiative citizens
111
№
Name
Contact information
Type of survey
1
Ganhuyag
Khovd aimag, Jargalan sum, Bichigt bag
Interview
Tel: 99437841
2
Baatarkhuu
Umnugovi aimag, Dalanzadgad soum,
Interview
3
Lamjav
Tel: 99118804
Interview
Validation workshop
4
Urtnasan
Darkhan-Uul aimag, Tel:99874282
Interview
112
References/Bibliography
1. ANSA network. (2010). 4 pillars for the Social Accountability.
2. Citizens Oversight on Budget network. (2010). Tools for advocacy to ensure the
transparency of government budget. Ulaanbaatar.
3. Civil Council of Environment NGOs. (2009). Annual report. Ulaanbaatar.
4. Davaadulam, T. (2010). Good governance and Social Accounatbility terms. Ulaanbaatar.
5. IRIM research institute. (2009). Tripartitate partnership agreement model.
6. Law on NGOs (1996).
7. Mercy Corps. (2010). Annual report. Ulaanbaatar.
8. Open society forum. (2005-2009). Annual Report. Ulaanbaatar.
9. The World Bank, Social and Development Department. (2007). The Enabling
Environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia . Washington, D.C.
10. Gankhuyag, D. (n.d.). Mentality of Mongolians. Ulaanbaatar.
11. Glob International NGO. (2008). Openness and transparency of government information.
Ulaanbaatar.
12. Glob International NGO. (2006). State secret and freedom for information .
13. IRIM. (2010). Handbook for 'Glass wallet' program designed for government officers.
Ulaanbaatar.
14. IRIM. (2009). Tripartitate partnership agreement model.
15. Law on NGOs (1996).
16. Malena, C., & Janmejay, R. F. (2004). The World Bank. Participation and Civic
Engagement. “SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY. An Introduction to the Concept and
Emerging Practice” .
17. Mercy Corps. (2010). Annual report. Ulaanbaatar.
18. N Mays, E Roberto, and J Popay. (2001). Studying the organisation and Delivery of
Health Services: Research Methods. In P. A. N. Fulop, Synthesising research evidence
(pp. 188-220). London: Routledge, pp.
19. National statistical office of Mongolia. (2009). Mongolian statistical yearbook.
Ulaanbaatar.
20. National Statistical Office. (2005). Strategy document for ensuring economic growth and
reducing poverty. Ulaanbaatar.
21. NGOs, H. a. (2010, 07). Excperts from the detailed interview. (Ariuntungalag,
Interviewer)
22. Open society forum. (2005-2009). Annual Report. Ulaanbaatar.
23. Sosormaa, C. (2008). From state administrative policy to PUBLIC administrative policy.
Ulaanbaatar: Bit press LLC.
24. UNDP. (2008). Public administration and democratic governance:Government serving
for its citizens. Ulaanbaatar.
25. University, Shikhii hutag. (2009). Mongolian state law, historical tradition and current
situation. Ulaanbaatar: Soyombo printing.
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Washington DC.
27. www.8x8.bz.
(2010,
07
18).
www.8x8.bz/freetime/index.php?mcmodule=wz&wzid=677
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Laws and regulations
1. Universal Human Rights Declaration (1948)
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976)
3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976)
4. Constitution of Mongolia (1992)
5. Law on Non-Governmental Organizations (1997)
6. Law on Sessions of the State Great Khural (2007)
7. Law on the Government (1993),
8. Law on Administrative and Territorial Units and Their Management (2006)
9. Law on State Registration (2009)
10. The Law on State Audit and Inspection (2003)
11. The Law on Environment Protection (1995),
12. The Anti-Corruption Law of 2006
13. Government resolution #93, 2008
14. Government resolution #43, 2008
from