Mongolia: Civil Society & Inclusive Governance

Under this project, People in Need and Civil Engineering and Architecture Faculties of CTU in Prague are collaborating on the preparation of new education courses for the Mongolian Technical University MUST. The main focus is energy performance of buildings. Czech university educators regularly deliver lectures at Ulaanbaatar University and Mongolian educators make study trips to the Czech Republic. We also support other cooperation between students of MUST and CTU, for example in the form of consultations with the Czech educators concerning research studies.

People in Need are helping to enhance the quality of Mongolian university education in the area of livestock breeding and its relationship to farming freely roaming animals, which has so far been a fairly marginalized topic in the Mongolian expert community. Two prominent Mongolian institutions, the Mongolian Academy of Science (MAS) and Mongolian University of Agriculture (MULS) in cooperation with Czech Agricultural University (ČZU) are engaged in the project. One of the main events is a summer school in Mongolia which is attended every year between 40 to 50 students and educators. The main focus of these summer schools and related activities is primarily to understand the interaction between enclosed pasture and  management of freely grazing cattle. The participants aspire to close interconnection of the two approaches which so far have been studied only separately.   

The current social situation in Mongolia is characterised by the high level of domestic violence, human trafficking and subsequent sexual exploitation within the country and abroad. This and other pressing matters are the objectives of our programme of using documentary films during school tuition intended for students as well as the secondary and trade school teachers.  Its objective is to increase awareness of young people in human rights issues. 

The students of the schools involved in the programme attend the screening of selected documentary films and participate in subsequent activities which generally take the form of discussions. The schools are provided with a DVD, manuals and worksheets. The teachers have the opportunity to participate in trainings and workshops where they can acquire methodology for human rights tuition and increase their factual knowledge. 20 schools from Bulgan, Darchan-Uul, Orkhon and Selenge aimags participated in the programme in 2012, with the participation of 1,500 students and 50 educators.
        
In 2013, 52 educators received training in the methodology of using documentary films and facilitating methods. A special education package with documentary films and additional didactic materials was created for teachers and subsequently distributed to all 52 teachers from 23 schools in Darkhan-Uul, Selenge, Orkhon a Bulgan aimags. Screenings of documentary films concerning with human rights was in 2013 attended by approximately 8,000 students.  The first screenings in the newly established school film clubs were attended by approximately 520 students.
 
In 2014, the One World at Schools programme in Mongolia extended to Arkhangai, Uvurkhangai, Tuv, Gobi-Sumbe and Ulaanbaatar aimags. During the school year the teachers and the students between 14 to 19 from 20 different secondary and trade schools will newly participate in the activities.

On the basis of the wealth of experience with the One World organization at Czech, Lebanese, Armenian, Georgian and other foreign schools People in Need expect that introducing human rights topics into the school curriculum will in the long-term view lead to greater participation of young people in the functioning of civil society.

The of agricultural and processing industry vocational education programme was started as a reaction to the high unemployment rate in northern Mongolia which was the result of insufficient coordination of vocational programmes offered with the demand on the local labour market. For instance, schools do not offer enough courses that are directly applicable in the region (for example woodworking and forestry) and they also have only dated equipment which reduces the degree to which acquired skills are applicable in professional practice (for example, the agricultural mechanization course uses machinery dozens of years old is taught). New vocational departments spring upthat try to react to the local conditions but they lack the necessary quality. 
        
To improve the situation, People in Need supported vocational and secondary schools and provided financial and expert support directed at modernization and creation of new study departments.  These cover mainly education of forestry and woodworking, crop and animal production, agriculture mechanic and the cooking/baking trade. The objective was to change the system of education in a way it would reflect the demand of the labour market and the development as yet unused potential of the region. 
                                                                                                                    
In 2012 PIN helped to establish a new forestry department in Sukhbaataru and a department of agricultural mechanization at the vocational school Zuunkharaa in Selenge Aimag . Studies at new school departments were launched for the school year 2013 to 2014, with the first students taking their places behind their desks on 1st September 2013.

Basic healthcare in the rural areas of Mongolia is relatively readily available but the people living in remote localities do not have access to specialists doctors, modern diagnostic equipment nor to the medical care when necessary in case of acute need for help. The People in Need health programme facilitated the provision of year-round available quality healthcare for the nomad population in six provinces in western and southern Mongolia .
    
A total of six four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with modern diagnostic tools were presented to the regional hospitals in 2011 in Archangaj and Uvurchangaj aimags, in 2012 in Bayankhongor and Zavchan aimags and in 2013 in Huvsgul and Umnogobi aimags.  These mobile clinics in regular cycles do the rounds of all of the aimags, supporting the inadequately staffed and equipped rural hospitals and, when necessary, they visit the remotest of places too. Their main objective is the diagnosis and prevention. They carry equipment and materials for providing help in the acute cases.
 
Medical experts trained 125 employees of regional hospitals to man the off-road mobile clinics. In cooperation with hospitals they also put together itineraries, a monitoring plan and an equipment use manual.  Between 2011 and 2013, the mobile clinics provided healthcare to more than 31,000 persons living in remote rural areas.