Final report on the implementation of the project:
Defending Democracy and Civic Space in Mongolia

The project is aimed at raising awareness of local communities in rural provinces on their concerned
issues relevant to defending democracy and civic space through on-line and in-person capacity building
trainings and strategy workshops. The project implementation plan includes the following 5 activities:
translation of the survey results into Mongolian, dissemination it through on-line platforms, organizing
on-line and in-person training workshops, organizing plenary forum on the workshop results anddissemination their results.
Activity 1: Translation of the survey results and the report “Civic space in Mongolia”
The report was translated and uploaded to CHRD’s website, and face book account for public use. The
main results of the survey report was presented at the capacity building trainings and strategy workshops
organized by the project team in several provinces and soums.
Activity 2: Dissemination of survey results on civic space in Mongolia through on-line platforms
After the translation of the survey results and the report “Civic space in Mongolia” in July, 2022 they
were disseminated through social media platforms: such as face book accounts of CHRD, Human Rights
NGO Forum, Mongolian CSOs Network on SDG, Human Rights Defenders Network and many Rural
Women’s Network etc. Later they were also uploaded in the CHRD’s website which has become activein March of this year.
www.chrd.org.mn
https://www.facebook.com/chrdmongolia
https://www.facebook.com/groups/510220829845673
https://www.facebook.com/groups/363904464056948/?
hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=700472770400114
https://www.facebook.com/groups/250351118770115
For one-month period since uploading through online disseminations the report reached 3281, reactions
156, shared 124.
Activity 3: On-line and in-person training-workshops on civic space and strategy development for
defending democracy and civic space
CHRD organized several on-line training workshops which involved from around 10 provinces andinvolved in total 364 people. The online training was limited to presentation of the survey results anddiscussions on the challenging issues communities face in their daily life and opportunities to tackle
them. These discussions gave us an idea how to better connect the concept of civic space with theirconcerned issues on local development: low income for livelihood, lack of decent jobs, living
environment etc.
The in-person training workshops were organized in 4 rural sites:
1. The first in-person training-workshop was organized in Arvaikheer soum of Uvurkhangai
province from August 2-3, 2022.
2. The second training-workshop was in Choibalsan city of Dornod province from September
11-12, 2022.
3. Training-workshop in Bayandun soum of Dornod province from September 13-15, 2022
4. Training-workshop in Dariganga soum of Sukhbaatar province from October 17-18, 2022
The strategy workshops were designed to motivate the participants to engage local authorities ondevelopment issues during the planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation processes
through some targets of the SDG 16+ framework.
The in-person capacity building training and strategy development workshops organized in the 4 sites
resulted in definition of 7-10 issues in each of the 4 sites. The participants of the workshops think thatthrough working on those issues the communities can defend and strengthen democracy and civic spacein their areas. The issues are listed below in the table.
Suggested solutions
Arvaikheer soum of
Uvurkhangai province

Choibalsan soum of
Dornod province

Bayandun soum of
Dornod province

Dariganga soum of
Sukhbaatar province

Reduce the gaps in thepensions throughincreasing the low
pensions

Learn the laws on land
priva1za1on andownership.

Create household
service centers withlaundry, hair dressing,tailor, shoe repair etc.

Create a service centre
to meet the needs ofcitizens for personaldevelopment: books,training materials, andforeign language, IT
program trainings.

Improve theparticipation in theLocal Development
Fund decision making
process

Provide support Everyhousehold to construct avegetable storage

Create 1-2 job places
Create 1-2 contracted
for garbage point
job places for garbage
control, introduce
point control
innovation for recycling
solid wastes.

Implement anti-alcohol
policy programs inevery kheseg of thesoum.

Establish ci1zens’ control
on dissemina1on of foodvouchers to the target
groupsRepair streets and walkroads in the soumRepair streets and walkroads in the soum

Improve medical checkof health of old people

Provide basic educa1onfor health care

Introduce addresses forthe streets and houses

Involve the elderly in
local development
activities: planning,
implementation

Establish intergenerational dialogues
on social issues.

Review of 13A form foraccessing a referral
hospital/physician

Delivery of theinformation on the
Local Development
Fund to every citizen,
establish Citizen’s
Control Council

Delivery of theinformation on theLocal Development
Fund to every citizen,
establish Citizen’s
Control Council

Increase young people’s Eradicate the gaps in thepensions, increase theemployment
low pension
opportunities.

Construct a standard
Increase job places forstorage for vegetables
young people.
to ensure year aroundsupply of vegetables forsoum households

Improve access to the
support programs forplanting trees.

Undertake compulsory
alcohol treatment for
those who need it

Establish a processing
plant for meat, milk,skin, and leather

Organize awarenessraising, knowledge
sharing discussions on
issues of sustainable
development

Optimizing public careprograms

Ensure sustainability ofnewly appointed young
public servants throughproviding them housing

Establish a processing
plant for meat, milk,skin, and leather

Comprehensive solu1onsof the social problems of
the elderly
Make transparent theSoum development fundexpenditure reports

The on-line and in-person training workshops involved in total 468 representatives from CSOs, CBOs
members affiliated with the Rural Women’s Associations, which have been established and facilitatedsince 2005 by the CHRD’s program: Community based development.

Training workshop in Bayandun soum of Dormnod province, September 13-15, 2022

Training workshop in Choibalsan city of Dornod province, September 11-12, 2022
Activity 4: Organizing plenary forum on the results of the strategy workshops
Plenary forum on the workshop results have been organized as part of the 17th Annual Forum of Community
Groups Federa1ons, which took place in Arvaikheer soum of Uvurkhangai province in December 22, 2022. The
half day program of the forum was devoted to sharing and learning on the results from each of the strategy
development workshops for protec1on of civic space and democracy in each of the 4 sites as well as the surveyresults on civic space in Mongolia conducted in November 2021. In this plenary forum the participants wereinvolved from the different communities, herders, women leaders from different provinces.
The Plenary forum provided an opportunity to share and learn about the challenges of shrinking civicspace, the need for defending civic space, on results of strategy workshops held in 4 different soums ofthe three provinces. At the same time the participants from other soums and provinces shared theirstories how is democracy and civic space situation in their respective places. They contributed theiropinions in the strategy development for defending civic space and democracy in Mongolia.
The results of the civic space survey and strategy workshops have been reflected in the CSOs joint
assessment report of the SDGs, specifically the SDG 16+ targets. Representatives of the training
workshops were able to attend the National consultation on the CSOs scoring results of the SDGs heldon 30 August, 2022 and Multistakeholder scoring of the SDGs held on 4 January 2023 for the 2nd VNRof Mongolia.

National Consultation on Civic space in Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Puma Hotel, January, 2023

Activity 5: Publicize the results of the strategy workshops
With the project funding CHRD was able to rebuild its website and publicize the results of the strategy
workshops through its website: www.chrd.org.mn
Activity 6: Support for CHRD’s capacity building
With support of the project CHRD was able to reconstruct its website, improve the of>ice
equipment by purchasing a new desktop computer, and updated windows programs for its of>iceuse. The project contribution for the salary was helpful in human resource management.
Conclusion and updates on the project follow-ups

Along with the project designed activities CHRD has been active to use any engagement
opportunities with the authorities to advocate for better policies and regulations on civic space.
One of such opportunities was the occasion of Civil Society Day, 31 January 2023. On this day CHRD
initiated a press conference on the 8 demands for enabling environment of CSOs. The demands weresigned by 57 CSOs and sent out to the President, Parliament Speaker, and Prime Minister of Mongolia.
The draft laws on Legal status of Associations and Legal status of Foundations have been withdrawn by
the government from the parliament in late 2022. This year, on 17 April, the Prime minister invited forits morning tea meeting 30 human rights NGOs including CHRD. The issue of State policy on CSOs has
been raised again and the Prime minister assigned the chief of the Cabinet secretariat, the state secretaryof the Ministry of justice and home affairs and the minister of Labour and social welfare to set up aworking group to work on the state policy on CSOs. Currently the working group is set up and started
receiving comments on the revised draft State policy developed by CSOs in 2012 and revised in 2019.

Photo: Press conference on 31 January, 2022: 8 demands for enabling environment of CSOs

8 demands for enabling environment of CSOs
1. Revise and approve the State policy on CSOs developed and submitted in 2012
2. Return back to the government the draft laws on Legal status of Associations and Legal
Status of Foundations for proper consultations

3. To develop policy regulations for enabling environment of CSOs and reflect in the newly
developing laws
4. Introduce and reflect specific policies to support strengthening of NGOs, CBOs, citizens
groups in rural Mongolia
5. To develop and approve the law on NGOs with full and equal participation of all parties inaccordance with the recommendations from UPR, OGP and FATF.
6. To improve the understanding of civil servants about CSOs, accept CSOs as equal partner
for development and assign for effective cooperation
7. To improve accountability mechanism for civil servants
8. To improve the implementation of laws for direct participation of citizens such as Law
about law, the Law on public hearing, the law on Deliberative consultation-end-