Catalog

Willing and Able

More than 100 people are employed as a result of the first job fair for Mongolians with disabilities

By Sodnompil Baigalmaa
Project Economist

Background

Being a person with disabilities in Mongolia once meant being unemployed.

Mongolia’s Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor registers more than 100,000 people as having disabilities. Of the nearly 40,000 people with disabilities who are considered capable of working, 87% are jobless—far above the national unemployment rate of 17%.

People with disabilities in Mongolia often encounter prejudice and a lack of recognition that they can contribute to the economy.

Although the newly passed Mongolian Employment Promotion Law requires that at least 3% of jobs in businesses that employ more than 50 people should go to people with disabilities, many employers have yet to comply with this law.

In response to this, the Government enlisted the help of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and the private sector in undertaking innovative action to show that people with disabilities should be neither excluded from employment nor from participating in wider society.

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Finding Opportunities

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is also playing a role. In May 2002, ADB agreed to provide a $1 million grant to help some 4,000 poor Mongolians with disabilities find work. The grant is from ADB’s Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction - JFPR, financed by the Government of Japan.

The project uses an innovative and multifaceted approach to support people with disabilities by upgrading skills, providing incentives to employers, supporting them with business development services, and raising public awareness of their productive abilities.

If successful, this approach may be replicated on a larger scale. The total cost of the project is $1.2 million. The Mongolian Government, NGOs, the private sector, and the people with disabilities who are to benefit from it will contribute $200,000, mostly in kind.

The project will be implemented over 3 years in six provinces, including the capital Ulaanbaatar.

HARSH LAND Mongolia’s environment can be brutal during the winter, especially for people with disabilities

“People with disabilities are among the very poorest in Mongolian society, largely because of the considerable barriers that most face in finding employment,” says obert Schoellhammer, ADB Project Economist.

“Our project aims to help this group by developing their skills and qualifications to allow them to compete better in the job market and to support them to run their own businesses.

We are also placing very high priority on raising public awareness of the contribution that workers with disabilities can make to developing the economy.”

To ensure effective implementation, in July 2002 a project implementation unit with a steering committee of 17 NGO, government, and employers’ representatives was established. NGOs have been operating in Mongolia only since the 1990s.

Although many still have limited capacity, about 50 NGOs are currently working to help people with disabilities.

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Job Fair a Success

A major component of the ADB-financed project concentrates on changing the attitudes of employers and the public.

As part of this—and to promote the International Day of People with a Disability—the Center for Employment Promotion Office of the Mongolian Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor, NGOs, and three vocational training centers, organized a 1-day job fair for job seekers with disabilities in December 2002.

The job fair proved that perceptions of people with disabilities can change when employers and the public are willing to provide the understanding and opportunities necessary for people with disabilities to show their potential in the job market.

About 500 people attended the job fair where private sector employers and government agencies offered 212 full-time jobs. After 2 months of probationary work, 105 people with disabilities have full-time employment.

Factors contributing to the high number of people not completing the probationary employment period included lack of skills, a high degree of disability, and inadequate workplace arrangements.

These factors are being studied so remedial action may be taken. For example, more than 70 jobs offered in the garment industry were not taken because of a lack of candidates trained in tailoring.

The State Employment Fund also allotted 32 places for unskilled people with disabilities to attend training courses. Promotion is seen as the key to creating jobs for people with disabilities, and the job fair received wide local and national media coverage.

The job fair proved that employment opportunities for people with disabilities can improve when government, employers, and NGOs undertake a proactive and integrated approach.

Learn more about ADB's partnership with NGOs

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