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In October 2005, the ADB Board approved a new country strategy and program for Mongolia that is closely aligned with the Government’s poverty reduction strategy and more tightly focused on improving development impact. The country strategy and program aims to reduce poverty by supporting stable, broad-based growth, and socially inclusive development. It programs an indicative lending level of $78 million from ADF resources for 2007–2009, supplemented by an additional $40 million for regional projects from the ADF. The country strategy and program will help the Government as it embarks on a results-based approach to development, formulating rigorous performance indicators and establishing systems to manage the Government’s strategy for results. The strategy and program calls for assistance in agriculture, transport, education, health, and urban development. ADB is preparing an agribusiness supply chain development project in Mongolia to target niche markets for premium value products. The project has strategic implications for livelihood improvement, economic diversification, and environmental protection.
The ADB Board endorsed a country strategy and program update in September 2006. While maintaining the overall directions of the country strategy and program, the update incorporates changes needed to support the strategic approach that the Government has adopted to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, increase the effectiveness of development activities, boost governance, improve alignment with the Government’s and ADB’s priorities, and strengthen coordination with other development partners to increase the inflow of funds.
ADB’s cumulative lending to Mongolia for 39 public sector loans totaled $662.0 million. ADB provided $4.5 million in assistance to the private sector through its private sector window. Eighteen sovereign loans and one nonsovereign loan were active at the end of 2006. Technical assistance grants totaled $61.3 million, and grants from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, the Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology, the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund, and Norway totaled $9.7 million.
In 2006, three new loans for education, urban development, and customs modernization totaling $46.2 million, and four technical assistance grants of $2.5 million, were approved. ADB also approved a $1.0 million Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction project to develop nonformal skills training for unemployed youth and poor adults.
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The country strategy and program aims to reduce poverty by supporting stable, broad-based growth, and socially inclusive development
ADB helps the Government promote education in Mongolia
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Better Health for Mongolian Villagers
ADB is helping provide thousands of rural poor with access to improved health services.
ADB, in close partnership with the Government and key stakeholders, has been supporting the health sector in Mongolia since 1997. In 2003, ADB approved a $14 million loan for the Second Health Sector Development Project to improve rural health services, especially for the poor and vulnerable, and to build the capacity of the health sector through reforms in sector efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability.
The project has helped improve rural health services in five aimags (provinces) chosen because of their high levels of poverty, infant and maternal mortality, and infectious diseases.
More than 422,000 Mongolians—about 17% of the population—are benefiting from the project’s rural health component, which has raised vaccination rates to 98% among children under 5 years of age in the project area, above the national target of 92%. The average length of hospital stay has come down from 10 to 8 days. Contraceptive use in the project aimag has reached 55% among women aged 15–44, above the national average of 43%.
The project also trains community nurses, district doctors, district and provincial administrators, economists of the health department, and staff of the health insurance organization to help the Ministry of Health build institutional capacity. The project supports key reforms in the sector, including strengthening primary health care through family group practices, improving hospitals, and developing human resources in the health sector. Twenty-three district health centers, five interdistrict hospitals, and four provincial center hospitals have been built or renovated, and equipped.
More than 422,000 Mongolians—about 17% of the population—are benefiting from the project’s rural health component
ADB has helped raise health standards in five of the poorest provinces in Mongolia
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