At a glance: Mongolia

The big picture

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This map does not reflect a position by UNICEF on the legal status of any country or territory or the delimitation of any frontiers.

Mongolia is an independent nation with a ruling democratic coalition. Mongolia has made important strides over the past few years in promoting the rights of children and women. The Parliament passed a law on child protection in 1996. In addition, the eradication of polio, which is one of the National Programme of Action (NPA) goals, has been virtually achieved. There have been no measles deaths since 1994. The number of primary school drop-outs has declined to about half of the 1995 level. The country continues to experience the dramatic effects of its transition from a centrally planned to a market economy, and from single party rule to multi-party democracy. Continued dependence on copper, gold and cashmere make the economy vulnerable to downturns in global markets.

The country suffers from extreme cold and snowstorms during winter disaster (dzud), droughts, forest and prairie fires, floods and outbreaks of human diseases. A bad winter coupled with overgrazing of the grasslands during 2000-2001 caused heavy loss of animals, some human lives and heavy economic loss. Winter during 2002-2003 is expected to be extremely cold, posing hardships to rural herders' families, including children and women. Shortage of income of rural families due to loss of livestock will lead to shortage of food and insufficient intake of nutritious food. It will also disrupt social and family life and affect all aspects of a child's wellbeing – physical, mental, social and emotional. In the post-dzud period, during late winter and early spring, children will be are at high risk of developing extreme fatigue and malnutrition, deterioration in their health and weakening of immunity to acute infections as a result of physical and psychological stress.

UNICEF's priorities

The Government of Mongolia and UNICEF will explore five major areas of cooperation:

• Strengthen current efforts to progressively establish a social, economic and legal environment for full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other key conventions, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
• Promote equality, including gender equality.
• Integrate community-based services for children as part of national and local development strategies.
• Strengthen human resources and organizational capacity to support key developments, rights-based initiatives and preparedness for crises such as natural disasters. 
• A major innovation will be to promote and cultivate more effective partnerships for children to contribute to the vitality of the Global Movement for Children.
  Emergency preparedness is an integrated component of the strategy. Preparedness includes support for a more effective early warning system and contingency planning to avert the disruption of health, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and basic education services for children.