People's Development Justice
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Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” REPORT ON “PEOPLE’S DEVELOPMENT JUSTICE” “Sustainable development and Our participation” Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 2019 PB 1 Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Centre for Human Rights and Development and MONFEMNET National Network had jointly executed the project “Sustainable development and Our participation” in Mongolia for the purpose of contributing to the improved understanding and knowledge of local communities and citizens about Sustainable Development Goals and targets, and build the capacity of citizens in implementation and implementation evaluation processes. This project was successfully executed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Development Justice” initiated by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), the regional civil society organization. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to APWLD for their financial and methodological support during the project term. We would like to extend our appreciation to the working groups led by Ya.Munkhzul, chair of the Community Savings Group Federation (CSGF) of Bayandun soum1 of Dornod province2, B.Narangerel, chair of CSGF of Dornod province, D.Uranchimeg, chair of CSGF of Khentii province for providing great support to execute this project in local areas. Our gratitude is also extended to Governors, Chancellery staff, Chairs of Citizens’ Representative Councils, working group members of Dornod, Khentii provinces, Bayandun soum of Dornod province for cooperating and supporting the activities to evaluate the SDGs implementation in the countryside. Acronyms CSGF Community Saving Groups Federations GC Governor Chancellery HLPF High Level Political Forum LDF Local Development Fund NSO National Statistics Office ODA Official Development Assistance SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SMEDF Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund VNR Voluntary National Report 1 Soum - Soum is the second level administrative subdivision below the province. Mongolia has 331 soums. 2 Province - Mongolia is divided into 21 provinces 2 3 Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement 2 Acronyms 3 Executive summary 5 ONE. Introduction TWO. Thematic analysis: Women’s priority 10 THREE. Common ground analysis: “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality” 17 FOUR. Recommendations 19 2 3 Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Centre for Human Rights and Development in partnership with MONFEMNET National Network had successfully implemented the project targeted to deliver information about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure the active participation of citizens. The project activities were carried by a team of various stakeholders including local administrative organizations such as department for social policy, legislation, internal audit, labor and social care, statistics organization, members and staff of Citizens’ Representative councils of province, soums, representative of the National Human Rights Commission in provinces, CSOs chaired by the heads of the Community Saving Groups Federation ofKhentii, Dornod provinces and Bayandun soum of Dornod province. Teams of Khentii and Dornod provinces had collected data on implementation of SDG target 8.3, Bayandun soum’s team collected data on SDG target 1.1 at the province and soum level and presented the findings to the local administrations for consultation. The teams had also visited Ulaanbaatar to present the results findings to the relevant ministries and officials and discussed the actions to be taken in the future. During a press conference organized to present the findings, the teams had emphasized on public participation in the process of successful implementation of SDGs at local level and highlighted the cooperation of civil society, local government and other entities. A joint team of citizens, public employees, and civil society organizations delivered a recommendation as the result of the project which is to improve the implementation of SDG 1 and 8 related to poverty and unemployment, the biggest challenges faced by the local communities. The outcome of the project is incorporated in the joint shadow report developed by the civil society organizations for Mongolia’s VNR. The project activities support the necessity and importance of SDGs, its targets to be included in the development policy and plans, encourage and employ citizens in the monitoring and evaluation of the SDGs, ensure equal participation of citizens and CSOs in the process and establish multi-stakeholder cooperation in order to achieve successful implementation of SDGs in the local areas. For the purpose of continuing and expanding the project activities, trigger the implementation of SDGs, it is necessary to arrange proper structure and provide funds to utilize multi- stakeholder mechanism involving equal participation of citizens, CSOs, state administrative organizations, and Citizens’ Representative Councils to achieve transparency of development policies, planning, execution at local, national and sectoral levels, ensure accuracy of evaluation indicator, regularly organize consultations and dialogues on execution. 4 5 Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Developed within the scope of the project “Women 2030: Monitoring and evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” Development Goals and Development Justice at national level” ONE. INTRODUCTION Mongolia is a large landmass with a low population of slightly over 3.2 million spread across 1.5 million kilometres, bordered by the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. While traditionally nomadic, the 2018 census shows that 46% of the population lives in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar.3 Mongolia is ranked 92nd by its Human Development Index (HDI=0.741)4 and 65th by its Gender Inequality Index (GII=0.301)5 out of 188 countries of the world. Gender inequality is prominent along indicators such as the average life expectancy rate (75 for females and 65 for males)6, labour force participation (53.4% for females and 69.5% for males)7, and representation in politics at decision-making levels (women hold 14.9% of the seats in the national parliament). The poverty rate was estimated at 29.6% in 2016, an increase from 2014, with the highest rates (34.9 %) recorded in rural areas.8 Mining and other extractive industries play crucial roles in economic growth of Mongolia. Although the economy has grown, high unemployment remains a challenge, especially in rural areas, and inequality has increased. The increase of poverty and unemployment and rising inequality are the major obstacles to development. The development justice framework should be understood in terms of equal allocation of funds, wealth, opportunities, power between the rich and the poor and between rich countries and poor countries. It should also be understood in terms of accountable leadership and governance with regards of economy, society, gender and environment. Development justice demands the rights of every citizen to have an opportunity to participate in development policy, planning and monitoring the implementation and receive equal benefits from development. Within this framework the report tries to present the structural, systemic barriers faced in the implementation of SDG target 1.1 and 8.3 in local areas along with the possible affecting factors such as trade and investment, land and resource grabbing, corporate capture and patriarchy. Trade and Investment: Mongolia had entered into 44 bilateral investment agreements with 36 of them are in effect.9 80% of foreign investment totaling up to USD 2 billion in 2018 was invested in the mineral extraction sector alone. The Government had been on the receiving end of 5 Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) cases raised by foreign investors against the government of Mongolia in recent years, with 4 of them related to the investments in the mining sector. Two disputes remain ongoing as of today. In one of the cases, Mongolia was asked to pay USD 80 million to one investor while another case was ruled in favor of Mongolia. The two remaining dispute cases have the investors demanding Mongolia to provide the compensation of USD 1 billion and USD 145 million accordingly10. Land and Resource Grabbing: