Extending Social protection to herders with enhanced shock responsiveness

Guided by the findings and recommendations of the UN-ADB MAPS (Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support) Mission in 2018, which called attention to the high risks herders and rural children faced in being left behind, the UN Joint Programme (UNJP) seeks to support national authorities and provincial governments, in closing the social protection gaps for this population, with a particular concern on its role in reducing their vulnerabilities to poverty and extreme climate change. The ILO, FAO, UNFPA and UNICEF in Mongolia, under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator of Mongolia, will work closely with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, National Emergency Management Agency, National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, Agency for Family, Child and Youth Development, General Authority for Social Insurance, and the National Committee on Gender Equality, employers’ and workers’ organizations and other stakeholders. The programme results will primarily contribute in achievement of SDG 1.3, 1.5 and 13.1 which will have further impacts on other SDG Targets such as 1.5, 4.4, 5.c, 8.3, 13.1, and 17.17. Founded in a rights-based approach, the UNJP combines the investment in system development, aiming to contribute to the implementation of a universal social protection system as a powerful tool to eradicate poverty; with a practical intervention directly focused in herding men, women and their family members to protect them from falling in poverty and coming down into a poverty trap. With these objectives in mind, three main areas of intervention were agreed with the Government: (i) extension of coverage of herders by identifying innovative and unconventional solutions to enroll herders in social protection schemes; (ii) introducing a shock responsive element into the social protection system to ensure herder families and children are increasingly protected from climate related shocks, and, (iii) designing and/or mobilizing the budget structure to ensure funding availability and financial sustainability to cater for the modalities proposed. The latter will also indirectly support the Government’s effort to make public financing system SDG oriented and possibility of investing in the long-term strategic priorities. By the end of the UNJP, it is expected that the social insurance coverage rate for herders, which stands at 15 per cent at the end of 2018, will be increased to 20 per cent, while the health insurance coverage herders will be raised to up to 50 per cent from currently less than 40 per cent. In addition, herder households’ resilience to shocks will be increased through strengthened institutional capacity to mainstream shock-responsiveness into the national social protection system.

Project symbol

MNG/19/50/UND

Admin unit

CO-Beijing

Start date

01/11/2019

End date

30/06/2022

Total allocation

900307

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

863797

Development Partners

Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, UNDP

Country/Countries

Mongolia

Outcomes

Outcome 8: Comprehensive and sustainable social protection for all