Limitations of this review

fallen into an economic recession and record-high fiscal deficit in 2020, which continues a previous downward trend. 12 Mongolia’s economic dependence on the extractive and agricultural sectors puts significant pressure on its ecosystem, leading to habitat degradation and biodiversity loss, which is aggravated by weak governance in the management of natural resources. Over 70 percent of Mongolia’s land is degraded, compromising the livelihoods of traditional herders in particular. This is further exacerbated by climate change and growing inequalities.13 Mongolia expects more frequent dzuds (harsh winters) going forward, which lead to the mass death of livestock from lack of food and/ or water. The forecast of weak economic performance in 2020/21 has not thus far affected political stability and policy continuity. The ruling party, the Mongolian People's Party, clearly won the June 2020 general election. A key challenge is that Mongolia's civil service is highly politicized and there is high turnover of personnel after elections, resulting in erosion of capacity and lack of continuity in policymaking. Additionally, legislation in critical policy areas lacks standards, procedures and budgets, which hampers implementation and led to a degradation of citizen trust in political institutions and participation in democratic processes.14 Another challenge is the lack of corruption safeguards and prevention. Gender disparities persist in the country, as shown by the Gender Inequality Index value of 0.32 (2018). This signifies that 32 percent of potential human development in Mongolia is lost due to gender inequality, which is on par with other East Asian countries (0.31 on average) and the average for countries with high human development (0.33). 15 Women’s political participation in particular remains very weak, with a political empowerment gender gap index of 0.102 in 2020. 16 A worrying impact of COVID-19 has been an increase in domestic violence by about 63 percent compared to the previous year. 17

Limitations of this review

This review has been conducted under the challenging circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. While there was no national or local lockdown in Mongolia until November 2020, the international team was unable to travel or go to the office, and therefore collected and analysed data from home. A national research institute (Cognos International LLC) was recruited to capitalize on the relatively open situation within Mongolia and support data collection locally, including through in-person interviews where possible. The ICPR methodology is chiefly desk-based, with a limited number of interviews18 and no site visits. To ensure sufficient triangulation of the country office self-assessment with evidence from other sources, the ICPR

12 GDP growth in 2019 stood at 5.1 percent, down from 6.9 percent in 2018. ADB, Basic Statistics, Asia and the Pacific, 2020. See: https://data.adb.org/dataset/basic-statistics-asia-and-pacific. ADB notes recession with a 9.7 percent contraction in 2020: Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020 Update: Wellness in Worrying Times, 2020. 13 Assessment report on climate change, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Green Development and Tourism, 2014. 14 UNDP Mongolia CPD, 2017-2021. 15 Measuring opportunity costs in terms of reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market participation. 16 Global Gender Gap Report 2020, World Economic Forum, See: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf. A score of 0.102 suggests that there is a 90 percent gap in ensuring partity between women and men (percentage of women in Parliament and in ministerial positions, number of years with female/ male head of State in the last 50 years). 17 https://www.adb.org/mn/news/adb-help-address-and-prevent-domestic-violence-mongolia-amid-covid-19 18 29 interviews were conducted (23 remotely, six in person) with UNDP staff at country and regional levels, personnel of United Nations agencies, international development partners, government counterparts, civil society and private sector stakeholders.