Women’s land tenure security project (WOLTS) Mongolia

2023
Mokoro, Mongolia

Mokoro has partnered on the WOLTS Mongolia project with People Centered Conservation (PCC) since 2015. PCC is a Mongolian NGO established in 2006, which aims to promote the protection of natural resources through support to the activities of local residents and civil society, with a strong commitment to addressing issues for gender equality and vulnerable groups.

The WOLTS Mongolia team has been working in three communities affected by mining investments: Bornuur soum (district) in Tuv aimag (province), Dalanjargalan soum in Dornogovi aimag and Tsenkher soum in Arkhangai aimag. Through repeat fieldwork visits, using different research methods and techniques to triangulate and validate data, the team has been investigating the intersection of gender and land relations in different pastoralist contexts and developing a methodology for continuing community engagement and capacity building to protect and support the land rights of all vulnerable people.

The WOLTS Mongolia team presented early research findings at a Multi-Stakeholder Workshop on Gender, Land and Mining in Mongolia, held in Ulaanbaatar in October 2017. Participants included community representatives, national and local government officials, civil society organisations, development partners and representatives of the private sector.

Since 2018, the team has been partnering with the Mongolian government’s national land management agency to develop practical guidance to strengthen participation, consultation and gender-equity in medium-term land management planning processes in soums. Building from the WOLTS project’s research tools and methodologies, Mokoro and PCC collaborated with the Agency for Land Administration and Management, Geodesy and Cartography (ALAMGAC) to develop ‘gender guidelines’ to provide technical guidance to strengthen inclusivity within Mongolia’s existing public consultations process during medium-term soum development planning. The team supported over 330 government land officers at soum and aimag levels in the use of the new guidelines through online and in-person training in 2021 and 2022.

The ‘gender guidelines’ are available in English here and in Mongolian here. The full ALAMGAC medium-term soum land management planning manual is available in Mongolian here. An article about the collaboration is available here.

 

Read all our WOLTS Mongolia blogs:

– “How WOLTS Champions changed communities and changed me” – available here in English and Mongolian.
– “We had no idea what a learning journey it would be – seven years of WOLTS in Mongolia” – available here in English and Mongolian.
– WOLTS Champions’ Perspectives No.3 – Unknowing abuse
– WOLTS Champions’ Perspectives No.2 – Mongolia needs fewer cows for better pastureland
– WOLTS Champions’ Perspectives No.1 – We now have the knowledge to control mining and save our livelihoods
– “Protesting herders to get government support to stop harmful mining operations” – available here.
– “It will be fun to develop land-use planning, if we do it together” – available here.
– WOLTS Team Perspectives No.5 – ‘How COVID-19 is bringing Mongolia’s herding families back together’ – available here.
– WOLTS Team Perspectives No.4 – ‘Young champions – hope for Mongolia’s herding traditions’ – available here.
– ‘Mongolian herder families are being split between countryside and town’ – available here.
– ‘Left Behind – The Mongolian Herders Living with Mum’ – available here.
– “A woman has long hair and a short brain – Reflections on an old Mongolian saying” – available here.
– ‘Property Rights in Mongolia – Making Space for Women?’ – available here.
– ‘Women’s Land Tenure Security in Mongolia’ – available here. 

Check out the ‘Women and Community Land Rights – Investing in Local Champions’ webinar report in Mongolian.

To obtain copies of available reports and documentation in Mongolian, please email edaley@mokoro.co.uk.

You can learn more about our Mongolian partners here.

To return to the main WOLTS webpage, please click here.

Sign up to our general WOLTS mailing list here.