Mongolia Action Plan Review 2021-2023

This product consists of an IRM review of Mongolia’s 2021–2023 action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... The action plan is made up of nine commitments that the IRM has filtered and clustered into eight. This review emphasizes its analysis on the strength of the action plan to contribute to implementation and results. For the commitment-by-commitment data, see Annex 1. For details regarding the methodology and indicators used by the IRM for this Action Plan Review, see Section IV: Methodology and IRM Indicators.

Overview of the 2021–2023 Action Plan

Civil society led development of the action plan. It includes promising commitments on extractive sector transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, open public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More, and freedoms of the press and association. Effective implementation will require continuing to strengthen implementing agencies’ ownership of commitments and engagement with civil society.    

Mongolia joined the OGP in 2013. This report evaluates the design of Mongolia’s fourth action plan, which consists of nine commitments. The action plan includes four commitments with substantial potential for results, reflecting similar ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... as the previous action plan, in which six of thirteen commitments had moderate or transformative potential impact. To aidMore and better information about aid helps partner countries and donor institutions plan and manage aid resources more effectively, parliaments and civil society to hold governments accountable for t... clarity and assessment, this report clusters Commitments 2 and 8, which aim to strengthen freedom of information and the press.

The action plan addresses diverse policy areas. It introduces Mongolia’s first commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... on the enabling environment for civil society. It also carries forward initiatives from the previous action plan through four commitments on extractive industry transparency, public procurement, and e-government. Other commitments revisit policy areas from earlier action plans, such as freedom of the press, legislative public consultation mechanisms, and management of medicine and medical devices.

During a co-creation process largely led by civil society, Mongolia met the OGP threshold for participation. Compared to the previous action plan, when Mongolia was found to be acting contrary to OGP process,^[1] this reflected progress on providing reasoned response to the public on how their contributions were considered during development of the action plan. Civil society stakeholders began preparatory design meetings in January 2021. Spurred by receipt of an Under Review Letter from the OGP secretariat,^[2]  the prime minister’s advisor on governance affairs began to discuss the co-creation process with civil society. Official government participation in the co-creation process commenced in September 2021, with establishment of the Working Group to Develop the National Action Plan. The Working Group included eight government representatives, thirteen civil society representatives, and five private sector representatives. The process generated over 80 proposals for commitments, which were shortlisted to 35 commitments using a screening process to prioritize proposals. This list was narrowed down to nine commitments. One of these commitments was initiated by a government agency (Commitment 3), and the rest were civil society proposals. This carries the risk of limited buy-in from implementing agencies. During finalization of the action plan in December 2021, the government amended the scope of some proposed commitments without consulting civil society partners.^[3] Compared to the previous action plan, the process included a more diverse group of civil society stakeholders (for example, engaging new CSOs focused on freedom of the press).^[4] To ensure ongoing dialogue with civil society, the Working Group  can regularly meet to collaboratively discuss implementation, with updates on the plan’s progress and opportunities for joint problem-solving.

Government engagement in the action plan could be strengthened.^[5] Continued political instability following the presidential election in 2021 affected government leadership in the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive.... Additionally, staff turnover in government ministries relevant to the commitments inhibited transfer of institutional knowledge and process continuity. In terms of the planned transfer of the OGP portfolio from the Cabinet Secretariat to the National Development Agency, civil society stakeholders expressed concerns about potential de-prioritization of the OGP process. Achieving impact will require stronger ownership of action plan’s initiatives by government agencies, as well as continued engagement with civil society on implementation planning, activities, monitoring, and assessment. The Working Group could support this engagement through targeted outreach meetings with relevant government stakeholders, preparing a memo to contextualize the OGP process in Mongolia. Throughout implementation, relevant ministers or other high-level representatives can meet at regular intervals to discuss progress, delays, and opportunities to address challenges.

The action plan includes promising commitments on transparency in the extractive sector and public procurement, as well as on freedoms of association and the press. Commitment 1 carries forward an effort to pass the Mineral Resources Transparency Law, a bill considered fundamental to extractives sector transparency. Continued efforts to digitize the public procurement process in Commitment 3 are coupled with public oversight. Under Commitment 4, the action plan aims to safeguard the enabling environment for civil society, responding to potential restrictions posed by the draft Law on Associations and the draft Law on Foundations. Likewise, Commitments 2 and 8 aim to strengthen the operating environment for the media by amending legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... on source anonymity and access to information.

Overall, commitments with more concrete and ambitious targets would strengthen the plan’s impact. In terms of design, some commitments aim to evaluate legislation, but do not plan for implementation of resulting recommendations in legislative reforms (Commitments 2 and 5). Other commitments targeting platform updates for the Glass Account Portal (Commitment 6) and the e-Mongolia Platform (Commitment 9) overlook low levels of user uptake and would benefit from efforts to generate public engagement through online and offline outreach. Commitment 7 could also strengthen its open government lens by introducing public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... into efforts to improve procurement, quality, safety, and supply of medicines and medical devices, drawing on lessons learned from a similar initiative in Mongolia’s second action plan. For commitments in which the milestones do not fully reflect the stated policy problem or actions mentioned in the commitment description, implementing agencies could work with stakeholders to concretize milestones and indicators. In future action plans, commitments with overlapping milestones can be consolidated into a single commitment, to streamline coordination and planning for implementers.

Promising Commitments in Mongolia’s 2021–2023 Action Plan

The following review looks at the five commitments that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results. This review will inform the IRM’s research approach to assess implementation in the Results Report. The IRM Results Report will build on the early identification of potential results from this review to contrast with the outcomes at the end of the implementation period of the action plan. This review also analyzes challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

Table 1. Promising commitments

[1] OGP, “Procedural Review” (accessed Apr. 2022), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/procedural-review/.

[2] OGP, “Mongolia – Under Review Letter (September 2021)” (13 Sep. 2021), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/mongolia-under-review-letter-september-2021/.

[3] Undral Gombodorj (Democracy EducationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... Center), interview by IRM researcher, 16 Feb. 2022.

[4] Namsrai Bayarsaikhan (Steps without Borders), interview by IRM researcher, 14 Feb. 2022.

[5] Ibid.