Completed
During the most recent commodity boom and bust, Mongolia continuously reformed its governance structures, seeking to increase the efficiency of its mining operations. Today Mongolia provides examples of socialist-style state-owned enterprises, contemporary equity ownership models, and production-sharing agreements. In this context, it is important for Mongolians to discuss past policy decisions, learn from them, and develop solutions to strengthen their resource governance practices while drawing in regional stakeholders from similar economies to enrich these discussions and foster peer-to-peer learning for the mutual improvement of their extractives sector.
As part of the IMAGinE Mongolia project, CIRDI and the International Cooperation Fund (ICF) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia embarked on a three-part workshop series focused on sharing Mongolia’s experiences in natural resource governance and management with other newly democratized countries with resource-based economies.
The aim of this series was to strengthen resource governance in Mongolia and ICF target countries by building a network of Mongolian stakeholders engaged in resource governance dialogue, and building peer-to-peer learning and partnership opportunities among Mongolian and ICF target country decision-makers. Ultimately, this project sought to enhance the capacity of Mongolians to improve their country’s governance and management policies and practices to better utilize their extractive sector in order to stimulate sustainable economic growth, reduce poverty, improve gender equity and safeguard the environment.
Overall, 148 (53w, 95m) people participated in the ICF-CIRDI workshop series, including international delegates from Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Laos, and Timor Leste. Experiential learning was an important part of the programmatic design – each workshop included at minimum one mine site visit.
For resource-dependent countries, effective natural resource governance is crucial for economic development and poverty alleviation. Peer-to-peer learning plays an important role in knowledge mobilization and in sharing real experience by creating learning opportunities between countries with similar resource development issues. Given its academic roots, CIRDI was in a unique position to convene a neutral forum for learning and the exchange of ideas. The emphasis on international peer-to-peer learning was envisaged to help defuse partisanship and enable richer discussion on otherwise politicized topics. Participants sought to teach and share, rather than defend. Thus, the workshop series mobilized domestic and international knowledge, created new partnerships between stakeholders, and encouraged transparency in discussions on resource governance.
Gender
Environment
Governance
Through increased access to information on leading global resource governance practices, the workshop series strengthened the capacity of Mongolian mining sector stakeholders to improve governance practices for the sustainable development of the mining sector. The main outcome of the workshop series was the increased number of stakeholders holding the critical and creative skills to understand and implement gender-responsive extractive sector fiscal policies, regulatory frameworks, and revenue investment plans that integrate environmental sustainability leading practices. In the long-term, this will lead to the improved formulation and implementation of gender-responsive extractive sector policies, regulatory frameworks, and revenue investment plans that integrate environmental sustainability leading practices.
At all the workshops in the series, participants were provided with training and discussion forums on the formulation and implementation of gender-responsive extractive sector policies, regulatory frameworks, and revenue investment plans that integrate environmental sustainability leading practices. Participants’ knowledge was enhanced in topic areas including transparency, enterprise ownership models, decision-making structures, achieving international standards, social responsibility, and consensus-building.
