Ulaanbaatar - The International Organization for Migration has launched a comprehensive capacity building program, consisting of a specialized manual on migration and comprehensive trainings, to strengthen the capacity of over 1,800 municipal officials who provide direct services to migrants.

The constant flow of migration from rural Mongolia to its capital city Ulaanbaatar, stemming from developmental discrepancies and insufficient employment opportunities in rural areas, pose significant challenges to the access and quality of public services in the capital.

Public officials who directly deliver necessary services and information to migrants play an instrumental role in ensuring the rights and wellbeing of migrants. They also serve as key enumerators in IOM’s DTM Mobility Tracking Assessments conducted in the capital to capture population data that is essential for the city’s urban planning, emergency response, and development policies. 

Building the capacity of municipal officials who provide basic public services to migrants will improve not only the quality and accessibility of migration-related public services, but also migrant-sensitive service delivery, especially in the city’s isolated ger areas where migrants tend to settle. The trainings have been mainstreamed into the annual training workplan of the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar and will provide an opportunity for the officials to better understand the needs of migrants and learn from each other's experiences. IOM is currently working to expand the trainings to cover public officials across the country.

IOM’s efforts to build the capacity of municipal officials also include a highly specialized component on using IOM’s DTM methodology to collect population data in the complex environment of Ulaanbaatar, covering trainings and hardware and analytical support.

At the launching event, IOM presented the Municipality with the manual, titled "The Importance of Public Services in Understanding and Managing Internal Migration,” as well as necessary equipment to strengthen the Municipality’s technical capacity to capture, analyze, and manage migration data.

Under the “Understanding and Managing Internal Migration in Mongolia” (2019-2023) project, supported by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), IOM works closely with the Government of Mongolia and its agencies, including the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar.

“IOM started working with the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar in 2020, supporting the Municipality’s COVID-19 response efforts, and since then our cooperation has increased in both scale and intensity. Now, we are training hundreds of public servants and implementing information campaigns reaching millions,” says IOM Mongolia Programme Manager Victor Lutenco. “Our current activities build a strong base that encourages us to aspire even higher in the future.”

IOM will continue to maintain close cooperation with the Municipality through supporting the development of Migration Information Centers at the city’s One-Stop Service Centers to further enhance the quality of information reaching migrants and introducing a dedicated migration unit in the Municipality’s current structure to mainstream migration into municipal policies and development planning.

See more information on IOM’s “Understanding and Managing Internal Migration in Mongolia” project.

For more information please contact Erkhembayar Munkhbayar, Communication Consultant at IOM Mongolia, at emunkhbayar@iom.int, Tel: +976 70143100