The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the

views or policies of the Asian Development

Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this
paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part
as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

National Gender Equality Commission

Seminar, Ulaanbaatar
28 October 2014

Imrana Jalal
Senior Social Development
Specialist (GAD)

Situation of Gender Equality (GE) in

Mongolia Key Gender Indicators

GII - MON ranks 56 on the Gender Inequality Index

(2012)

WEO - MON ranks 75 in womens economic

opportunity

Education reverse gender gap in favour of females at

school but education is highly gender segregated by
traditional occupations especially at tertiary levels
negative implications for the labor market and decent
work for higher wages, e.g. where are the women in
Mongolias growth sectors? (See p 81 ADB Key Indicators)

Situation of Gender Equality (GE) in

Mongolia Key Gender Indicators
Economic Empowerment
women have highest rate of LFPR in non-agriculture work
(56%) in Asia, but not in total work (including agriculture);
(See pg 83 ADB Key Indicators c.f. Overall employment
including agriculture)
BUT womens LFPR is decreasing despite better education
and higher completion rates;
women earn 80% of mens earnings;
work is highly gender segregated with traditional womens
work attracting lesser wages;
biggest constraints for women are gender segregated
occupations and lack of child care.

Asia Pacific -Labor Force Participation rates 2011,

(WB) Total including Agriculture and Non-Agriculture

Situation of Gender Equality (GE) in

Mongolia Key Gender Indicators
Political Empowerment
Mon ranked 91 in terms of share of political
power/numbers of women in political arena IPU data
Currently 11 women in legislature approx 14% See pg 84
ADB Key Gender Indicators).
Female representation in cabinet is 19%
12.5% among deputy ministers
12.5% among state secretaries
No female governors at aimag (21) and Ulaanbaatar district
(9) levels.

ADB DMCs
by IPU Global ranking at 31 Dec 2012
Rank
16
23
36
44
48
49
50
54
56
57
60
64
67
70
72
75
82
85
86
87
91

Country
Timor-Leste
Nepal
Afghanistan (Upper 27.5
Lao PDR
Viet Nam
Kazakhstan ( U/H 4.3%)
Singapore
Kyrgyzstan
Philippines (U/H 13%)
Pakistan (U/H 16.3%)
Uzbekistan (U/H 15%)
China
Cambodia (U/H 14.8%)
Bangladesh
Tajikistan (14.7%)
Indonesia
Turkmenistan
Azerbaijan
Thailand (15.4%)
Republic of Korea
Mongolia

Lower or single
House
%W
38.5%
33.2%
27.7%
25%
24.4%
24.3%
24.2%
23.3%
22.9%
22.5%
22%
21.3%
20.3%
19.7%
19%
18.6%
16.8%
16%
15.8%
15.7%
14.9%

* Figures correspond to the number of seats currently filled in Parliament

Rank
103
107
109
111
118
120
122
125
126
128
129
131
132
134
135
136
139
139
139
139

Country
Georgia
India ( Upper House 10.6%)
Armenia
Malaysia (Upper House22.7%)
Kiribati
Bhutan (Upper House 24%)
Japan (U/House 18.2%)
Tuvalu
Maldives
Myanmar (U/House 1.8%)
Sri Lanka
Samoa
Tonga
Marshall Islands
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Nauru
Palau (U/House 23.1%)
Vanuatu

Lower or single
House
%W
12%
11%
10.7%
10.4%
8.7%
8.5%
7.9%
6.7%
6.5%
6%
5.8%
4.1%
3.6%
3%
2.7%
2%
0
0
0
0

Why does gender equality matter in

Mongolia?
Forget China,

India and the Internet: Economic growth

is driven by women. The Economist, April 12, 2006
Our region is losing more than $40 billion per year as a
result of gender gaps in education and womens limited
access to employment opportunities.
Closing the gender gap in access to resources such as
land, credit, technology, and fertilizers could eliminate
yield gaps of 20% to 30% and increase domestic
agricultural output by 2.5% to 4%.
More than 100 million people could be lifted out of
poverty if women had the same access to productive
resources as men. More optimistic estimates argue that
it could reduce world hunger by between 12-17%.

Why does gender equality matter in

Mongolia?
It is critical for sustainable development outcomes, because the costs
of inaction are significant. Gender inequality has significant economic
and social costs - opportunity costs.
To invest in gender equality is smart economics because it
contributes to economic efficiency and the achievements of other
development goals
Not recognizing or appreciating womens skills and talents comes at a
high and rising economic cost, simply put, it is a waste of money not
to;
Womens endowments, agency and opportunities shape those of the
next generation there is a future intergenerational systemic
negative impact of ignoring gender inequality now; and
Increasing womens individual and collective agency leads to better
outcomes, institutions and policy choices

Roles of Gender Sub-councils and

Sub-committees
To collectively and individually pro-actively champion gender
equality according to the LPGE with practical gender measures,
beyond policy and legislation
To pursue sectoral change in each sector water, education/TVET,
energy, agriculture, finance, transport, labor market etc.
Gender mainstreaming in each sector and deliberate gender
inclusive measures eg ADB approach
Promote Temporary Special Measures (TSM) allowed by LPGE
Build gender capacity within your ministries/sectors through
training
Dont marginalize gender issues

Good Practices

Provide for GE in all sectors, sector by sector (e.g.,

Azerbaijan, Viet Nam) or generally. Sector by sector
better approach

Define whose responsibility it is to promote GE and

accountability mechanisms spell out in detail the
responsibility of specific public agencies

Provide for NGO/CSO input into state mechanisms

Provide for what happens when GEL is breached

Provide resources for the GEL to be implemented

specific gender budgeting

Provide for mass education on gender equality

General: Establish Strong Gender

Architecture Key Components
Component

Activities

Possible Institution

1. Ensure existing and future

legislation accords with GEL

Systematically review and revise existing legislation

for consistency with GEL
Scrutinize future legislation

Independent, autonomous
body (eg. Gender Equality
Commission):
Adequate funding
Staffed by gender experts

2. Place positive obligation on public

and private institutions to
implement GEL

Develop a Gender Equality Plan (including gender

mainstreaming)
Introduce Temporary Special Measures

The Governments central

gender policy co-ordinating
unit could set policies,
action plans and TSM in
both public and private
sectors.

3. Monitor compliance and

implementation of GEL in all levels of
government, private organizations,
individuals

Establish system of rewards/incentives,

disincentives
Introduce punitive measures eg. fines or
imprisonment
Establish system of regular reporting

Monitored by independent,
autonomous body (GEC)
which produces a regular
report to Ministry of
Gender, Family and Human
Rights and to Peoples
Majlis on the adherence to
GEL by public and private
institutions.

Component

Activities

Institution

4. Establish an open complaints

process

Free of charge for complainants

Open standing
Burden of proof on violator
Clear procedures for establishing liability (rules of
evidence, witnesses, timeframe for resolution of
complaints etc)
Appeals process (eg. to Supreme Court)

Independent, autonomous
judicial body (eg. Gender
Equality Tribunal):
Adequate funding
Staffed by gender experts
Power to award remedies

5. Establish a system for the

collection of gender statistics in all
areas of womens lives

Establish systematic process to gather gender

statistics (eg. disaggregated by sex, other areas
not forming part of existing data collection eg.
domestic violence, incidence of abortion,
unremunerated domestic activities of women)

National Statistical Services,

provincial and local
government authorities,
private bodies

6. Establish review process to

determine effectiveness of GEL

Regularly conduct impact assessments of GEL

legislative reforms, policies and programmes to
ensure measures taken have led to desired goals

Independent, autonomous
body (eg. GEC)

7. Establish funding mechanism for all

GEL implementation, monitoring and
enforcement

Suggested areas of spending:

Review existing and future legislation for GEL
compliance
Compensation to victims
Monitoring and evaluation of implementation and
compliance with GEL by public and private
institutions
Promotion and implementation of TSM
Promotion of education, research and
dissemination of GEL (eg. public awareness
campaigns)
Training and capacity building to develop national
capacity for gender analysis and mainstreaming

Establish a Gender Fund.

Sources may include:
Government budget,
international organizations,
revenue of agencies, fines
received under GEL, interest
and other revenues from the
Gender Fund

Specific: Detailed National

Action Plan

Key Features:

Devising strategic areas of action including Women and:

Human Rights, Employment, Health, Violence, Public Life,
Health, Education, Property, Media

Target Setting: detailed goals and activities for each

strategic area along with timelines, clear process for
implementation, clear lines of responsibility and reporting.
A monitoring and evaluation tool.

Regular progress reports made to the NCGE and PM and

to the Parliament regarding progress on meeting targets

Good Practices
Gender inclusive, sector specific national strategy
and Action Plan e.g. National Employment
Strategy with time-bound targets for womens
employment in different occupations
Ministry level Gender Action Plan eg Cambodias
MAFF
Specific gender measures for the sector eg
targets for scholarships for girls
Objectives with xx% targets bound by time for
every gender measure

Good Practices
Tying gender goals and targets to work
performance and individual Work Plans of key
civil servants
Establish system of rewards/incentives,
disincentives eg ADB gender targets are
financially incentivizes by department
Specific gender budgeting for activities as well as
gender mainstreaming of ordinary budgets eg.
Budget for child care

Constraints
Mongolia LPGE is one of best in world but needs
implementation has a good generalized National Action Plan
but now needs to be further developed to sector specific
plans
Lack of political will
Lack of budget to operationalize good laws, policies and
programs
NCGE cannot gender mainstream specific sectors, that has to
be done by the sector specialists
Lack of collaboration between gender/sector specialists
tendency to leave gender equality to gender people but they
cannot work on the sectors by themselves