The Secretariat of the State Great Hural (Parliament), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the United Nations Development Programme have been successfully co-implementing a “Capacity Strengthening of Local Self-Governing Bodies” project in some districts of the capital city as well as in aimags (provinces) of Mongolia since June 2013.

The proposed outcome of the project is to strengthen capacities of local hurals to fulfill their representational and oversight mandates for improved accountability of local governments and local service delivery. The project to end on December 31, 2016 aims to offer political support, financial incentives and technical assistance for the development of a National Training Programme for local elected representatives and establish appropriate institutional arrangements for delivering the programme.

On October 7, 2015, Secretary-general of the Parliament Secretariat B.Boldbaatar, who is the Project National Director, has attended the National Training Programme themed on “Citizens’ Representatives’ Hural: Representatives’ Leadership” being organized in Sainshand, the center of Dornogovi aimag.

Project National Director B.Boldbaatar said, “The project goal is to develop capacities of local hurals to fulfil their representational and oversight roles for improved accountability of local governments and local service delivery. Four outputs will contribute to achievement of the project goal:

- A national training programme for local elected representatives is developed and institutionalized;

- Improved downward accountability of elected representatives through promoting citizen participation in decision making;

- Increased oversight capacity of local hurals;

- Lessons integrated into legal and policy framework for local self-governance”.

Following its successful first year of implementation, the project achieved significant progress on its stated outputs including the completion of a nationwide training for newly elected local representatives and the commencement of a nationwide Women’s Leadership Training (WLT).  Additional achievements include, the awarding of sixteen grants with the objective of improving hural oversight of Local Development Fund (LDF) management and increasing citizen participation in local hural decision making; the development of a website to serve as a news, information and best practice outlet for hural members, and the successful completion of a study tour to Switzerland for parliament members to learn about local government administration and decentralization.  The year of 2015 will be a decisive year for the project, prior to the imminent national elections of 2016.  

Press and Public Relations Department of the State Great Hural of Mongolia