How can Mongolia mobilize more financial resources for sustainable national development?

Mongolia needs a significant amount of financial resources to meet its nationalized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the financing gap has further widened due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Mongolia has lost some of the progress it made towards the SDGs because of the pandemic, therefore heightened efforts are needed to regain the lost momentum and return focus back towards achieving the SDGs.

To increase the available financial resources for Mongolia’s development from good health of citizens to decent job opportunities, the state budget cannot be the sole source of financing and thus a number of measures are being identified that would not only increase the financing sources but also help allocate them more efficiently and effectively.

The state budget, the major source for financing national development, is most efficiently allocated when they are closely linked to the development priorities and results, which is termed as ‘results-based budgeting’. The adoption of results-based budgeting is a process ongoing in Mongolia and UNDP has successfully piloted at three line Ministries in the past two years and starting two more pilots this year. It is expected that based on the success of the pilots, the results-based budgeting will be scaled up across all Ministries and sectors, hence contributing to more efficient use of the state budget.

The private sector has a pivotal role in driving the sustainable development. However, private sector engagement has been relatively limited in terms of financing for development not only in Mongolia but also globally. It is now time to address that and create the necessary policy measures and incentives for the private sector to increase its role and contribution in national development.

The Development Bank of Mongolia (DBM) assumes a special role in financing for Mongolia’s sustainable development, both as a financier and as a potential role model for the country’s banking sector. Improved alignment of DBM operations with sustainable development priorities will shift the weight of financing from regular to sustainable, due to its size and impact in the financing landscape.

All of these processes from mobilizing more resources from the private sector to aligning the development policies with the budget and financial resources are encapsulated in the concept ‘Integrated National Financing Framework’ (INFF). It is a new concept globally and Mongolia is one of the pioneer countries that is working on the development and implementation of the INFF worldwide.

The INFF is being developed in Mongolia under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance within the Joint Programme ‘Rolling Out an Integrated Approach to SDG Financing in Mongolia’ implemented by the United Nations. UNDP is providing technical leadership and working with UNICEF, and UNFPA to support the rollout of the INFF in Mongolia.

We encourage the private sector to support efforts not only to develop the Integrated National Financing Framework for Mongolia, but also to become active contributors to the financing of sustainable development. Private sector can thus play a key role in accelerating Mongolia on its path to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Blog is written by Elaine Conkievich and produced by UNDP.