Social Protection Brief: Social Welfare Support Program in Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said its program is supporting reforms in Mongolia to ensure the sustainability of welfare programs and develop policies and regulations to improve targeting and consolidate social welfare programs. Welfare programs in Mongolia focus on the provision of social pensions, allowances, and services to citizens with special needs who are in poor health, lack family support, and are not capable of living independently. Programs also support individual household members who require social welfare assistance to meet their basic daily needs. The main area of reform under the program focused on improving policies and regulations to support targeting and consolidation of social welfare programs. The program funded short-term revenue shortages in 2015 which, if unaddressed, would have resulted in significant cuts in welfare programs. These cuts would have disproportionally affected the poor--as many depend heavily on benefits for daily subsistence--and push more Mongolians into poverty. The program supported reforms under Mongolia’s economic adjustment plan to improve fiscal policy management to ensure the sustainability of welfare programs, and develop policies and regulations to improve targeting of beneficiaries and consolidate social welfare programs. A realistic policy framework with manageable policy actions is needed to achieve intended results and successfully implement reforms. All policy actions under the program were fully achieved 9 months ahead of the deadline, illustrating this important lesson.