OYU TOLGOI – UN POPULATION FUND RENEW PARTNERSHIPS ON YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ Oyu Tolgoi CEO Armando Torres and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative Naomi Kitahara signed on April 12 a joint agreement to continue supporting youth development in Khanbogd soum, Umnugobi and to provide social data and statistics in Umnugobi province. Over the past three years, the organisations have established a Youth Development Centre, an Adolescent and Youth-friendly Clinic, a youth peer education network, and piloted interventions to promote youth entrepreneurship, and support young herders and the marginalized young people in Khanbogd soum. Through parallel national level interventions, supported by this partnership, UNFPA successfully advocated for the approval of the first-ever Law on Supporting Youth Development. Under the law, Youth Development Centre’s human resources and other costs are now covered by the Government of Mongolia. In the second phase of this joint collaboration in support for youth development in Khanbogd soum, Oyu Tolgoi will make financial contributions to UNFPA in the amount of US$230,000, for which UNFPA agreed to supplement US$231,000 from UNFPA’s own resources. In addition, as part of the second phase of their partnership, the two institutions announced their plans to partner on a social, economic and environmental study in Umnugobi province to understand impact of major mining operations at the community level in the amount of US$300.000. Three sub-studies will be held, one of which is the Social indicator sample survey (SISS) as part of the national survey. As the government begins to develop national frameworks to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, strategic planning and investments will be required to collect robust, more frequent, and timely data. The SISS presents a unique opportunity to support this process, particularly at the aimag (provincial) level in Umnugobi. To date, UNFPA and the Government of Mongolia, with support from Oyu Tolgoi, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Government of Luxembourg, have established 16 YDCs throughout Mongolia. These YDCs are working to build a responsible, positive and self-reliant youth population. Source: ot.mn