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one-third of livestock with a value of nearly USD1 million was
lost. The livelihood of rural people rapidly plummeted, contribut-
ing to an increase in unemployment and poverty. The latest NSO
(National Statistics Office) statistics showed that poverty in the
rural population was 43.4 per cent, compared to 36.1 per cent
nationally. Current climate hazards are threatening not only the
livelihoods of the herders and rural population, but also
Mongolia’s economy.
Population density in rural Mongolia is less than one person
per square kilometre. Here, the telecommunications network has
a high cost and a low income, resulting in an increased digital
divide and a poor application and uneven penetration of infor-
mation and communication technology (ICT). Current public
service telecommunication facilities have been operating since the
1960s and consist of aged analogue PBX switches connected to
province centres that are switched through open-wire transmis-
sion links. There are less than two telephone lines for every 100
inhabitants. A mobile telephone service has been started in a few
counties.
Recent developments in the telecommunication infrastructure
with fibre-optic cable, VSAT and wireless technologies have
created an opportunity to bridge the digital divide to the settled
centres of the counties. But reaching herders living in or migrat-
ing for better pastures with their animals, often 40–150
kilometres away from county centres, is still highly problematic.
Mongolia’s efforts to reach the rural herders
The Mongolian Government gives the utmost significance to ICT.
In 2004 it established the Information and Communication
Technology Authority (ICTA) under the Prime Minister’s office, as
this institution is responsible for overall policy formulation, plan-
ning, implementation and the coordination of all ICT-related
activities throughout the country.
Recently, the parliament of Mongolia approved a government
action plan (2004–2008) to implement a nationwide programme
called ‘e-Mongolia’ for 2005–2012
1
. This would create an
Information Society that would apply ICT in all political, social and
economic sectors, enhance the quality of public services, bridge
the digital divide and establish a favourable legal environment.
The Government has set goals to create a broadband backbone
network throughout the country, a high speed connection to the
international backbone gateway, increase overall public services
utilizing ICT as a tool for improving quality of life, and imple-
ment e-government, e-commerce, e-industry, e-education,
e-citizen, e-health, e-democracy and e-business projects. The
Government hopes to achieve the following goals by 2012:
• increase the telephone density rate in rural areas by 15 per cent
• create mobile connections in 65 per cent of counties
• create Internet connections in the centres of all counties.
At present public hydro, a meteorological service, provides nation-
wide weather and climate information. But this is not downscaled
to local areas where the livestock pastures and the herders live.
There is a need to improve disaster risk reduction and early warning
systems with accurate predictions of hazards designed to assist the
herders, farmers, rural communities and local governments. But
the current density of meteorological stations is too low to provide
more detailed information and Mongolia cannot afford to increase
them at this point. The official weather prediction system does not
provide monthly or seasonal forecasts localized to the county level.
Since 2000, the National Agency for Disaster Management, the
National Agency for Meteorology, Hydrology and Environmental
Figure 2: Vulnerability assessment – pasture and livestock
Pasture vegetation resources and livestock
bodyweight is highly correlated with each
other. Better pasture condition – higher vegeta-
tion index – more forage resource, and animals
accumulate more fat and have more weight,
and become less vulnerable to cold and windy
weather and shortage of forage.
Sheep, goat average weight, kg
Control points