Mongolia moves as one on local resilience

Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar and all its 21 Provinces have joined the world’s leading global collaboration to strengthen urban resilience. Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) welcomed its newest members at an official ceremony at Mongolia’s Parliament House. The event re-emphasized the ongoing need for scaled up disaster resilience action in an era of escalating climate risk.

Mongolia’s Head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Major General Ariunbuyan.G, said it was important to strengthen the capacity of local governments and maintain a strong coordinated national-local approach to address such a challenging riskscape. ‘The frequency of disasters in Mongolia is increasing, especially due to climate change, putting urban areas at greater risk,’

Major General Ariunbuyan.G said. ‘Joining MCR2030 will contribute to ensuring Mongolia's sustainable development, reduce risks, protect lives, and provide opportunities to live in a healthy and safe environment,’ Advisor of the Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Oyunchimeg.P, highlighted Mongolia’s pride in being recognized for its efforts beyond its borders.

‘As risks and vulnerability of cities continue to increase globally, there is still a lot of work that we can do together. I am confident that the Mongolian cities participating in MCR2030 will closely coordinate disaster risk reduction efforts to create safe, resilient, and sustainable cities,’ she said.

Mr. Baatarhuu, Head of the Administration Department of Ulaanbaatar Capital City said it was important for Ulaanbaatar to provide a lead for other provinces. ‘The city of Ulaanbaatar commits to work hard to strengthen resilience, and to learn from international partners participating in the MCR2030,’ he said. The UN Resident Coordinator for Mongolia, Mr. Tapan Mishra, echoed how MCR2030 provides a big opportunity for Mongolian provinces to further strengthen their resilience and expand partnerships. ‘I am glad to see that Mongolia is now part of MCR2030. Disaster risk reduction is an important part of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Mongolia. The UN will continue to support local governments in Mongolia in their resilience efforts,’ Mr Mishra said.

NEMA, in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), is organizing an MCR2030 technical workshop to support the provincial governments to increase their disaster resilience action. The Head of UNDRR’s Global Education and Training Institute and Office for Northeast Asia,

Mr Sanjaya Bhatia, praised Mongolia’s continued commitment to and leadership on disaster resilience. ‘Mongolia was a champion of the original MCR Campaign where it offered a model of coordinated national-local approach to risk reduction. This inspired many other countries and deserves recognition,’ Mr Bhatia said. ‘Joining MCR2030 is an important step for the local governments of Mongolia. I have no doubt that MCR2030 will benefit Mongolian provinces and at the same time the experience of these local governments will also benefit the MCR2030 global network.’

UNDRR has been a long-standing partner in Mongolia. In recent years, it has provided significant support to Ulaanbaatar and the provinces to use UNDRR’s Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities to identify strengths and gaps to inform their subsequent plans. As a result, the capital and all provinces achieved Sendai Framework global target (e) by 2020 with the development (and subsequent implementation) of local disaster risk reduction strategies. Mongolia has a strong track record in leading the disaster resilience agenda both nationally and internationally. Over the past two decades, the national government, through NEMA, has consistently prioritized disaster risk reduction as integral to its domestic development agenda. In 2018, the country hosted the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

MCR2030 is a United Nations-led global network that has mobilized 1,442 local governments, representing almost 449 million people, committed to strengthening their disaster and climate resilience. The partnership has also convened national governments, municipality associations, service providers, as well as 12 core partners that are a ‘who’s who’ of international organizations active on urban resilience.