Starting from Scratch: The Challenge of Transition 1997 | 25 January 2016

By David South (Canada), UNV Information Officer, UNDP, Mongolia

UNV News #78 November 97

After seven years of transition to a market economy, Mongolia – a former satellite of the Soviet Union that has had a democratic government since 1992 – has been profoundly changed. Where it once had a rigid communist government and few contacts with the west, Mongolia has pursued rapid economic, political and social liberalisation. Mongolia has a small population – 2.3 million – spread out over a vast territory wedged between Russia and China.

Communication has in many ways deteriorated over the past seven years as the old communication networks from the communist era have not been fully replaced by the private sector. More and more it became apparent that government and the private sector were almost working in the dark in understanding how transition has affected Mongolians.

In partnership with the Mongolian government, UNDP initiated the researching of Mongolia’s first human development report back in the middle of 1996. It was launched on September 5 of this year, with UNVs playing a key role. To lead the team in producing the report, British poverty specialist and UNV Shahin Yaqub was brought in. Only 29-years-old – one of the youngest UNVs in Mongolia – Yaqub joined a rapidly expanding UNV presence in the country. There are now 24 international UNVs and 26 Mongolian UNVs deployed throughout the country in UNDP’s projects.

The thirst for expertise in Mongolia – a country undergoing the growing pains of transition to a market economy – has placed high demand on UNVs. UNVs occupy senior roles in all of UNDP’s projects.

The 1997 Mongolian Human Development Report is a prime example of the important goal of capacity building conducted by the UNDP. For Yaqub, the report’s principal author, it was like starting from scratch. A poverty research office had to be set up before the work could begin. A team of Mongolia’s top statistical researchers had to be trained in the latest methodologies for social research.

Yaqub was excited by the project. He said: ”There was no office when I first came. We had to organise the office to understand who does what and basically create the focal point for poverty analysis in Mongolia”.

Yaqub also had some of his basic assumptions tested. The small population of this country – only 2.3 million – had meant the previous communist regime was able to build up a large archive of statistics on the population. A good portion of the information was not up to international standards, but it potentially represented a wellspring of data to start from. “Mongolia is number-rich. To even have that kind of data is very rare for a developing country. But unfortunately we found all this information was stored on Russian mainframe computers that didn’t work anymore!”

During the actual production of the report, Yaqub was joined by three more UNVs: Mustafa Eric, a Turkish journalist working with the Press Institute of Mongolia, Jerry van Mourik, a Dutch journalist now working as the Support Officer to the United Nations Resident Co-ordinator, and UNDP Information Officer David South, a former journalist with the Financial Times in London, England.

The high-profile role played by media UNVs was crucial if the report was to not end up collecting dust on a government shelf. The report is a repository of essential and new information on the state of human development in Mongolia, including data showing rising poverty rates and serious threats to food security. Like all human development reports produced by UNDP, it was not meant to be a prescriptive tract, but a lubricant for a national debate on sustainable development in Mongolia. This altered the design and presentation of the report.

Instead of looking academic, the report took on the appearance of a magazine, from its cover to colourful children’s paintings inside. UNV Mustafa not only assisted with the report’s design and production, he also used his contacts in the Mongolian media to ensure the report was distributed across the country. UNV van Mourik assisted with publicity, including producing an emotionally-charged television commercial weaving together vignettes from Mongolia’s recent history to tell the story of human development.

Already in its second print run in both English and Mongolian, the report has been adopted as their study guide by Mongolians wanting to learn English.

“Mongolia is a rewarding place to work,” said Yaqub. “As a technical specialist and UNV, what you bring to the job is valued. I researched poverty for five years before coming to Mongolia and I felt I had something to contribute. But I also realised I had something to learn as well. You always have to keep in mind you are bringing your own baggage to the job – be it cultural, emotional or intellectual. Coming from an academic background, I was not afraid to be told I was wrong.”

Yaqub, who had worked in poverty analysis in the Philippines and Bangladesh before coming to Mongolia, will never forget the country that sparked his new passion: horses.

“You give up things as a volunteer – your time, your income, all the things you took for granted back home. But what you give up is compensated by rewarding work and good friends. When I learned to ride a horse, I can place it directly and clearly to Mongolia – that memory will always be with me.”

Just before Yaqub left Mongolia for work with UNDP in New York, he participated in a series of public debates in one of Mongolia’s poorest provinces, Khuvsgul aimag. The public debates are used to introduce the report to the grassroots while sparking discussion on sustainable human development.

"Starting from scratch: The challenge of transition": UNV News, November 1997

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Freedom Of Expression: Introducing investigative journalism to local media in Mongolia 1999 | 25 January 2016

By David South, UNV Information Officer

UNV News

05 June 1999

Bonn, Germany: "The training allows us to learn about western theories of journalism," says Mr. Nyamjav, editor of the Erkh Choloo (Freedom) newspaper. A UNDP project in Mongolia has brought journalists from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital, to run an investigative journalist training programme for their colleagues in the rural community of Moron. The programme introducing investigative journalism to students consists of a workshop and various field assignments. Here, I report on day two of the training.

9:00 a.m.

Eleven student journalists and the two trainers, Ms Oyunsetseg and Mr. Batbold from the Press Institute of Mongolia, quickly run through the day's schedule. The journalists will spend the next two hours interviewing subjects for their stories. All the journalists say this is the first time they've explored in detail this sub-category of journalism. Not all the students are experienced journalists, but this is made up for by the quality of the two facilitators, both of whom keep the workshop lively.

11:30 a.m.

The debate begins over the choice of stories. One team has chosen to look at poverty alleviation projects at the Bak (local government) level. They want to write a story looking at poor accountability for loans, the practice of nepotism and the ability of recipients to start small businesses. The team investigating power black-outs wants to conduct further interviews with the poorest people affected by such interruptions.

4:00 p.m.

Back at the offices of the Erkh Choloo newspaper, editor Nyamjav discusses the week's news with his graphic designer. The skills of the staff impress me. While they have only one computer and barren offices, the paper won an award from the Press Institute for being the best local paper in 1997. The newspaper will be cut off from local government subsidies for printing at the end of this year and is already making plans to find other sources of revenue. Nyamjav is pleased with the results of the UNDP project, saying: "It has noticeably changed our stories - I know how to criticise reporters and push them to be more investigative."

8:30 p.m.

Outside Ulaanbaatar a petrol shortage has hit hard. At a Moron filling station drivers patiently wait for new supplies to arrive or to receive their ration. Not only is there no fuel, there is also no electricity. On a field assignment the journalists investigating the power black-outs interview Mr. Sukhbaatar the power station director who says 3,500 households owe the utility Tug 27 million (US$27,411). It is the poorest households that are unable to pay in the Ger districts. A Ger is a Mongolian felt tent. Without payment, their power is cut off.

9:00 p.m.

I am asked to conduct a one-hour discussion of my experiences as an investigative journalist in Canada and England. The debate afterwards is lively. A common question is how to deal with pressure from government and corporations to alter the content of stories. The difficulty the regional journalists have in distributing newspapers to remote communities is a common complaint. They ask how international donors could help in this matter, pointing out that in the past the government subsidised newspaper distribution to a greater extent. They would like to be linked with international journalists in some way, preferably through an association.

A useful source of information: www.un-mongolia.mn

"Freedom of Expression: Introducing investigative journalism to local media in Mongolia": UNV News, June 1999.

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Austerity and History | 27 November 2015

Two historical works I am cited in as a resource both share a connection to austerity crises. The first, Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists by Morris Rossabi (University of California Press), draws on my work for UNDP Mongolia (1997-1999) to show the impact of austerity policies on the country as it peacefully transitioned from Communism to free markets and democracy in the 1990s.

Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to CapitalistsModern Mongolia on Google Books.

The second, Recollections of a Neighbourhood: Huron-Sussex from UTS to Stop Spadina by Nancy Williams and Marie Scott-Baron (editors) (Words Indeed Publishing), details the evolution of a remarkable - and bohemian - Toronto, Canada neighbourhood in which I lived in the 1980s and 1990s. It uses an image from Watch Magazine, a youth culture biweekly I edited in 1994 and 1996. The magazine was launched during the depths of Canada's austerity crisis. Despite the economic gloom, the magazine fizzed with youthful vitality and edge and contributed to Toronto's resurgence. The particular piece cited is a feature on Rochdale College, a late 1960s experimental college associated with the University of Toronto that lit up the neighbourhood with hippie and alternative cultures, until it went into meltdown as drug gangs took control. It was a bold experiment and a reflection of the counter culture vibe of the time.

Recollections of a Neighbourhood: Huron-Sussex from UTS to Stop Spadina

"Peace, Order and Good Pot" by Bill White.

List of Illustrations: Sandwiched between Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and urbanist Jane Jacobs.

Southern Innovator Scale-Up Begins: Get on Board! | 4 June 2015

 

Southern Innovator achieved a great deal during its first phase. The magazine’s concept was beta tested as five issues were developed and rolled out across the global South. Feedback and comments came in from around the world and the magazine was refined based on user responses and experience.

During this time, a plan was developed to scale-up Southern Innovator over the next five years. We would like to do this in two phases. Contact us to learn more about the plan, what resources we require and how to get involved. What is on offer is truly remarkable: an ability to connect with the best and brightest of the global South at the very moment they are shaping the new world of the 21st century. Many have failed to grasp this opportunity and thus have been heavily damaged during the economic crisis; principally because they have failed to understand profound global changes and to see how they can use them to improve what they are doing (though, if they had been reading Southern Innovator, they would have been very clued up!).

Southern Innovator is a product of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), so it is able to directly plug into the UN’s network of global resources helping countries and people. This is a substantial resource and not to be overlooked. Getting involved gets you plugged in and switched on!

http://www.davidsouthconsulting.com/case-studies/southern-innovator-magazine-2015-2017.html

Southern Innovator Summary of Impact 2015

Reflecting on What Has Been Accomplished: The David South Consulting Impact Summary | 27 March 2015

 

The title David South Consulting Summary of Impact is now available online. It covers work undertaken around the world from 1997 to 2014. This has included the rising use of the Internet to communicate, publishing during a major crisis, the campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), modernizing online health resources and how hospital’s communicate in the 21st century, and chronicling some of the most powerful trends sweeping the planet as the global South increases its wealth. 

As powerful information technologies find their way to even the remotest and poorest places on earth, what is communicated on these platforms becomes more and more important. While governments may believe they can ring-fence and hold back the spreading of ideas – both good and bad, negative and positive – ideas will spread because human beings are ingenious communicators. Even if mobile phones and the Internet were to disappear tomorrow, people would find other ways to spread ideas. The future will be ever-more shaped by those who can spread useful ideas even faster. With the right idea, a problem can be tackled or solved. Most of the problems plaguing today’s world can be solved. The advances made in science and technology in the past half century are mind-boggling and many innovations are held back because of fear societies are just not ready to adapt, or because certain interest groups would rather not share what should be a common human inheritance. A simple newsletter, humble in its design, can have a profound impact if the content resonates with people’s dreams and aspirations; if the knowledge and ideas it contains makes them more powerful or able to act.

A magazine can be so much more than just pretty pictures and nice colours if its content captures a common and shared experience neglected by other media. Southern Innovator magazine is an example of this at work.

David South Consulting Summary of Impact

© David South Consulting 2017