International Cooperation Fund

Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj initiated the establishment of the International Cooperation Fund with the objective to share Mongolia’s experience in democracy and market economy with emerging democracies. Also the Government Action Plan for 2012-2016 stipulates that “Mongolia shall establish a Fund to share its expe­riences of democracy, human rights and market economy with other developing countries and emerging democracies”.

In the past two decades, Mongo­lia has been learning and advancing democracy at home. As a responsible member of the international commu­nity, Mongolia is committed to contrib­ute to addressing global and regional issues. With a view to supporting emerging democracies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) established In­ternational Cooperation Fund of Mon­golia (ICF) according to the amend­ments to the Law on Government Special Funds made by the Parliament on 8 February 2013.

The statute of the ICF was adopted under a Government Resolution No. 115 passed on 30 March 2013. Accord­ing to the Statute the operation of the fund shall be administered by a Coun­cil consisting of seven members.

The ICF Council is chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Other members of the Council include the Foreign policy advisor to the Prime Minister and the Foreign policy and national security advisor to the Presi­dent. The remaining members of the Council are appointed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs from among high level officials from the National Secu­rity Council and the MFA.

The ICF is an important tool to advance and implement Mongolia’s foreign policy objectives in compli­ance with in the Concept of National Security and Foreign Policy Concept, that is to strengthen the country’s role and contributions internationally as a means of diplomatic soft power policy through sharing of its experiences of transition to democracy and democrat­ic process, expanding bilateral coopera­tion with countries in the region and providing development and technical support for emerging democracies.

The IFC Statute states that the ICF will be financed through the state bud­get, grants and contributions from vari­ous development partners including foreign governments and international organizations as well as from domestic and foreign private enterprises, organi­zations, and individuals.

The resources of the ICF shall be used for the following scope of activities:

• Organization of international con­ferences in Mongolia to promote democracy, human rights and good governance,
• Share experiences and lessons learnt with new and emerging de­mocracies,
• Organization of seminars and train­ings for diplomats and public offi­cers from developing countries, in cooperation with other internation­al and regional organizations,
• Send national experts in democracy, human rights and good governance to the relevant international events.

In accordance with the other do­nor countries’ development coopera­tion and technical assistance projects/ programs, activities of the International Cooperation Fund of Mongolia have been developed being initially aimed at countries such as North Korea, Myan­mar, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. Mongolia started sharing its experi­ences in building effective parliamen­tary democracy and legal reform with Kyrgyzstan; Afghan diplomats and civil servants have been trained; media workers, journalists, civil servants and opposition activists from Myanmar were hosted in the country.

Mongolia stands ready to cooperate with many other countries striving to build democracy, including improving their electoral systems.