Ulaanbaatar, September 9 th, 2022 – Millennium Challenge Account – Mongolia (MCA- Mongolia) organized an experience-sharing and lessons learned workshop on the current gender and social inclusion activities were implemented as part of the Water Compact among the infrastructure contractors - MAPA INSAAT, a Turkish company, and MCS Properties LLC, a Mongolian company.
The workshop started with MAPA representatives sharing their success stories, challenges, and lessons-learned in implementing activities for reaching the targets set out by the Millennium Challenge Corporation and MCA-Mongolia to ensure women‘s employment rate at 30 percent at least, promote local employment and procurement, engage with the communities and provide internship opportunities for students of Technical and Vocational Educational Centers and universities. Furthermore, the discussion went on to elaborate on prevention, management, and response activities are implemented to mitigate the potential risk for negative social impacts including child labor, trafficking in persons, workplace sexual harassment, gender-based violence by the contractor in partnerships with affected administrative units (khoroos and duuregs) and NGOs with similar goals.
As the Gender Specialists of MCS Properties raised their concern about increasing the women‘s employment in the construction sector up to 30 percent to be the greatest challenge above all other targets, Ms. Zerrin (MAPA Manager, Gender and Social Inclusion, MAPA) replied “I found out that Mongolian women are very strong and brave. There is no task that I believe a woman cannot complete in the construction sector. I especially admire seeing women going up the crane and operating the heavy machines or doing the rebar work with much dedication and precision. All we need to do is to provide them with an appropriate working environment”.
We believe that this monthly based workshop will be a good example of spreading out the best practices for ensuring social inclusion and gender equality in the construction sector.
For further information about MCA-Mongolia’s policy and guidelines that apply to all MCA Mongolia-related projects and activities for ensuring gender and social inclusion, please use the below link https://mca-mongolia.gov.mn/social-and-gender-integration-plan
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This $462 million project is a partnership between the American and Mongolian people made possible by $350m in MCC grant funding and the $111.76m contribution from the Government of Mongolia which demonstrates their commitment to working together to achieve economic growth and poverty reduction in Ulaanbaatar. The Mongolia Water Compact is funding major infrastructure projects, including the construction of new wellfields and two large plants - an Advanced Water Purification Plant and Wastewater Recycling Plant which will be the first of their kind in Mongolia. In addition, the Compact will invest in policy measures to create a financially and environmentally sustainable future for the water sector of Ulaanbaatar. By 2026, the water system in Ulaanbaatar will have been expanded to deliver 80% more drinking water, allowing for the city’s future expansion.