Ulaanbaatar city, October 27, 2022 – MCA-Mongolia organized a site visit to the construction site of the Advanced Water Purification Plant, which is currently under construction at the eastern foot of Songinokhairkhan Mountain, to share experience on ensuring gender equity and social inclusion in the implementation of the projects and activities under the Mongolia Water Compact. More than 20 representatives from the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development (MCUD) participated in the site visit.
During the trip, the managers of MAPA Insaat, the Turkish contractor for the construction of AWPP, representatives from Tetratech, the program management consultant, and the relevant teams of the MCA of Mongolia presented the methodology of reflecting social and gender issues in the project documents and mechanisms of the implementation, and monitoring, and also provided an opportunity to see and experience the implementation at the construction site. In recent years, a representative of the MCUD mentioned in his speech that, the Ministry has been attaching great importance to gender-sensitive policy planning in the construction sector, and notified that the Ministry will continue to collaborate with the MCA-Mongolia on this issue.
D.Bayarsaikhan, head of the Department of Public Administration and Management, MCUD Ministry said that the site visit proved to us that the cooperation of all stakeholders is extremely important to reflect social and gender issues in the implementation of any project and also emphasized the importance of allocating necessary funding to the state budget.
A.Otgonchimeg, Director of Gender and Social Inclusion, in her closing remarks, highlighted the importance of promoting the development of the construction industry without any gender-based discrimination and respecting public interests, and being inclusive of all aspects of society in decision-making and implementation, to reduce poverty and accelerate economic growth.
The MCA-Mongolia is working on increasing social inclusion and ensuring gender equity in all phases of implementation of the projects under the Mongolia Water Compact.
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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 Water 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. As a result, the water system in Ulaanbaatar will have been expanded to deliver 80% more drinking water, allowing for the city’s future expansion.