The Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia
About the Report: Drawing on a multi-stakeholder participatory process, “The Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia” is a QAG 1 rated report that aims to assist the Mongolian government in addressing the issues of governance and accountability through actionable recommendations. This ESW is highly relevant to the Mongolia CAS and offers a variety of actionable proposals ranging from promoting citizen voice and media freedom, to creating and/or improving mechanisms for citizen engagement in public institutions.
Governmental accountability has become an increasing focus of attention by the World Bank and other international donors in their development policies, strategies, and programs. Efforts to promote accountability have traditionally focused on improving horizontal accountability between governmental actors and institutions, that is, the “supply-side” of governance. Recently, however, the “demand side” of governance, including but not limited to the electoral process, has received greater attention. This vertical form of social accountability is based on civic engagement as a means to promote transparency and responsiveness in public policy making and implementation and is increasingly regarded as vital for good governance. Moreover, social accountability empowers citizens, especially poor citizens, and promotes inclusive and accountable institutions that can enhance the political legitimacy and stability of a government and strengthen social cohesion.
Accountability of public officials is the cornerstone of good government and a prerequisite for an effective democracy. The World Bank and other international donors are paying increasing attention to accountability and transparency of public institutions in their development policies, strategies, and programs. Efforts to enhance government accountability have concentrated on improving so-called “horizontal” mechanisms of accountability between governmental actors and institutions. These include: 1) political mechanisms such as constitutional constraints, separation of powers, the legislature, and legislative investigative commissions; 2) fiscal instruments such as formal systems of auditing and financial accounting; 3) administrative mechanisms such as hierarchical reporting, norms of public sector probity, public service codes of conduct, and rules and procedures regarding transparency and public oversight, and 4) legal mechanisms such as corruption control agencies, ombudsmen, and the judiciary (Goetz and Gaventa 2001).
Part II: Key Aspects of the Mongolian Country Context
Since 1990, Mongolia has undergone a rapid economic and political transition from being an authoritarian socialist regime with a centrally planned economy to a democracy with a market-based economy. However, corruption in key sectors has undermined its economic performance and political reforms. In addition, economic and environmental factors, combined with relaxation in state control of internal migration, have contributed to a dramatic increase in urban migration, particularly to the capital city, which now constitutes approximately half of the Mongolian population. Although Mongolia’s legal regime is relatively conducive to civic engagement and social accountability, there remain problematic areas within its legal and regulatory codes as well as inefficiencies in implementation, some resulting from Mongolia’s socialist legacy.
Part III: Assessment of the Enabling Environment for Social Accountability
Having established the sociopolitical and economic context in which social accountability mechanisms operate in Mongolia, the remainder of the ESW focuses on an assessment of the enabling environment for CSOs to exact accountability from their public officials. The three aspects of the environment the study evaluates—Voice, Information, and Negotiation—serve as an analytical framework to evaluate both the opportunities for and constraints on civic engagement and social accountability.
This study on the enabling environment for social accountability in Mongolia has illustrated diverse approaches to promoting accountability of government institutions through civic engagement. These include legislative advocacy, participatory public expenditure monitoring, information campaigns, and community score cards. These mechanisms have had mixed results because of certain factors external to civil society (the political, economic, legal, and socio-cultural context) and internal factors (CSO capital, governance, and accountability) that affect the ability of civil society actors to exercise their Voice, gain access to Information, and Negotiate with public officials to promote social accountability (part II). In particular, the study concurs with the findings of the 2005 World Bank study, “Civil Society in Mongolia’s Development and Governance: An Overview of Trends, Constraints, and Opportunities” (Finch 2005), which established that CSO financial constraints lead to a high level of dependency on foreign resources and limits their ability to fulfill their missions, including civic engagement.
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