- 1998. CPR was established..UK’s Westminster Foundation’s financial support was crucial.
- 1999. Produced a research paper “Mongolia’s livestock sector marketing: challenges and recommendations ”
- 1999. Conducted research “Policy options for privatizing the most valuable enterprises”
- 25 August 1999. National English language newspaper UBPost (No 034, 171 ) has published interview on CPR activities highlighting the role played by the Westminster Foundation.
- 28 September 1999. CPR has presented on its research findings to the joint workshop by the Zorig Foundation and USAID “Tranisitional economy and the privatization of the most valuable enterprises”
- 30 September 1999. No 174. CPR gave interview to the national newspaper Udriin Sonin (Daily News) on UN Human Development Report.
- 22 October, 1999, No 193. The leading national newspaper Udriin Sonin has published the findings of the CPR project under the title “Mongolian Cashmere Market: Policy Options”. The article highlighted the importance of recommended policy options for regulating the cashmere market in Mongolia.
- 3 November, 1999, No 200. One of the leading national newspapers Mongoliin Medee (Mongolian News) has published an interview by the authors of the CPR project on privatization of the most valuable enterprises of Mongolia. The interview was focused on the alternative ways of privatization of most valuable enterprises in Mongolia.
- 20 December 1999. The workshop attended by Mr. Ochirbat, the former President of Mongolia, Members of the Parliament Mr. Battsereg, Bold and Badamdamdin, high level officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Nature and Environment, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and top scientists of Mongolia including Mr. Chadraa, the President of the Academy of Sciences extensively discussed the findings and policy recommendations of the study by the CPR on regional development opportunities in Mongolia and highly valued the contribution the study made to enriching policy alternatives available for the Government.
- 13-15 December, 1999. Dr. Enkh-Amgalan, CPR’s Founding Director has presented a paper “Present Issues of Pasture Use” to the UNESCO funded International Symposium “Nomads and Use of Pastures Today” held in Ulaanbaatar 13-15 December.
- 18 November 1999. On behalf of the Centre Dr. Enkh-Amgalan has presented a paper “Challenging Issues of Governance Reform and Co-ordination of Governance-related Aid in Mongolia” to the Meeting of Donors in Mongolia.
- 10 March, 2000. The Centre in co-operation with the Government Secretariat has organized the ceremonial meeting for the winners of the competition among the youth for the best research paper. At the ceremony held in the Government House on March 10th the authors of the award-wining papers received Diploma signed by the CPR’s Founding Director and the Head of the Strategic Management Department of the Cabinet Secretariat. The event was reported by mass media.
- 13-15 March, 2000. The Centre in collaboration with the National Council for Sustainable Development headed by the Prime-Minister, the Council for Co-ordination of Foreign Aid and the Ministry of Finance has organized the seminar on national development strategies in the Government House. The seminar attended by top politicians including the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Minister of Finance and representatives of foreign aid agencies and top scientists has discussed 13 papers by individuals and organizations. Dr. Enkh-Amgalan, the Founding Director of the CPR presented the results of policy analyses conducted by the Centre under the title ‘ Issues of Development Policies: Results of Some Analyses’.
- April 3-6, 2000, the Centre for Policy Research in cooperation with the North East Asian SURF Programme of UNDP hosted an international seminar “Recovery with Incomplete Reforms” in the capital city Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Dr. Enkh-Amgalan, CPR’s Founding Director has presented paper “Productivity Losses of on-going Transitional Changes In the Extensive Livestock Industry”
- 8-10 May 2000. CPR has presented its research findings on dzud strategies to the joint workshop by UNDP and the Ochirbat Foundation on Human Security attended by donors and international organizations in Mongolia.
- 6 June 2000. CPR research findings on dzud strategies were published by the national newspaper Udriin Sonin (Daily News).
- June-July 2000. Conducted a research on alternative ways for taxing herders. Herders while produce 35% of GDP and contribute only 0.4% of tax revenues. Based on this fact the center has developed a proposal to drastically change herders’ taxation. Organized a meeting with relevant officials from the Ministry of Finance on the research findings.
- 19-21 March 2001. World Bank has organized Asia-Pacific regional workshop “Rural Development Strategy and Action Planning” in Cebu, Philippines. Mongolia’s NO sector was presented by CPR. Dr.Enkh-Amgalan has contributed to the preparation and discussions of draft policies on rural development.
- 2-3 April 2001. CPR hosted an international workshop “Mongolia’s livestock sector and natural resource management” in cooperation with IFAD and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
- 2000-2002. Designed and implemented sub-project ‘Strengthening Customary Herders Groups’, sub-project under UNDP’s MAP-21 project. Using a combination of holistic and bottom-up approaches the project piloted ways to shift the extensive livestock industry in Mongolia into sustainable path of development though enhancing collective actions among herders, especially strengthening customary groups of herders. Project undertook the first in Mongolia empirical testing of strengthening informal groups of herders based on shared use grazing areas and wells through identification and registration of their grazing rights, upgrading collective actions among members into formal organizations of herders /NGO’s and cooperatives/, introducing self-sustainable mechanisms for maintenance of supplementary fodder and veterinary services, providing micro-credits for launching alternative income generation activities.
- December 2000. The ‘Strengthening Customary Herders Groups’ project activities were covered by the national newspaper Udrrin Sonin of 8 December 2000 and the English language newspaper MongolMessenger of 20 December 2000.
- Mach-April 2001. The ‘Strengthening Customary Herders Groups’ project activities were covered by the national Radio program Soyombo 10 times reaching most remote corners of Mongolia.
- 15 January 2002. Organized Workshop ‘Let’s Listen to Herders’, under the UNDP pilot project ‘Strengthening Customary Herding Communities’ in the Government House in cooperation with the Parliament Standing Committee for Rural Development and Environment. Mr. Gungaadorj, the Standing Committee Chairman, highlighted the importance of the project’s participatory approach for the implementation of policy decisions at herders’ level. He also highlighted the efforts by the Center for Policy Research /CPR/ to co-ordinate project activities with policy directions of the Standing Committee and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The Standing Committee, he continued, is of high opinion about the project outcomes and advocates its further expansion by UNDP and other donors. Mrs. Saraswathi Menon noted that the project has piloted many ideas, she highlighted, some of which were never attempted before in Mongolia. Among these was the development of pasture resource possession contracts which, she said, played a vital role in the sustainable development of Mongolia’s extensive livestock sector by ensuring the protection and efficient use of pasture resources by local communities and securing access and availability of productive assets for the poor. Mr. Terbishdagva, Vice Minister for Food and Agriculture stressed the importance of adequate marketing outlets, non-herding income generation activities and productivity improvement for upgrading the livestock industry.
- 13-14 September 2001. CPR has presented a paper “Sustainable Rural Development” to the national workshop at the Government House “Incroporating poverty reduction issues into the development strategies”.
- 2001. Implemented FAO’s TCP/MON/0066 “Institutional Capacity Building and training on Pastoral Risk Management” project in selected soums of Uvs and Tuv aimags and organized research and training on herders groups, pastureland and risk management.
- 2001. Contracted by USAID, Mercy Corps International’s “Gobi Regional Economic Growth Initiative” to identify problems faced by project herding communities in Uvurhangai and Dundgobi aimags and develop Action Plan of activities in 7 areas: industry organization/institution-building; grazing land use; veterinary services; livestock breeding; supplementary feeding; marketing and SME development; herders’ business skills.
- October 2002. Developed Rural Development Strategy for Mongolia focused on Maximum Participation of Local Bodies and Citizens, Improvement of Risk Management and Creation of an Enabling Environment for Rural Economic and Social Development
- 2002-2003. Implemented ADB’s “Capacity Building for Agriculture”, TA MON 3606 in Zavhan, Gobi-Altai, Hovd and Uvs aimags. Developed and tested guidelines for introducing community-based management of pastures and wells including model agreements for possession and use of pastures and wells. Started the preparation of sum-level digital maps for improved land use management. Designed and organized training seminars for sum-level pasture co-management working groups.
- 2003-2006. Implemented “Pastoral Risk Management Component” of the WB’s Sustainable Livelihoods Project (SLP). The component produced a package of digital pastureland use maps for 143 soums, organized training for herders groups and soum officials and produced pastureland management and contingency plans for all 143 soums in 8 project aimags.
- 2002-2006. Within the framework for preparing WB’s “Index-based Livestock Insurance Project” conducted series of studies. A policy research paper prepared by Dr.Enkh-Amgalan in co-author with Jerry Skees of USA “Feasibility Analysis of Livestock Insurance in Mongolia”, No 2886, World Bank, September 2002, played a an important role in preparing the project design conceptually.
- 2003. Carried out “Livelihood Survey for Poor Herders” for JICA in 3 selected soums of Sukhbaatar and Zavkhan aimags. Designed survey instruments, interviewed 100 poor households or equivalent number of hot-ails in each soum, discussed findings of the survey findings with soum officials, and prepared a report focusing recommendations for addressing key problems faced by poor herders’ households.
- 2003-2004. Conducted a socio-economic study in all soums of the Dornogobi aimag for JICA and Pacific Internationals (Japan) under the “Preparation of Sustainable Livestock Development Plan in the Dornogobi aimag” project. Analyzed the current situation with well management (tenure, maintenance, user charges etc.), prepared training materials to be used in community-based well management, provided facilitators for training of herders in well management and prepared report on socio-economic conditions and herders training.
- 2003-2004. Developed “A set of policy reference materials useful for SGMPs policy development activities”, Sustainable Grassland Management Project (SGMP), UNDP.
- 2004. Developed “National Disaster Management Policy” for the UNDP’s “Strengthening the Disaster Mitigation and Management System in Mongolia” project. The policy covered disaster prevention and early warning, preparedness and early response, disaster mitigation and reduction of potential damages and consequences, liquidation of impacts and consequences and disaster rehabilitation and recovery stages.
- 24 August 2004. The Dutch Government initiated a special program to engage researchers from developed and developing nations in joint research aimed at reducing poverty by improving natural resource management. Research proposals from developing nations have been selected through competitive procedures. CPR’s proposal to study a linkage between herders poverty and pastureland degradation was selected and implemented in 2003-2004 as a joint research project between CPR and Dutch researchers. The research findings were published in the national newspaper Zuunii Medee No 200.
- 14-15 December 2004. The national workshop “Pastureland legislation: pressing issues and solutions“ was organized by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture /MFA/, UNDP and other donors. CPR has presented “Recommendations for improving the pastureland legislation and its enforcement” to the workshop. CPR recommendations provided core inputs to the MFA’s proposal to amend the effective Land Law.
- 2004-2006. Implemented training project “Introducing technologies for hay improvement and fodder preparation” for IFAD’s “Rural Poverty Reduction Programme”. The project piloted simple methods for natural hay improvement supported by haymaking technologies with 16 herder groups in forest steppe, steppe and semi-steppe zones, organized group training and field demonstration of technologies for the preparation of hand-made fodder using locally-available sources covering over 400 herders and specialists of relevant aimag and soum authorities, developed soum hayland map and recommendations on technologies of hay improvement applicable to different geo-ecological zones and piloted different methods for protection of hayland by fencing on 42 ha of natural hayfields.
- May-October 2006. Implemented “Pastureland Management Demonstration” in Erdene and Erdenesant soums of Tuv aimag for the WB’s Sustainable Livelihoods Project (SLP). The project piloted community-based initiatives of protecting pastures, hayfields and water sources by fencing, ell digging, pasture rotatioans, establishing reserve pastures, introducing pastureland land use agreements and resolving pasture and water conflicts and provided extensive training to herders and soum officials.
- 2006-2008, Implemented Face-to-face training of herders and local governments under the World Bank’s Index-based Livestock Insurance Project /IBLIP/ is aimed for reducing rural vulnerabilities through the development of new and strengthened systems of risk management complement and will support pastoral risk management activities. Developed detailed methodologies to explain IBLIP concepts to herding families and local governments and other stakeholders. Organized the face-to-face education in each of 56 sums of 3 project aimags providing training to more than 30 thousand herders’ households and all local government officials of 56 soums in 3 aimags.
- 2006-2007. Implemented project “Developing a soum mid-term economic development strategy” of the Open Society Institute (OSI) & the Open Society Forum (OSF) in Mongolia in 4 soums of Arkhangai, Bayankhongor, Uvs and Khuvsgul provinces. Promoted local communities and governments towards initiating multi-faced consultative dialogues and cooperation amongst public and private sectors in developing feasible economic development strategy to be implemented through locally owned programs and projects and assisted 4 soums to develop actual plans.
- 2007. Implemented “Master plans for improving business environment” for Mercy Corpse USA in Erdenebulgan, Batstengel, Tariat soums of Arkhangai aimag and, Zereg, Durgun, Erdeneburen soums of Khovd aimag, Tsagaanchuluut, Ikh-Uul, Tes soums of Zavhan aimag and Munkhkhaan, Baruun-Urt, Sukhbaatar soums of Sukhbaatar aimag. The project prepared methodologies for developing soum master plans, assessed the existing business environment in soums and assisted soums in developing own mid-term soum development plans using participatory methods.
- 2007. Carried out “Perceptions Study on Water Use in the Khanbogd Soum” for the Oyu Tolgoi project by The Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc. The study designed survey instruments for studying the use of water for both animal and human drinking, completed a primary data collection field survey, prepared digital maps of water users and their seasonal camp movements, documented historical water use / consumption, studied the existing methods, informal and formal, for monitoring water quality by water users, identified local perceptions of what factors affect water availability and quality in wells and springs, the fair and unfair use of groundwater and surface water resources, identified roles played by parties for managing water resources and the mechanism employed.
- 18 December 2007. National daily newspaper Zuunii Medee No 301 published an article by Dr.Enkh-Amgalan “Let’s decide the pasture issue this way” containing a policy proposal for pastureland tenure.
- 4 July 2008. National daily newspaper Zuunii Medee No 161 published an article “Political turmoil and national disintegration is not a way Mongolians should follow”, CPR’s response to political turmoil on 1 July 2008 after the 2008 general election.
- 2008-2009. Carried out “Social, Economic and Environmental Baseline Study of the South Gobi aimag” for the Oyu Tolgoi project by The Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc. and the Umnugobi aimag “Development Fund” in cooperation with Dr. Catherine MacDonald, international consultant from Australia and the Population Training & Research Center from the Economics School of the Mongolian National University. The study designed detailed indicators and survey instruments for measuring key environmental, social and economic standing, collected and processed primary using the questionnaire, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, organized the collection of water and soil samples and processed the collected data and prepared baseline indicators for social, economic and environmental conditions of the aimag (province) by each soum (district).
- 2008-2009. Implemented project “Strengthening pasture management and monitoring committees” for IFAD’s “Rural Poverty Reduction Programme”. The project built capacities of soum authorities and herding communities of 32 soums of RPRP-targeted 4 aimags, train local trainers in pasture management, provide assistance in establishing 32 NGOs (one in each soum), strengthened local Range Management and Monitoring Committees.
- 2009. Carried out “Social Impact Assessment /SIA/ of the Oyu Tolgoi project by the Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc. under guidance by Dr. Catherine MacDonald, international consultant from Australia and in cooperation with the Population Training & Research Center from the Economics School of the Mongolian National University
- 2009. Carried out “Social Impact Assessment /SIA/ of the Ukhaa Hudag project by the Mongolian Energy Resources company in cooperation with Dr. Caleb Wall, international expert from Canada.
- 2009. Implemented “Re-fresher Training in Pastureland Planning in Eight Aimags” WB SLP-II. The project conducted participatory surveys among local stakeholders to identify their perceptions on the importance of and benefits of pastureland management planning, provided training to relevant authorities and herders groups to enable them to update pastureland management plans, assisted soum land officers to update the existing land management plans, trained GIS experts from 8 aimags in updated GIS applications and software for soum pastureland management planning and mapping.
- 11 December 2009. National daily newspaper Udriin Sonin No 297 published an interview by Dr.Enkh-Amgalan “Improving pastureland management, building a model soum and reducing livestock risks” containing detailed information about SLP-II project implementation.
- 2009-2012. “Pastureland management planning, demonstration, risk mitigation and response planning” for the SLP-II, World Bank. The project will prepare training materials to promote bottom-up, participatory and community (herders group) based pastureland and risk management, develop a computer software to facilitate the process of preparing a soum annual pastureland management plan, prepare a series of digital pastureland maps for each of 188 soums, provide training on identifying the best herders’ proposals on pastureland management, alternative income-generation, business development and marketing, household record keeping, group development, environmental assessment of herders’ projects, organize exchange visits among herders and local officials to promote best practices in the area of pastureland management, risk management, group development and business development.
- 2010. Implemented “Land use study” for the Centerra Gold’s Boroo Gold mine. The study has prepared 1:100000 scale digital land use maps containing topography, soum, bag, settlement boundaries, main infrastructure lines, mines; forest boundaries, protected area boundaries, normal herder migratory routes, existing uses of the agricultural land, existing land rights to the agricultural land, existing water resources etc.
- 2010. Implemented “Gobi Region Technical and Vocational Skills, Labour and Training Survey” for the MCA’s Technical and Vocational Education Training /TVET/ Project and the Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc’s Oyu Tolgoi project. The survey has assessed impacts of key issues of the current/future supply of and demand for labor and skills development in the Gobi Region, determined the existing/available skills in the region, determined existing/potential demand for skilled labor, conducted gap and institutional analyses between demand and supply of skilled labor.
- 22 January 2010. National daily newspaper Zuunii Medee No 17 published an article by Dr.Enkh-Amgalan “The livestock sector needs drastic policy reform” containing a policy proposal for introducing differentiated grazing fee system as an incentive for changing herders’ behavior from livestock number maximization to quality/productivity oriented strategies.
- 26 January 2010. The above article was published in English language in the UB Post, No 007.
- 2010. CPR’s position with regard to the draft Pasture law was published in the national daily newspapers Udrrin Sonin /3 November 2010, No 264/, Unuudur /4 November 2010, No 256/ and Zuunii Medee /9 November 2010, No 268/ triple times each.
- 2009-2011. “Rangeland mapping and information gathering for rangeland environmental assessment” for Mongolia’s Millennium Challenge Account’s (MCA) Peri-Urban Rangeland Project. The project will identify tracts of rangeland in the peri-urban areas of Darkhan, Erdenet, Ulaanbaatar cities and Choibalsan and Kharkhorin regional centers suitable for leasing to herder groups and running the intensive and semi-intensive farming. 465 tracts will be leased under the Peri-Urban Activity. It will also gather and analyze a wide range of information in the target areas, organize field survey of herders’ households to identify the pastureland use patterns, household characteristics and income, livestock species structure, current livestock risks, willingness to engage in intensive and semi-intensive farming etc, prepare a GIS on key components of the pastureland use, organize extensive training to local government officials and herders on pastureland management, the need for and ways to run the intensive and semi-intensive farming.
- 2009-2011. “Support process of selecting groups to receive leases and public outreach education campaign on pastureland leasing under peri-urban rangeland” for Mongolia’s Millennium Challenge Acoount’s (MCA) Peri-Urban Rangeland Project. The project will organize the face-to-face training sessions for herders and local government officials, operate the information dissemination centers in each project soum providing training and information delivery services to herders and local officials, provide training to herders groups on how to write project applications, organize training to local selection panels of the soums and districts to equip them with the skills to evaluate proposals by herders’ groups, organize mass media outreach activities.