What We Do

Micro Economic Development

The Micro Economic Development (MED) Program helps Mongolian families to improve their livelihoods.

The MED program works to bridge the gaps between vulnerable households, banks and community organizations. Whether through small business growth, regular savings, vocational certification or credit access, the MED program helps its beneficiaries to help themselves.

Key Micro-Economic Development activities include -

Business skills training, advice and Self Help networks, financial literacy training, and assisting micro-entrepreneurs to gain access to credit.

SHG members submitting proposals to the ‘Organic Mongolia Program’. Five of the six proposals were accepted, and the SHG members each received a loan of 12.000.000MNT from the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Xas bank. Some of the eco products which will be produced include dairy products, honey, pickled vegetables and fruit juice.

Creating opportuinities for project beneficiaries to receive wholesale loans from Xac bank.

Micro Economic Development Program

In 2009, the impact of the economic downturn was felt throughout Mongolia and while the pace of the downturn has slowed down in several areas, risks still exist in the banking sector. Bigger financiers face big defaults that may wipe them out, but Micro-finance Institution’s (MFI’s) report almost zero default rates. The financial crisis was a lesson for many financiers about the importance of cash flow and future strategy of a borrowers business plan, not just collatoral.
Overall, ADRA’s Micro Economic Development (MED) program continued it’s activities through three projects: Self Help Group (SHG), Sustainable Livelihood Through Microfinance Innovations (SLMI) and Cultivating Urban Economic Strength (CUES).  Some of the main activities included microfinance and poverty reduction, community organizing, small business training, business development and a loan linkage program. Throughout Mongolia in all 32 MED sites in both urban and rural areas, 196 active SHG’s and 1600 members’ accumulated savings reached the value of 70,924,086 MNT (USD49,150). The program supported 1377 businesses in total and 500 new businesses were established as a result of the program. The program supported 6400 indirect beneficiaries who are family members of the beneficiaries.

Self Help Group Program

ADRA’s Self Help Group (SHG) program aims to build bridges between financial organizations and rural residents who have no business experience, specialized skills or assets to show as collateral. The MED program implemented two projects: Sustainable Livelihood through Microfinance Innovations (SLMI) and the Self Help Group (SHG) project, based on the SHG model. The projects supportted rural residents to help them help themselves to get out of financial difficulty though the self help group model that enables low income earners to find a common solution and work together at low cost. By working as a group, the members are given the opportunity to start a micro business, share experience, increase sales, build professional capacity and improve products to display in local markets. The project highlights the importance of community organization and economic development.  
In 2009 the project supported 1582 members from 191 SHG’s in 26 small villages of Zavkhan, Selenge, and Bayankhongor provinces. The project beneficiaries accumulated 70,674,086 worth of savings in the Mongolian currency and the total value of disbursed loans reached to 888,067,689. Overall, project loan repayment stood at 98% this year. Although, the financial crisis didn’t uproot our beneficiaries, our partnering banks had to pause their commercial loans several times, there were limited loan disbursements, commodity prices increased and the cost of raw materials increased. All these challenges had a serious impact on micro-entrepreneurs; however, they are working to overcome these hurdles.
This project is supported by ADRA Switzerland, ADRA New Zealand and the DEKA Foundation.       

Cultivating Urban Economic Strength (CUES)

The CUES project started in October 2008 and aims to improve the livelihood security of vulnerable urban households in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, and to build the capacity of financial organizations and local NGO’s to serve poorer clients.  More than 60 percent of the total population of Mongolia live in Ulaanbaatar and migration to the capital city is increasing year by year.  According to statistics 10,000 individuals on average move to Ulaanbaatar every year in search of better living and income.  Those migrants usually reside in the ger, or poorer areas of the city, which causes various problems including unemployment.  The CUES project aims to support those people and encourage them to improve household income through business opportunities.  
In 2009, the project helped 614 families including 2456 family members, living in the ger districts, to understand and access the benefits of private business, salaried employment and banking services.
This project is supported by ADRA Australia.