Mongolia’s electricity and heating sectors face numerous challenges: reliance on coal-fired plants and an antiquated infrastructure that struggles to meet demand. Limited reserve capacity means the government often must import expensive power from Russia and China. The coal industry’s outsized influence has hindered adoption of what would be bountiful renewable energy thanks to the country’s abundant solar and wind resources. More people are burning cheap, dirty coal for heat in informal settlements in the urban capital, contributing to some of the world’s worst air quality and poor health outcomes.
Mongolia’s potential to harness renewable energy and its government’s goal of becoming an energy exporter provide a fertile opportunity to advance energy reforms and attract international investors. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Abt-led Mongolia Energy Governance (MEG) activity in 2022 to build broad coalitions around politically sensitive reforms and promote self-reliance in Mongolia by bolstering energy sector governance.
MEG promotes a secure, stable, diversified, modern, and self-reliant energy sector through improved governance. We work with government and energy sector partners to increase market competitiveness, provide incentives for private investment, increase resilience to natural and human-induced shocks (including cyberattacks), and support the adoption of modern clean energy technologies.
Among other things, we:
- Promote transfer of knowledge and tools to strengthen the use of data analysis in planning and in assessing operational performance
- Enhance the government’s capacity to issue and award transparent procurements to diversify the investment portfolio and move toward a market-based sector
- Support a well-functioning, competitive energy sector to increase customer choices, improve service quality, increase energy security, maintain accountability for ratepayers, and build confidence among domestic and international financiers for advanced energy systems and technologies.
MEG is also addressing another challenge within the Mongolian energy sector: the underrepresentation of women as leaders and decision-makers. This is reflective of the global situation, where women comprise only 22% of the conventional energy sector and only 12% of leadership roles.
Abt’s equity strategy is to ensure a gender-just clean energy transition. Our Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) interventions include a combination of behavior change, awareness-raising, capacity building, and upskilling to empower women and increase their engagement in the sector. We promote the integration of women and youth into Mongolia’s heating and energy sectors by enhancing their technical and leadership skills, championing role models, and encouraging reflection on deep-seated cultural norms to promote transformative change in the sector.
In 2023, MEG:
- Contributed to the Ministry of Energy’s draft sectoral Gender Action Plan, and was appointed to serve on the GAP implementation working group
- Ensured women were well-represented in all technical trainings, to provide them with the necessary skills to thrive in emerging fields
- Developed and rolled out an e-module titled GESI in Energy and began developing a second e-module on integrating GESI in all stages of the energy project cycle.
- Launched the Energy Sector Women’s Leadership Initiative (ESWLI), tailored to provide junior and mid-level women with management, leadership, and professional skills to advance in their current roles
- Promoted male allyship through a presentation and an all-male panel discussion at the International New Energy Summit to gain the support and involvement of men, who occupy most decision-making positions in the energy sector, in gender equality initiatives
- Delivered gender-based violence and harassment training for stakeholders, to raise awareness around this pervasive issue in Mongolia’s masculinized energy sector.
As part of its efforts to promote women’s engagement in the energy sector, MEG also delivered communications and awareness-raising initiatives, including a well-attended virtual experience-sharing session featuring four women engineers for International Women in Engineering Day in June 2023.
To date, 1,727 people (40 percent women) have benefited from MEG's interventions, including technical study tours, training, and workshops. Abt and USAID MEG are enabling Mongolia’s private energy sector to create jobs and economic growth while reducing pollution, ultimately leading to a self-reliant energy sector.
MEG also provides opportunities for women to receive skills and leadership training to assist them in assuming decision-making roles in the energy sector and to normalize women’s involvement in a workforce made up of predominantly men.
“I wish I had attended the ESWLI leadership training three or five years ago. Attending this training was beneficial for my promotion as the only woman heading the Department of the Energy Regulatory Commission.” says Altantuya Dorjsuren, Head of Consumer and Rural Regulation Department.
Access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services is critical to lowering GHG emissions and toxic air pollutants from the country’s energy sector and reducing Mongolia’s carbon footprint. MEG activities are our first step toward larger goals for the country that contribute to global climate action targets. By 2030, Mongolia aims to become energy self-sufficient. By 2040, Mongolia would like to then export clean energy to neighboring countries in the region. Having achieved these important milestones, the country hopes to increase green energy production and ensure sustainable energy supply to the region by 2050.
MEG activities advance a gender-just energy transition in the country, and women leaders agree this is critical. One of them is Chimegtsetseg Batmunkh, founder and director of Ultrasonic LLC, which is promoting the utilization of Mongolia’s renewable resources through small-scale engineering solutions. Batmunkh, recently featured in MEG’s Women in Energy series, says that engaging women can strengthen systemic improvements. She adds that they can “contribute not only to the industry's growth but also to a more sustainable and efficient future for Mongolia's energy landscape.”