EU, FAO Mongolia kick-off new initiative to create employment opportunities for youth in agribusiness

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On July 6, the Delegation of the European Union to Mongolia and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized a technical meeting on potential pilots for employment promotion with scope of scaling up and support of policy as part of the larger project on SDG-Aligned Budgeting to Transform Employment in Mongolia funded by the European Union. The technical meeting was held online with the participation of over 60 stakeholders representing the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (MOFALI), Ministry of Labor and Social Protection (MLSP), Khovd, Zavkhan, Tuv and Uvurkhangai aimags, the European Union, UN Development Program (UNDP), FAO, International Labor Organization, private entities in meat, dairy and vegetable sectors and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions. The meeting aimed at maintaining effective public-private partnerships with large scale youth employment potential in agriculture value chains and exploring possible ways to build competitive national Mongolian food brands in national and international markets. H.E. Mr. Traian Hristea, Ambassador of the European Union to Mongolia opened the meeting and highlighted “The European Union is working together with the Government and our international partners to improve skills for employability especially for youth in the agriculture sector, to promote decent work and formal employment in the non-mining sector in Mongolia, with the aim to strengthen economic diversification.” Mr. Vinod Ahuja, FAO Representative in Mongolia emphasized the importance of the project to address the challenges faced in the agricultural value chains by promoting effective public-private partnership in areas with large-scale potential for youth employment and training. More specifically, the project will (i) provide scope for incubating new entrepreneurship ideas in food and agribusiness sector, and (ii) explore untapped potentials of agriculture sector by building and improving competitive national Mongolian food brands to create more jobs for young people. Results from these activities would contribute to policy and program development at national level apart from expanding opportunities and increasing worker productivity Ms. Elaine, UNDP Representative in Mongolia remarked during the opening “With the united efforts of the project, we will be able to promote decent employment in agriculture sector, train or retrain unemployed and jobseekers to choose agriculture as employment path while diversifying the economy with good demonstration of value chains in the sector. The pilots of the project is the core building blocks of this technical assistance project which is expected to greatly impact scaling up and enhancing services for linking local cooperatives, partnerships, and other businesses with markets and linking producers with the network of manufacturers, sellers/distributors and suppliers, addressing labour market gaps”. This is part of the larger European Union funded (EU) technical assistance project (EUR 7.4 million) titled “SDG aligned budgeting to transform employment in Mongolia” that will be jointly implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as technical lead, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Labour Organization (ILO). This larger project is complementary to the first-ever Budget Support Programme in Employment Reforms that the European Union has signed with the Government and implementing in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, with an EU grant of EUR 50.8 million.