01 October 2008 – 31 March 2013

In June 2005, UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Mongolia (former) launched the Enterprise Mongolia Project (EMP-Phase One) with support of the Government of Japan. It aimed in aiding business/entrepreneurship development and job creation, thus poverty reduction particularly in rural Mongolia. The EMP Phase One piloted the One Village-One Product Initiative (OVOPI), which was officially announced as one of the government’s rural development strategies. The project has delivered substantial improvements in local businesses and product development in Mongolia. The results have been highly appreciated by the local people as well as by the Government of Mongolia.

During EMP-1, four local NGO partners were selected in Khentii, Selenge, Uvurkhangai and Khovd aimags as hosts of the Enterprise Mongolia Centers (EMCs) in order to channel project support to the beneficiaries under the Local Cluster Development Initiative (LCDI). By further enhancing technical and operational capacities of local NGO partners, the project aimed to create a fusion between LCDI and the OVOPI components, which were implemented rather independently in EMP- 1.

On request from the Government of Mongolia, UNDP extended its support to the second phase of EMP (EMP-2) since 2008. The EMP-2 has drawn on the experiences and achievements accumulated during the EMP-1 for the purpose of strengthening newly emerged local initiatives and SMEs in order to ensure their further sustainability.

EMP-2 is relevant in its contribution to the results articulated in the Country Programme Document (CDP), UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and the Comprehensive National Development Strategy (CNDS). The project design for the EMP-2 addressed not only the Government’s, but also UN’s priority policies, such as reduction of poverty by supporting the unemployed, poor and women.

EMP-2 has applied the cluster development approach as a key strategy to extend its assistance to the beneficiaries. The cluster development approach, one of the major strategies of regional industry/business development, promoted organization of business clusters (or business groups) among small and micro enterprises to help them overcome disadvantages caused by the small size of their business. Business clustering leads cluster members to more access to information, technologies, the market and available financial services. Networking among cluster members, knowledge spillover and information exchange are also expected to result in efficient business development and new business ideas.

In 2009 project implementation was slow due to delayed recruitment of project manager and staff members (during this time many people run for highly paid mining companies). Details are shown in Annex 9.3. 8.3. UNDP and the Government of Mongolia (National Project Director) had to run the project without the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) in place until November 2009. For this reason, the most of project activities planned for 2009 were shifted to 2010-11 AWPs and performed well. In order to accomplish the objectives stated in the ProDoc, the project duration was extended to March 31, 2013 on the basis of agreement made between the partner agencies.

The implementation of EMP-2 drew heavily on past experience and knowledge obtained from the opportunities and challenges facing the targeted communities. Project activities focused on increasing project beneficiaries’ income and enhancing their livelihoods by supporting the expansion of rural businesses and improving their market opportunities.

This final report covers the entire EMP-2 period from June 2009 to March 2013 and describes the main outcomes and lessons learned through the EMP-2.