MONSTAT Improves Mongolia’s Data and Statistics Capability

After the financial crisis in 2008 and a series of harsh winters, Mongolia took a few years to recover. As part of the recovery, the government set out a wide reaching development strategy, and setting 6 development goals. The government quickly realized that implementation of its strategy would relied heavily on up to date data and statistics. It recognized that Mongolia needed to improve and modernize its internal statistic generation and analytical capabilities in order to effectively implement its new strategic development plan. Mongolia’s old state statistics system was oriented to service the old state lead planned economy from years past. It required a major reorientation to address the needs of the emerging market economy.

The government of Mongolia approached the World Bank for assistance in implementing a new statistics system under a reorganized National Statistical Office (NSO). The World Bank worked with the government to develop the Strengthening of the National Statistics System of Mongolia (MONSTAT) project, designed to generate and distribute, meaningful, accurate and current statistics data, to promote evidence based law making in support of the government’s strategic development agenda.

The first step was to improve institutional, regulatory and policy framework for statistics collection, as well as to put in place higher standards for statistics collection and recording. Personnel knowledge and skill also required improvement, particularly as to survey techniques and data collection methodology. New technology was acquired and implemented to bring operations into the information age. The project introduced data management and quality standards of the EU.

As a result of the efforts of MONSTAT, use reliability and user satisfaction regarding statistics generated by NSO has increased. NSO has explored and implemented new ways to make statistics information available to the public and to researchers. NSO has implemented systems to improve inter-agency cooperation in data-collection and sharing.

The MONSTAT project and the improvements to the NSO are positive examples of Mongolia’s continuing development. The project has provided valuable information to a rage of government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations, working collectively to make lives better for Mongolians and to build a positive environment for foreign investment. With these improvements to the NSO, foreign investors are better able to develop business plans which rely on internal Mongolian statistics.

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