Collaborated to empower cooperatives

A.Altanzul, Herder Organization Certification Specialist of the Project Implementation Unit, introduced the project’s ongoing work, available support, and implementation to more than 150 employees of relevant organizations, about 350 herders, and more than 70 cooperatives in 16 soums of Bayan-Ulgii, Khovd, and Uvs aimags from May 15 to 30, 2025. In addition, he introduced the opportunities and advantages of introducing loans from the public and private sectors, the MNS 6891:2020 Responsible Nomad Good Practices Standard, conducted group and individual interviews, and provided advice based on the situation. Also, a survey with four groups and 30 questions was collected from 57 cooperatives on “Strengthening, Empowering, and Determining Financial Needs of Herders’ Cooperatives”.

Although aimag and soum cooperatives need to merge and become inter-cooperatives, there are several problems. These include:
• Limited access to low-interest, long-term concessional loans.
• Insufficient activity, initiative, and participation of cooperative members.
• Lack of financial knowledge.
• The lack of clarity of state policies to support cooperatives has weakened the activities of cooperatives and sometimes caused them to disperse.
In order to further strengthen cooperative activities, the stakeholders believe that the following tasks can be implemented. These include:
– Improving and merging cooperative activities: Improving and expanding the activities of currently operating cooperatives. Merging cooperatives with dysfunctional operations with stable and stable cooperatives to establish inter-soum cooperatives and empowering them through mutual learning.
– E-learning and information: Conduct frequent training and information in electronic form in collaboration with experts in charge of cooperatives in Bayan-Ulgii, Uvs, and Khovd aimags.
– Pasture-based cooperatives: Establish cooperatives based on communities, herders’ groups, and even joint cooperatives in some soums where it is not possible to establish cooperatives based on pasture users. Establish a system for providing support by preparing pasture, herd, and development plans for a period of five to six years and providing support based on the results of implementation.

– Standard introduction: Organize and support the introduction of MNS 6891:2020 Good Practices for Responsible Nomadic Pastoralism and other standards for member herders to meet basic requirements for the sale of livestock raw materials.