A day in the life of…
Stefanie Burri

I live in the centre of Ulaanbaatar, where there is a dense concentration of tower blocks which are up to 15 storeys high. The buildings become lower the further into the outskirts you go, and you start to see more yurts. It's cold here in winter – sometimes as low as minus 35 degrees. As heat is mainly generated by burning coal, that's when the air quality is at its poorest. Mongolia is heavily dependent on Russia for energy and electricity. So, many people fear there could be negative consequences from the Ukraine war, and the government is trying to be as politically neutral as possible.

Most of our projects are in the countryside; visiting them is time-consuming and exhausting. There are few domestic flights, and the roads are only good as far as the provincial capitals. After that, to reach smaller villages you often have to travel along gravel roads full of potholes. That's why I usually try to arrange several visits to the country at the same time. I recently met with partners from the FAO, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Farmers' Association in Darkhan, north of Ulaanbaatar. We visited small farms together and looked at the storage capacities for the harvests. Food security is a focus of our work. Take potatoes, for example: for a long time they weren't grown here but were imported, especially from China. We provided support to a state-run research institute working to cultivate climate-adapted varieties that promise farmers a good yield. Today, 100% of the potatoes consumed in Mongolia are locally produced. More carrots, beetroot and cabbage are also being grown thanks to better seeds. The importance of food self-sufficiency became particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many goods could no longer be imported.

After visiting Darkhan, we went to Erdenet, some 180 kilometres to the west. The SDC helped to renovate schools there, train teachers and set up teaching curricula. I wanted to visit to get a picture of what worked well and what didn't. I usually also meet local government representatives to find out what they think of the work we are doing and how our projects can be integrated into existing structures. Good governance is an issue that plays a role in all our projects. The government has made great progress in digitalising public services, such as obtaining birth or marriage certificates. Transparency in public services has grown, but corruption remains a major problem and the country's wealth of resources is still very unevenly distributed.

The SDC's engagement in Mongolia will come to an end in 2024. Therefore, we are in the process of handing our projects over to local partners. This process needs to be communicated properly and also placed on a sound legal basis. My team has already shrunk by a third and currently consists of 16 employees, 13 of whom are women. However, everyone who had to leave managed to find a new job with other international organisations in Mongolia without any problems. I'm very pleased about that: it means the knowledge we have built up will be preserved for the country in the longer term.