The snow covered airport grounds should have been enough to give away the fact that it was cold, but it is still a bit of a shock to the system when your breath is clouding over inside the terminal. It was 6:00pm and very dark when we joined the 'chaotic but quiet' traffic into town. It seemed strange; cars going in pretty much all directions, pushing in and through, ignoring 'colour lights' and policeman - and all done without horns blaring - I'm not used to that.
I couldn't see a great deal outside, but what I could look liked a giant construction sight. Cranes tower above the buildings on both sides as far as I could see, smoke belches from high industrial chimneys, high tension electrical towers cut across and through roads. It's very dark - there are street lights, but not working. And then all of a sudden there are neon signs, high rise buildings, hotels, karaoke bars, pubs and brightly lit tall Christmas trees.
And here I am, having a little bit of Christmas, white, cold and in Mongolia! Why? Well...
Two of the (many) challenges faced by the people of Mongolia, (as identified by the World Bank) are 'dodgy road systems' and education. So, the World Bank (WB) are offering Civil Society Organisations in Mongolia the opportunity to bid for funding under the Global Partnerships for Social Accountability (GPSA) program. Our Mongolian office requested some help to design and write a proposal - so here I am and will be for a week.
Because our experience is in education we will be working with Education and Social Accountability partners to understand what shortcomings there are in the Education sector from a policy and systems perspective and then, (to meet the WB requirements) we will be designing a 4 year project that seeks to create beneficiary demand for education rights whilst at the same time building the capacity of local community/civil society organisations to respond to community need and lead reform initiatives.
