LocationsCan Mongolia Lead the Way in Advancing Human Development on a Healthy Planet?
September 3, 2025
From the vast steppes to sacred mountains, Mongolia is a nation defined by resilience and ambition. Landlocked in geography, yet boundless in vision, its people carry hope, courage, and determination that reach far beyond their borders. But these strengths are under pressure. Climate change is straining ecosystems and livelihoods, economic shifts are creating uncertainty, and global turbulence adds new pressures. Mongolia’s treasured nature and resilient people face threats that demand urgent and thoughtful action.
This is why the country’s development path forward must put human development at its core while safeguarding the planet we all depend on. This is precisely the vision behind UNDP’s new Strategic Plan 2026–2029, a roadmap designed to respond to today’s interconnected challenges while opening new opportunities for transformation.
UNDP Strategic Plan 2026-2029
A Plan Built on Shared Vision
The Strategic Plan was shaped through 600 dialogues in 116 countries, including Mongolia, and insights from 11,000 development partners across 147 countries. The conclusion was clear: lasting progress comes from integrated approaches that address root causes, not isolated symptoms.
The Plan is organized around four objectives including prosperity for all, effective governance, crisis resilience, and a healthy planet powered by three accelerators: digital and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation, gender equality, and sustainable finance. For Mongolia, this means translating prosperity into rural livelihoods, using digital tools to deliver inclusive growth, and ensuring governance systems that meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.
A partnership forged in trust and impact: Mongolia and UNDP
For nearly five decades, UNDP has stood alongside Mongolia through its many stages of transformation, and today our work is already closely aligned with the priorities outlined in the new Strategic Plan.
One area where this partnership is breaking new ground is digital transformation. In collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communications, UNDP is supporting the development of Mongolia’s first national strategy on big data and artificial intelligence, a milestone to strengthen governance, improve services, and unlock new growth.
Ms. Matilda Dimovska speaking at Mongolia’s first conference on National Strategy for AI and Big Data
Equally important is building resilience against crises. UNDP is strengthening Mongolia’s ability to adapt to climate change and manage disaster risks, ensuring that communities remain secure in the face of escalating challenges.
Alongside this, we are helping to build effective governance by supporting professional, competent civil service institutions, inclusive and participatory decision-making, and advancing the sustainable management of Mongolia’s natural resources. These efforts are laying the foundation for future-fit governance systems capable of meeting the demands of a rapidly changing world.
Mongolian herder household during the winter
Mongolia has also made remarkable progress on gender equality. The 2024 elections saw a record number of women enter Parliament, surpassing the regional average. This achievement was not accidental but the result of long-term and sustained investment in women’s leadership, namely, through our project funded by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). This progress now needs to translate into policies and decisions that ensure equality reaches every community, workplace, and home.
Newly elected women parliamentarians in the 2024 elections
None of this progress, however, can be sustained without a financing system that meets the scale of Mongolia’s ambitions. Mongolia’s Integrated National Financing Framework, developed with UNDP support, is that roadmap mobilizing public and private finance, domestic and international, to deliver the country’s vision. At the same time, UNDP is helping Mongolia prepare for emerging opportunities in climate finance. From piloting renewable energy solutions that reduce air pollution to testing carbon sequestration models in pasturelands, we are laying the groundwork for a carbon credit market framework and positioning Mongolia to access global instruments such as the new Loss and Damage Fund.
A way forward: Mongolia’s leadership in advancing human development on a healthy planet
Last year, Mongolia reached the milestone of becoming an upper-middle-income country (UMIC) which is a recognition of its steady growth and resilience. This positions Mongolia not only as a recipient of global support, but as an active partner with lessons to share and leadership to offer in the region and beyond.
That leadership is already visible. From championing gender equality with record numbers of women now in Parliament to contributing to UN peacekeeping missions and advocating for the priorities of landlocked developing countries and hosting of the upcoming “17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification” in August 2026, Mongolia is stepping forward on the global stage with purpose and credibility.
Future-fit partnership: UNDP and Mongolia
This also means that the UNDP and Government of Mongolia partnership needs to evolve into a more forward-looking, results-driven collaboration through piloting innovative approaches, addressing both urban and rural challenges, and advancing Mongolia’s low-carbon pathway toward its 2050 carbon neutrality goal. Priority areas include climate resilience, green growth, regional revitalization, and digital transformation.
UNDP remains a trusted partner for Mongolia, supporting SDG-aligned planning, innovation, and access to global best practices. With its expertise and neutrality, UNDP helps drive a results-oriented, future-fit, nationally financed partnership. The new Strategic Plan emphasizes integration and partnership connecting actors across sectors and catalyzing public–private collaboration. With 92 cents of every dollar going directly to programmes, and new financing partnerships with international institutions, business, and philanthropy, UNDP is well equipped to support Mongolia to turn its vision into reality.
Mongolian herder in the winter
Turning Vision into Reality
Mongolia’s path forward is clear: a nationally owned, globally connected model of development that shapes policy, mobilizes SDG-aligned investment, and drives both socio-economic transformation and environmental stewardship. Realizing this vision requires government investment and co-financing of UNDP expertise, sustained donor and partner support, and private sector leadership in inclusive, green growth.
The Strategic Plan recognizes the realities of shrinking development finance and rising global demand. Even amid these pressures, UNDP is pursuing efficiencies by diversifying partnerships to ensure resources match ambition and supporting UN80 initiative. We remain deeply grateful for the continued support of Member States, including Mongolia.
Global challenges require ambition, courage, and commitment to action. The road ahead will be shaped by geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, and intensifying climate shocks. But Mongolia has the vision, resources, and human capital not only to weather these challenges, but to lead with confidence.
Now, with this new Strategic Plan as our guide, we stand at a defining opportunity: to help transform Mongolia’s progress into lasting change that benefits people and planet alike. The question is not whether Mongolia can rise to this challenge, but whether it can afford not to.
