The signing ceremony of the protocol between the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and UNFPA Mongolia for a maternal and child health project has taken place at UN House, Ulaanbaatar, today, July 29.

Through the signing on the project obligation form, which is based on the General Partnership Framework between both parties, Luxembourg contributes 5 million EUR for the project ‘Accelerating the progress towards the elimination of preventable maternal and perinatal mortality’ for the duration of 5 years from 2022 to 2027.

The Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has supported the Telemedicine for Maternal and Child Health Project in Mongolia for 12 years since 2007. The project has been implemented together with the Government of Mongolia and UNFPA with the aim to promote equitable access to quality maternal and newborn care.

Building on the experience and expertise of previous 12-year innovative project, the new project is focusing to contribute to ending preventable maternal deaths, ending unmet need for family planning and end gender-based violence using innovative technological advances and advocating for family planning and comprehensive sexuality education.

During the signing, Dr. Justine Coulson, Country Director for UNFPA Mongolia and Representative for UNFPA China, highlighted, “This new phase of the project will build on past achievements and continue to address the cause of preventable maternal and perinatal death with a focus on data driven policy, capacity building amongst health workers and engagement with local communities to ensure women proactively seek health services when they need them.”

Minister for Development Cooperation Humanitarian Affairs, and Minister of the Economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Mr. Franz Fayot said, “I would like to encourage you all to further develop synergies. This new phase of the project is all about how we can find more synergies,” with regard to Luxembourg-funded projects implemented by bilateral and multilateral partners. Minister Fayot also highlighted that the gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights is of particular interest to Luxembourg.

The signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Bold Luvsanvandan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Ms. L.Bolormaa, Officer in charge of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Franz Fayot, Minister for Development Cooperation Humanitarian Aid of MFEA, Mr. Christophe Schiltz, General Coordinator for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of MFEA, Mr. Manuel Tonnar, Director of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of MFEA, Mr. Robert de Waha, Deputy Managing Director of LuxDev, Ms. Anika Bruck, Asia and Gender Desk of MFEA, Mr. Frederic Rouffe, Programme Officer of LuxDev, Ms. Anne Nicolas, Press Officer to the Minister of Economy of Luxembourg, Ms. Justine Coulson, Country Director for UNFPA Mongolia and Representative for UNFPA China (who participated virtually), Dr. Khalid Sharifi, Head of Office of UNFPA Mongolia, and Dr. L. Oyunaa, Assistant Representative of UNFPA Mongolia.

After the signing, Head of Office of UNFPA Mongolia Dr. Khalid Sharifi confirmed the commitment of UNFPA Mongolia to the efficient and effective implementation of the project, before thanking the Government of Luxembourg for their continued support to improve health care in Mongolia.

UNFPA in Mongolia

UNFPA Mongolia began supporting the Government of Mongolia in the late 1970s providing equipment and training to the Central Statistics Office to undertake the Population and Housing Census of 1979 – and again in 1989. Support to maternal and child health began in the early 1990s and included training for medical personnel and the provision of modern contraceptives.

The first comprehensive Country Programme between the Government of Mongolia and UNFPA officially started in 1992 and focused on the delivery of family planning services and information and the promotion of population data use to support government development policies and programmes.

UNFPA’s 6th Country Programme in Mongolia was launched in 2017, with a specific focus on youth participation, realizing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of youth, and addressing GBV. The current Country Programme is supporting Mongolia to achieve the SDGs and is closely aligned and implemented with other UN agencies under the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2017-2022.