Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Leveraging community engagement for Mongolia’s energy transition
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is that Mongolia, in general, faces significant funding constraints to facilitate its energy transition from coal to clean energy. UNDP Mongolia is implementing the “Supporting Renewable Energy Transition in ger districts for increased livelihood” project in partnership with the Ulaanbaatar city municipality, the government of France, URECA (a climate start-up) and Ger Hub NGO (a local community-based NGO) to accelerate the energy transition in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar city via the provision of solar energy kits. To fill the project’s funding gap in providing ger households with these kits, UNDP Mongolia’s A-Lab has applied and successfully participated in stage 1 of UNDP’s Crowdfunding Academy (CFA) organized by UNDP’s Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy and UNDP AltFinLab, a flagship project at UNDP Europe and Central Asia promoting alternative finance for development.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Climate challenges in Mongolia including degradation of pastoral land have caused heavy migration to its capital city, Ulaanbaatar. Ulaanbaatar city has undergone rapid urban expansion, nearly tripling its population since 1990 to reach above 1,6 million residents', which cannot be accommodated by the existing infrastructure as the city was originally designed for 500,000 residents. Without connection to central heating, ger-area residents resort to burning coal briquettes in cookstoves on a 24-hour basis throughout the winter. The ger area's reliance on coal-based heating in roughly 200,000 households is a key factor behind UB's air pollution crisis which poses a major threat to the health of the inhabitants.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
On its worst days, air quality in
Ulaanbaatar city exceeds WHO’s guidelines by up to 80 times
Air pollution is the 5th leading cause
of death in Mongolia
Air pollution is the cause of 40% of lung cancer
and 24% of children’s respiratory diseases in Mongolia
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
https://time.com/longform/ulan-bator-mongolia-most-polluted-capital/ Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution crisis is well documented in international
media, including this comprehensive article by Time.com, highlighting human
stories of hardships faced due to the heavy smog that covers the city in the
long winter months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJf8Ev0YS4 In addition, there is also a time poverty aspect to air pollution as
beneficiaries of a pilot solar energy project in Ulaanbaatar conveyed that they
were more productive following the solar kit installation compared to when they
had to burn coal in the early mornings.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
A-Lab’s ‘fast and curious’ approach ensures the successful implementation of this time sensitive issue of procuring sufficient solar kits amidst the air pollution crisis in Ulaanbaatar and within the short project implementation period of 1 year (ending December 2024). Furthermore, A-Lab is already engaged in the behavioural change component of the project, which seeks to empower women to lead as digital champions in the change towards clean energy at community level
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
A-Lab Mongolia has embarked on a learning journey to mobilize community efforts-both locally and
internationally- to accelerate the clean energy transition in UB City, via the guidance of UNDP’s Crowdfunding Academy (CFA)
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
1. Ulaanbaatar city municipality: Government,
policy and advocacy support, no unusual partner
2. URECA LLC: Private sector, technical
expertise, unusual partner
3. Ger Hub NGO: Civil society, advocacy support
and community engagement, usual partner
4. University of New South Wales, Australia:
Academia, research and experimentation, unusual partner
5. UNDP Crowdfunding academy: United nations,
capacity-building and advisory support, usual partner
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Co-financing
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
Can we develop a model crowdfunding campaign strategy for UNDP Mongolia, being its first crowdfunding initiative?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore, Test, Grow
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Mapping of potential donors (both institutional and individual), active involvement of beneficiaries
in crowdfunding campaign via systems thinking
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
This exercise will contribute to the mapping of funding sources for Mongolia’s energy transition by recording the donators to the crowdfunding campaign
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Private sector leaders heavily focused on their CSR and SDG impact including Unitel, Tavan Bogd group,
E-Mart, Mobicom etc.
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3Good health and well-being
5Gender equality
7Affordable and clean energy
11Sustainable cities and communities
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