Mongolia Country Paper: Social Work Development in Mongolia

1
Mongolia Country Paper Social Work Development
in Mongolia

• Oyut-Erdene Namdaldagva, MSW
• Social Work Department
• Mongolian State University of Education

2
Mongolia fact sheet

• 2,5 mln population /homogeneous/
• 70 population under 35
• Sparsely populated (1.5 person in 1 sq.km)
• Nomadic lifestyle
• Life expectancy 63,6
• 1/3 population in poverty /Living Standard
  Measurement Survey,1998/
• High literacy rate /95/

3
Development of social work as a profession

• SW developed as response to societal transition
  changes after 1990 democratic revolution.
• Changes in social, political, economic in all
  spheres /from centrally planned to market
  oriented economy/
• Global support and influence World Bank, Asian
  Development Bank
• Influence of the international organizations
  Save the Children Fund /UK/, World Vision etc

4
Understanding about SW

• Public understanding of SW is improving
• Government supports SW and it is one of component
  in Social Security Master Plan.
• Confusion about differences SW psychology SW
  social welfare.
• Many social workers with work experience but
  without degree

5
Social work education

• Undergraduate programs since 1997
• Graduate programs 2001
• Lack of contextualized literature
• Faculty development was high priority
• HESP, Open Society Institute
• Increasing number of SW teachers with SW degree
• Social work field education structure is yet to
  be developed.

6
Mongolian social workers

• Child welfare system
• Street children shelters
• Children NGOs /mainly international agencies/
• Social welfare system
• Social welfare and labor offices
• /targeted to people with low capability to live
  independently/
• At municipal administration unit

7
Mongolian social workers

• Center against domestic violence
• Hotline services
• Shelters
• Education sector
• School social workers /child welfare/
• Universities and colleges
• Juvenile justice/Criminal system/jail/

8
Pressing social problems

• Poverty
• Income/ consumption poverty
• measures used.
• Natural disaster zhud influences greatly thus,
  households with less than 100 heads of livestock
  are poor.
• Unemployment
• High structural unemployment

9
Pressing social problems

• Domestic violence
• Law Against Domestic Violence/2004/
• Alcohol abuse
• Crime
• Street children /school dropout/
• High internal migration
• Huge disparity between urban and rural condition
• From countryside to cities

10
Social Policy

• Economic Growth Support Poverty Reduction
  Strategy /2003/
• Social Security Development Master Plan
  /2003-2015/
• Community based social services
• Poverty Reduction Program /1994-2000/
• Sustainable Livelihood Program /2004-2012/
• National Programs / 35/

11
Current welfare system

• Cash dominated assistance
• Universal coverage
• Categorical targeting
• Emphasis on institutional residential care for
  vulnerable groups
• State defined services
• Social welfare officers assume the role of social
  workers

12
Social security system

• Elderly
• Children
• People with disability
• Women
• Poor very poor people/families
• Single parent families/esp. Female headed
  households/
• Unemployed

13
New social welfare policy strategies

• Choices of alternative services and benefits
• Targeted coverage
• Needs based, means tested assistance
• Emphasis on community-based care
• Community or client defined services
• Professionalization of social services

14
Reform elements under Social welfare sector
development

• Reforming social welfare benefits
• Establishing new system to define scope of social
  welfare services
• Decentralization and strengthening the local
  institutions
• Restructuring residential care services
• Developing social work

15
Challenges of social work

• SW profession is newly developing.
• SW professional community is just established
  --capacity building is still underway
• Poor social work research data and evidence
• Not much involvement of academia in defining
  social policy

16
Factors influencing social work development

• Countrys poor economy
• Poor infrastructure development
• High maintenance expenditure
• Newly developing legal environment
• Sparsely populated population
• Service seeking attitude and behaviour

17
Future of Mongolian social work development

• Capacity building
• Collaborate with the international community
• Collaborate with other professionals
• We need ACTION be Change agents
• Develop social work service structure
• Accredit social work education
• Develop social work service standards
• Develop code of ethics