Senior Official Reviews U.S. Foreign Assistance in Mongolia.

Mr. Keith Luse, Senior Professional Staff Member to Senator Richard Lugar on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, visited Mongolia August 19-26 to monitor U.S. government assistance in Mongolia.  The Congress requires close scrutiny and accountability for all U.S. government assistance.  U.S. government assistance to Mongolia is extensive covering small business development and competitiveness, judicial strengthening, energy sector restructuring, environmental protection, wheat imports, health, financial sector development, education, trade policy analysis, defense cooperation, and Peace Corps activities.

Mr. Luse met the President’s Foreign Policy Advisor, the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Advisor, the State Secretary for the Ministry of Finance, the General Secretary of the Secretariat for the Millennium Challenge Account, the Deputy Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Agency, and members of parliament.  He discussed judicial reform efforts with the Chief Supreme Court Justice and the Deputy Prosecutor General.  In addition, Mr. Luse talked with donor officials at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and other embassies.  Mr. Luse advised GOM officials that Senator Lugar puts great emphasis on Mongolia's efforts to establish long-term sustainable institutions which will benefit the people of Mongolia by promoting transparency in the government and rule of law.

USAID works with a number of implementing partners, including the Asia Foundation, Mercy Corps International, the International Republican Institute, the National Center for State Courts, Chemonics, Cooperative Housing Foundation, and the World Conservation Society, and Mr. Luse surveyed each organization’s programs.  He traveled to USAID’s Growing Entrepreneurship Rapidly (GER) Initiative and Gobi Initiative projects to hear from Mongolian entrepreneurs who established small businesses through the programs.  While observing projects in the Gobi, he called on the Governor of Gobi Sumber Aimag.  In Ulaanbaatar, Mr. Luse also visited the Shelter for Battered Women operated by the Center Against Domestic Violence, as well as Mongolian NGOs such as the Women’s Brain Pool.