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The Mongolian Monitor: Archives Greetings! posted: 10/1/2008Mission News:  In the personnel area, Ms. Deidra Winston, Mongolia Desk Officer, returned to USAID/W on August 8th after a month long TDY as the acting Mission Program Officer. The Mission welcomed the return of Mr. Jon O’Rourke, Intermittent Senior Program Advisor, to Mongolia on August 14th, and is expected to depart early October. Lastly, Mr. Jeffrey Goodson, currently in USAID Afghanistan, has confirmed that he will return to Ulaanbaatar early October to complete his personal services contract as USAID Mongolia’s resident Senior Program Manager. During August 19-25, USAID Mongolia oversaw the Congressional Staff Delegation visit of Mr. Keith Luse, senior professional staff member to Senator Richard Lugar on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Besides meeting with country team members and high level GOM officials, Mr. Luse also met with the resident representatives of most of USAID Mongolia’s implementing partners and was thoroughly briefed on the Mission portfolio. In addition, Mr. Luse traveled to Gobi Sumber Aimag and visited project sites of USAID’s Gobi Initiative and met with local government and private sector counterparts.
Greetings! posted: 12/24/2007
Many thanks for visiting USAID/Mongolia’s new website. Mongolia is a fascinating and beautiful country, and those of us who are privileged to work here are doing so at a vitally important time in its history. I believe that our small, highly-focused program, in collaboration with the fine work of our outstanding partners, is helping to make a real difference in the lives of the Mongolian people. The projects we fund are working on some of the most pressing issues facing Mongolia today – policy reform, development of the private sector, privatization, reform of the judicial sector, and strengthening this country’s nascent democracy. With funds from central and regional sources, we are also engaged in protecting biodiversity, in expanding the use of information and communications technology, and in helping Mongolia take steps to protect itself from the scourge of HIV-AIDS. I think our portfolio is exciting, creative, and working in exactly the areas in which USAID is best-placed to assist Mongolia. As we develop and expand this website over the coming months, we hope to be able to share with you some of the reasons why this is indeed one of the best little USAID programs in the world. I welcome your suggestions for additions to these pages, and hope that you will visit us often. May 2006 posted: 5/18/2006
 Mission News: April proved to be another busy month for the mission. Several Washington visitors came to Mongolia in April, to take a look at some of our centrally-funded projects. Despite the return of Senior Program Manager Jeff Goodson from an extended TDY in Kabul, the mission continued to be shorthanded. Project Development Officer Cory Johnston was on TDY for most of the month in USAID/Manila, and Mendsaihan and Oyunbileg were away for part of the month on training. Spring has yet to bring Ulaanbaatar and its environs any green grass - indeed, as this issue of the Monitor was being composed, a late spring blizzard dropped some four inches of snow on Ulaanbaatar. March 2006 posted: 3/27/2006
Mission News: Donor Coordination - the External Partners - GOM Technical Meeting. The month of February was highlighted by the run-up to and then the actual convening of the “External Partners – GOM Technical Meeting” in Ulaanbaatar on February 28 and March 1. Led by the World Bank and attended by a wide array of bilateral and multilateral donors, this was the first formal meeting of the GOM with the collective donor community since the November 2003 Consultative Group meeting. Minister of Finance Bayartsaikhan led the GOM delegation; World Bank Country Director David Dollar presided over the meeting on behalf of the donors. February 2006 posted: 3/1/2006
Mission News: This issue of the Monitor comes to you later than usual, as our small USAID Mission here suffered in February from the ongoing absence of Senior Program Officer Jeff Goodson (still on TDY in Afghanistan) and from the fact that USAID Representative Skip Waskin spent two weeks away from post (he, too, went to Kabul). Remaining staff at post concentrated largely on beginning to get to know the government of new Prime Minister N. Enkhbold, who took office in late January, and in preparing for the External Partners – GOM Technical Meeting, which was held in Ulaanbaatar February 28 – March 1. We will report on both these efforts and other important recent developments very soon in Monitor No. 55. In the meantime, following is the news as of the end of January. January 2006 posted: 1/26/2006
Mission News: In December, USAID/Mongolia was delighted to welcome the arrival of new Program Officer Cory Johnston and his wife Victoria Whall. Cory was thrown immediately into the breach when Senior Program Manager Jeff Goodson departed for Texas on December 17 and USAID Representative Skip Waskin headed to Florida on December 24, thus leaving Cory to serve as Acting USAID Representative for most of January. Cory’s arrival in Mongolia is most timely inasmuch as Jeff will be on TDY to Afghanistan until late March. December 2005 posted: 12/13/2005
Mission News: The major piece of news in November – for the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia, for its USAID mission, and for the country as a whole - was the visit of President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to Mongolia on 21 November. For the three weeks leading up to that event, the entire USAID staff worked seven days a week on preparations for the visit. USAID Representative Skip Waskin and Peace Corps Director Ken Goodson were responsible for the First Lady’s agenda, and Senior Program Manager Jeff Goodson was responsible for the very successful “cultural event” held at the Ikh Tenger governmental complex south of the capital city. (Did you see those pictures of the President with Mongol horsemen and yaks? Jeff played a big part in making that happen.) The President’s four hours went extremely well; he even had nice things to say to Skip about the “great job USAID is doing here and around the world.” Needless to say, we were pleased – our involvement in the visit was great fun, and it was an honor for us to be of service. In spite of the fact that we had to put all other work on hold—or perhaps because of it, as our contractor and grantees would claim—a thing or two actually got done on the projects. But first, let’s talk about politics… November 2005 posted: 11/9/2005
The weather was perfect in October—one beautiful day after the next, without snow, rain, or temperatures below 20F. Residents love this time of year, enjoying while they can both the weather and the calm before the onset of winter. October 2005 posted: 10/21/2005
Between the gorgeous weather and the absence of tourists, the old argument that fall is the best time of year in Mongolia has again been validated. September blew in clear and cool, but around mid-month an early snowstorm dumped a few inches of the white stuff on us and temperatures dove into the low ‘20s (Fahrenheit). We thought at first we were in for an early winter (where’s global warming when you really need it?), but temperatures quickly rebounded and the rest of the month was perfect. September 2005 posted: 9/15/2005
There are no “dog days of August” in Mongolia—just one near-perfect day after the next, punctuated by the occasional sudden rain storm. Nights were cooling off by the end of the month, and with the very first hints that winter is just around the corner, tourists started heading for home. August 2005 posted: 8/11/2005
Sweet July. Warm days, cool nights. The season of national festivities, with Nadaam in full swing and everybody in high holiday spirits. It’s a great time for family and friends, a great time to go to the field, and a great time to be in Mongolia. July 2005 posted: 7/18/2005
Summer hit Mongolia big time in June, with moderate (and even hot) temperatures and lots of sunshine. The tourist season was in full swing by the end of the month. People from all over Asia, western Europe and North America were here, crowding the restaurants and making plans to visit the Gobi, or Hovsgol, or the high Altai. Unfortunately, with domestic air service severely limited, many tourists have had to plan to travel to their destination both ways by car. |
updated February 24, 2009 | download Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in
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