ECNL submitted comments to the Draft Law on Public Benefit Activities in November last year and traveled to Mongolia between February 4-8, 2013 to conduct various meetings with prominent local stakeholders related to CSO Law, the regulation of public benefit status and the area of contracting out government tasks to CSOs.
Creating a more enabling environment for contracting out government tasks to CSOs has been in the center of attention in many countries in Europe and beyond. Until recently, in the former socialist countries the state (on the local or national level) was the sole provider of most of the services. Having identified its added value, Mongolia is one of the countries that opened the possibility for non-state actors, including private entities, to provide services on behalf of the government. A working group was formed under the Ministry of Education Development, which is responsible to draft a concept of possible legal regulation of contracting out government tasks to CSOs and other private service providers.
During the in-country visit, ECNL’s legal experts had a chance to meet with this working group as well as an impressive list of people, including the Minister of Justice, the Human rights and public participation advisor to the President of Mongolia, the State Secretary for Ministry of Environment and Green Development of Mongolia, and the Vice Minister for Ministry of Population development and social protection.
ECNL experts also attended a workshop for government officials and CSOs on the topic of contracting out services. Here, they delivered a presentation of comparative practices of involving CSOs in the delivery of government tasks, the specific types of government tasks, mechanisms for contracting and financing CSOs, and other issues and factors that should be considered when discussing or regulating the concept. In addition, the workshop was an excellent opportunity for the experts to meet with a wider group of CSOs and government officials and to learn about current needs, as well as to provide guidance and expertise from comparative perspective. Based on these needs ECNL prepared a draft paper highlighting the various types of partnership between the state and private providers and the possibility for the state to involve CSOs in delivery of government tasks.
ECNL’s on-country visit and technical assistance were made possible with financial support from the World Bank and SIDA.