The United Nations Development Programme in Mongolia and the Ministry of Digital Development and Communication start a strategic partnership to accelerate and advance the implementation of the Digital Nation Strategy. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today with the State Secretary B. Bolor-Erdene.   

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how digital technologies can help to save lives and it has also highlighted the cost of digital inequality with many people facing hardships in accessing the digital services. UNDP is pleased to support the Ministry to accelerate inclusive and sustainable growth via digitalization of government services as well as building skills in making use of these services.

UNDP and the Ministry of Digital Development and Communication will work closely to address the digital divide and improve on digital literacy, which covers not only practical skills of using digital devices, but also making use of opportunities and possibilities that information technology offers. It will jointly conduct research on existing conditions and issues related to digital literacy of vulnerable and marginalized groups. Moreover, it will provide support on further development of Digital Literacy Strategy, particularly in the areas of a) implementation of projects and programs to improve capacity of public digital literacy; b) improvement of appropriate and rational use of online environment; and c) increasing of information access for vulnerable communities including persons with disabilities. Another area of collaboration is promoting accessibility of widely used public as well as private websites and applications and collective monitoring, evaluation, learning from experiments and work towards scaling.

Resident Representative Elaine Conkievich highlighted that UNDP Mongolia is fully supportive of the Ministry’s vision to move towards sustainable digital transformation. She stressed that ‘UNDP stands ready to support and collaborate through its vast network of technical expertise and the whole of society framework so that no one is left behind in the digitalization journey.’