First the weather: Another extremely nice month in Mongolia. Many outdoor activities and visitors came to take advantage of Mongolia’s beautiful summer and long days.

August Mission News: The month was one that ranks high in milestones of USAID/Mongolia. Jeff Goodson, a 7-year veteran of USAID Mongolia left us for a challenging post in Afghanistan. Jeff actually first came to Mongolia during my previous posting in 1995 & 1996. There is no doubt that his commitment for Mongolia development remains, and with his departure we loose much continuity and long term history of the program. Another Milestone was the beginning of the assessment phase of our program which will result in a new 5 year strategy for USAID/Mongolia. Lawrence Camp from USAID/EGAT and Dany Khy from USAID’s Asia Bureau participated in the economic growth assessment and Linda McGregor-Mirghani from the DCHA Bureau participated in the democracy and governance assessment.

We became more knowledgeable of USAID’s new procurement system GLAAS (Global Acquisition and Assistance System) and tested the system well with the recruitment of a couple of contractors complete with changes and additions. Thanks go to our colleagues in USAID/Manila for working closely with us to get all actions completed.

Ioli, Undraa and Linda Armstrong visited Arkhangai Province to see Mercy Corps’ FIELD beneficiaries, including organizations which Mercy Corps enabled to provide better support and accessibility to disabled groups in the area. They also visited RASP clients, including a greenhouse, a yak herder cooperative and a dairy producer partnership.

Ioli accompanied the U.S. Embassy on the trip to Dornod with The Nature Conservancy and visiting scientists. On this trip, Ioli also met with CHF clients managing small businesses, and attended a women’s NGO roundtable on women’s role in building environmental awareness and ability to improve their participation in local politics.

Chuck, Tugi and Michelle visited with Erdenet city authorities and clients of Development Solutions clients. One in particular was raising chickens for their eggs. With a loan from DS, she purchased 1500 chickens that produce 1200 eggs a day. This translates to about $100-120 dollars in egg sales per day. Very impressive indeed. In addition, they toured the Erdenet copper mine from overlooking the open pit mine to walking through the processing facility. All were disturbed by the environmental effects from the facility. After Erdenet they attended a farm show largely sponsored by the Canadian government at Mongolia’s largest farm north of Darhan and about 12 miles from the Russian border. The event showcased the Crop-3 program and was attended by a former Prime Minister, the current Ministers of Economy and Agriculture as well as hundreds of Mongolian farmers and herders who were interested in seeing how modern technology could increase crop production.

Annual leave hit us fairly hard again as those who had not taken time in July, took it in August. It was really a great month to be outside and visit the gers of friends and relatives. We are glad and supportive that everyone had good vacations.

First Look at September Activities: On the cultural level, hiking continues and visits to the country side. The Mongol Rally finishes in UB and the Beijing to Paris antique car rally passes through. On the Mission level, we will remain entirely focused on the assessment of the Economic Growth and Democracy and Governance sectors until mid-September. Finally, we will increase our focus, in conjunction with our USAID/Manila colleagues, to complete all procurement and fiscal actions before the end of the fiscal year.