Preliminary results of youth-focused expenditure review presented at the National Youth Development Forum in Mongolia

The relevant ministries, government agencies and NGOs held discussions with youth representatives on various issues concerning youth including education, health, employment and social participation.

Acknowledging the tremendous power of youth for positive social change and catalysts for sustainable and inclusive development of Mongolia, UN Resident Coordinator Tapan Mishra emphasized the importance of investing more in the young people for them to acquire better education, life skills and access to job markets. 

At this forum, the UN Joint Programme “Rolling Out an Integrated Approach to SDGs Financing in Mongolia” presented the progress and preliminary results of the youth-focused expenditure review that is aimed to generate evidence-based information for promoting greater visibility of youth-related issues into the government budget and off-budget planning and strengthening the effectiveness of public resources for youth.

As of 2020, more than one million people (30.7%) represent the youth population aged 15-34. According to the preliminary results of the study, total amount of financing for youth population as a percentage of the state budget and of the GDP, have increased from 9.79% in 2017 to 10.59% in 2020, and from 3.15% to 3.95% during the same period, respectively. In 2020, the total amount of financing for youth amounted to approximately MNT 1.5 trillion constituting both government and other sources.

The alignment of budget with youth development programmes has improved in 2021 compared to the previous year, however, there is greater room to enhance alignment of financing with the national youth development priorities and more broadly with the SDGs.

The youth-focused expenditure review will serve as the foundation of piloting results-based budgeting, which is part of the broader initiative of UNDP that has been ongoing since 2018 to introduce results-based budgeting and better alignment of financing with the development priorities.

The consultant's report will be published later in 2021 for public dissemination