More herders to access weather forecast and pasture information

Economy | Agriculture
ooluun@montsame.mn
2018-10-17 16:14:02

 Ulaanbaatar / MONTSAME/ Weather forecast and pasture information SMS system now reaches an additional  21,654 herders in Mongolia to protect their animals and livelihoods. Under the “Leveraging Technology and Tradition for Resilience in Rural Mongolia” (LTT4R) project, an SMS platform providing real-time, on-demand weather information has been extended to Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Arkhangai and Uvurkhangai aimags by People in Need (PIN) and Mercy Corps to expand coverage to all 21 aimags.

 

The SMS system enables herders in rural areas of Mongolia to protect themselves and their families proactively by accessing weather forecast and pasture information. Funded by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, LTT4R aims to increase herder’s resilience to drought and dzud, and climate change across rural Mongolia.

 

As a part of the LTT4R project, PIN and Mercy Corps are also conducting training sessions across 38 soums and 200 baghs, building local capacity to build resilience in the face of disasters. In addition, the project develops and delivers training for soum and bagh leaders on household dzud preparedness and mitigation; helps local authorities to create disaster management plans, and increases knowledge of local leaders on disaster risk reduction (DRR)—to reach a total of 21,654 people with disaster management plans, 6,700 people with the SMS platform and local leaders in 38 soums across the four target provinces with trainings. 

 

At the national level, management of the SMS system was handed over to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in spring 2018, which will coordinate with other agencies to work towards the nationalization of the system. “One of the things we are most proud of, as a project team is developing a SMS system that not only really helps the rural populations in Mongolia, but also is something the Government can run for years into the future so that herders rely on and use it for years to come” said Laurel Hanson, Head of Programs at PIN. She added, “Transitioning the platform over to NEMA and to a public access number means that it will be available long into the future, with our continued support.”