Published News » Development

Yes, it might be the dead of winter in Mongolia, with temperatures hovering around -30 degrees Fahrenheit, but the loan products here have been turning green.  Thanks to the hard work of the Eco Products Team at XacBank in Mongolia, Kiva lenders saw an introduction of 3 new types of personal consumption ‘green loans’ in December 2009.

Ulaanbaatar is already the coldest capital of the world, but it need not be its most polluted.

When Ulaanbaatar’s one million citizens breathe, their lungs act like air filters, catching and storing harmful dust. Scientists call this dust “Particulate Matter” (PM). If PM is smaller than 10 microns or “PM10” it can cause severe respiratory illnesses. These illnesses can lead to

NOT just North America and Europe are pulling out of harsh winters. Mongolia has had its bitterest winter in decades. Nearly 3m of the country’s livestock, something approaching a tenth of the total, are said to have died, and some Mongolians. Now, with the glitter of huge mining projects on the horizon, questions are being raised about the future of nomadic herding, which for millennia

3 March 2010 -- Severe winter conditions in Mongolia are preventing expectant mothers from reaching health facilities, requiring the United Nations to bring medical help closer to them.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), in coordination with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), has been supporting life-saving mobile medical teams

2 March 2010 – As temperatures in western Mongolia continue to hover around -40 degrees Celsius, the United Nations is sending woolen blankets, warm footwear, hygiene kits and other emergency supplies to nearly 4,000 school-age children living in poor rural areas of the country.

Extreme cold in Mongolia has killed so much livestock that the United Nations is starting a programme to pay herders to clean and collect the carcasses.

More than 2.7m livestock have already died and another 3m carcasses are expected by June.

The UN Development Programme cash-for-work programme aims to produce income for herders whose

The World Bank Tuesday approved a 10 million U.S. dollars scale up of the highly innovative Index Based Livestock Insurance Project (IBLIP) to help Mongolian herders.

IBLIP, which was first introduced in 2006, provides herders with insurance through partnering with local private insurance companies. Insurance protects herders from climate related losses to their livestock.

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Mongolia’s billions of dollars worth of copper, gold, uranium and coal reserves promise the greatest influx of wealth for the country since Genghis Khan conquered much of the known world in the 13th century.

They also may spawn a crisis. Sudden prosperity can overwhelm an economy, exposing it to commodity-price swings. Mongolia’s leaders, some educ