UNESCO Beijing, working in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports (MECSS) and UNICEF-Mongolia, Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO jointly organize a technical workshop in Ulaanbaatar from 20-25 September 2018 with aim to introduce a core team of education practitioners from MECSS and related institutions to education planning. UNESCO/IIEP was requested to design and provide the technical expertise for the workshop.

The Government of Mongolia, through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports (MECSS) embarked on its first post-transition education planning exercise in 2006. The first Education Sector Master Plan (ESMP) 2006-2015 was developed, with support from the Asian Development Bank, and updated in 2009. In 2016, the Government of Mongolia issued a broad roadmap for its national development in the Mongolia Vision for Sustainable Development 2030. This policy document is aligned with the international Agenda 2030. The Vision includes the objective to turn Mongolia into a knowledge-based society with implications for education and training sector development. Started in 2018, the Government of Mongolia, through the MECSS, envisages the preparation of a second Education Sector Master Plan (ESMP-2) in 2018/19.

Against this background, the workshop is timely to introduce a core group of education practitioners to the theory and practice of sector-wide planning and policy reviews, in the context of the Mongolia Vision 2030 and the SDG-4. The overall objective is to create a common understanding of planning approaches, techniques and tools across MECSS departments and institutions involved in the preparation of the ESMP-2, thus enabling them to make useful contributions to the ESMP-2 process.

The workshop will sharpen participants’ understanding of the importance of sector-wide planning as a means to implement the government’s long-term national development vision and socio-economic plans. The participants will be walked through to familiarize with the concepts, approaches and processes involved in the preparation of a sector-wide education plan and operational implementation plans. The essential tools for planning, policy dialogue and plan implementation monitoring will also be introduced. The workshop will cover the clarification of the policy-planning-budgeting chain, with reference to Mongolia’s Medium-term Expenditure Framework and the explanation on the recent trends in development aid in education and discuss how they apply to Mongolia. Participants will review the (preliminary) findings and recommendations from the Mongolia education policy review, as well as review the elements of the ESMP 2006-2016 and the implications for ESMP-2.

UNESCO IIEP: www.iiep.unesco.org/en