AKIPRESS.COM - The UN Joint Programme on “Strengthening the national capacity to suppress transmission and maintain essential services in the COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia” was officially launched by Tapan Mishra, the UN Resident Coordinator in Mongolia, reports Montsame.

The amount of the Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) Joint Programme is $1 million and it is a part of the UN multilateral response in Mongolia that is being provided under the UN Resident Coordinator’s overall leadership across the three components:

1) Health response, led by WHO;

2) Humanitarian response, as detailed in the OCHA;

3) Socio-economic response led by UNDP.

This new programme was developed in line with the three objectives of the UN Secretary General’s call for solidarity, a plea for global action to stop the COVID-19 pandemic and the suffering it has caused.

UN team is exploring more opportunities for common financing mechanisms, including the existing UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund for channeling donor resources and earmarking them to Mongolia. It will help amplify the results of the COVID-19 response in Mongolia and ensure that the results are widely publicized globally.

The programme is being funded by the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund established by the Secretary-General in late March of 2020. Mongolia became one of the first 47 countries who benefited from this Fund.

As of today, the UN Country Team contributed about $4 million within the mobilized amount of $6.1 million by Humanitarian Country Team from 28 donors for 13 different types of interventions. This is the third UN Joint Programme in the country that demonstrates fulfilment of the UN Development System Reform Agenda on the ground. All programme activities should be completed until the end of this year.

Amarjargal Yadam, State Secretary of the Ministry of Health commemorates the UN Team and highlights the importance of “UN COVID-19 Multi-party Trust Fund Joint Programme” for the health sector in Mongolia and valued the timely support and significant role it can play in COVID-19 epidemic response and preparedness. Within this program, capacity of seven laboratories in four regions and selected aimags will be strengthened, in specific, safety of laboratories and human resource capacity will be improved.

Tsedevsuren Lkhagva, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports expressed her sincere appreciation to UN Mongolia, in specific Resident Coordinator and RCO team, for initiating implementation of this project, jointly designing the project proposal in consultation with respective organizations, and coordinating the final approval of the project proposal. The Ministry is now able to jointly implement the project components with UNESCO, UNFPA, and UNICEF.