The Economic Policy and Competitiveness Research Center (EPCRC), Mongolian national hub of the Green Economy Coalition (GEC) started a campaign “Participatory solution” in October, 2018 with a purpose of identifying serious challenges that ger residents are facing and find potential solutions to them. Within the scope of the campaign, 54 interviews were conducted with the residents of 6th kheseg and 9th khoroo in Chingeltei district. Based on the interviews, a map of challenges, related stakeholders and inter-connections between those challenges was built.

The research team has concluded that there is a lack of cooperation between neighbors which should be strengthened through finding solutions to their own problems. A characteristic of 6th kheseg is that there are 10 white shared-houses which can’t be found in usual ger areas where there are only gers. There are approximately 6-12 households in a white house which causes many environmental problems such as illegal dumping and disposal of household wastewater. A household owns approximately 15 square meters of space.

In order to discuss the challenges, the ger residents face and find possible solutions to them, a participatory workshop called “Neighbors date” was organized on the 6th of March, 2019.

In total, 25 residents attended the workshop and divided into 5 different groups. Each group discussed problems that they are facing and brainstormed possible solutions. The solutions were written down on the designated sheet which was prepared by the organizers beforehand and presented to other groups. Finally, each group was asked to decide on one solution that they came up with and make it into action during the next meetings.

This workshop is the beginning of many other initiatives which can turn into possible solutions to our problems. With the “Participatory solution” campaign, the EPCRC is aiming to show a real case of people finding solutions to their own problems by cooperating with each other.