Mercy Corps LTS2 Semi-annual Report (Oct 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018)

The project focuses on leveraging traditional knowledge and science to enhance the use of weather and pasture data in production planning. This is achieved through the introduction of the Livestock Early Warning System (LEWS), which was first introduced in 2007. The LEWS system continues to receive international development support from the World Bank. However, a number of government agencies in Mongolia are tasked with creating and distributing information on weather risk and weather forecasts, but with little coordination and no clearly defined goals on how to reach end-users. As a result, information and knowledge products are being produced, but they are not reaching local communities, herder households, local administrators, and first responders who can utilize such necessary information. The LTS project evaluated existing disaster risk reduction and disaster management systems, connected local communities to weather information, trained local administrative units in emergency management planning, and tested a mobile messaging platform called the Advanced Weather Information service (AWI). The LTS project theorized that there was strong demand for information and for management tools that could improve planning, mitigation, and management of risks of extreme weather events like dzud, or severe winters in which thousands of livestock are lost due to cold and starvation. The LTS2 project has focused on four main goals: further institutionalization of AWI, improved use of rangeland carrying capacity information distributed through SMS for herders and local communities, improved rangeland management/planning at the aimag and soum-level to prevent and mitigate dzud/drought, and the introduction of local communities to sustainable mitigation activities based on Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) to address effects of dzud on individuals, households, and local/rural communities. During the period from October 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, the program focused on handing over the AWI server to NEMA, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Agency of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring (NAMEM), adding NAMEM contents to AWI, providing LEGS trainings and conducting LEGS retention tests, compiling a new, improved template for the Soum Disaster Plan approved by NEMA, and organizing a Stakeholder meeting on December 20, 2017. The project has achieved several outcomes during this period, including the signing of a MOU between NEMA and CITA to extend the reach of AWI, the provision of a special number for AWI server sustainability, and the handing-over of the AWI server to NEMA. Additionally, AWI received 24,061 text requests from 4,639 mobile users, and herders continue to use AWI to plan their daily work. Furthermore, 7,000 copies of Dzud lessons books were distributed to 45 soums for target herders. The LTS2 project is being implemented in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and MOFALI (Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry). The project aims to improve disaster risk reduction and management in Mongolia by leveraging traditional knowledge and science to enhance the use of weather and pasture data in production planning.