Transparent M&E Information System (MN0046)

Main objective:
Through development of M&E information system of government, http://www.unelgee.gov.mn
1. Increase government policy planning, budgeting, performance of government operations, results and impacts
2. Make government information regarding government operations to be open and transparent for public
Increase human resource capacities and accountability of the administrative organizations

Brief description of commitment:
To develop the government information system /M&E information system of government/, which will align with the relevant legislation, and make it a main tool to be used by the administrative organizations.

Ambition:
Development policy planning and budgeting will be developed in a high quality, and the comprehensiveness will be ensured. Alignment among short, medium and long policy planning will be improved. Performance reporting will become cohesive and comprehensive. Pre-monitoring, action monitoring and end monitoring will be improved. Coordination between central and local governments will be improved and result based M&E will be created.

Milestones:
1. Define the cost to develop the system and find the funding
2. Develop the open parts of the system and ensure openness and transparency of the government information
3. Develop "Strengthen the capacities of civil servants" system. (System #1 . Online training system System #2. Knowledge sharing database)
4. To make a record of the short and long term policy documents and citizens' satisfaction survey and enable possibility for performance evaluation

12. M&E online information system of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of Mongolia

To develop the government information system/M&E information system of the government, which will align with the relevant legislation and make it a main tool to be used by the administrative organizations.

Main Objective

Through development of the M&E information system of the government, http://www.unelgee.gov.mn:

1. Increase government policy planning, budgeting, performance of government operations, results, and impacts.
2. Make government information regarding government operations to be open and transparent for public.
3. Increase human resource capacities and accountability of the administrative organizations.

Milestones

1. Define the cost to develop the system and find the funding.
2. Develop the open parts of the system and ensure openness and transparency of thegovernment information.
3. Develop ‘Strengthen the Capacities of Civil Servants’ systems (System #1: Online training system and System #2: Knowledge sharing database).
4. To make a record of the short- and long-term policy documents and citizens’ satisfaction survey and enable possibility for performance evaluation.

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Mongolia’s action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Mongolia_Action-Plan_2019-2021.pdf.

Commitment analysis

This commitment proposes to develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) information system where all government policy planning, budgeting, and implementation can be monitored and evaluated in a more streamlined manner. Mongolia’s Cabinet Secretariat will lead the development process in collaboration with other government ministries, agencies, and CSOs that focus on improving governance processes.

This commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information as it entails the publication of government-held information on various aspects of policy planning, budgeting, and implementation.

In 2012, the government began developing http://www.unelgee.gov.mn, an online information system to support the monitoring and evaluation of government administration. The commitment envisions the development of an open version of the portal, so that citizens can have access to the same information. However, an open version of the portal has already been developed in 2018 (prior to the action plan’s publication) in partnership with The Asia Foundation’s “Stimulating Good Governance and Transparency in the Civil Service” (Steps) project and funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada. ^[99] The open version of the portal is available at http://www.unelgee.gov.mn/open and publishes datasets on the following categories:

• Government programs at the national and subnational levels
• Archives of laws and decisions
• Directions for economic and social development
• Results and analysis of the citizen satisfaction survey
• Response towards public applications and complaints
• Development concept and policies at the national and subnational levels
• General evaluation of government performance
• Government strategic plan
• Regular updates of government’s activities and programs

As the key milestones of this commitment had been completed prior to the introduction of the OGP action plan, the commitment carries no potential impact on monitoring and evaluating government administration through the open disclosure of information. According to the action plan, the open portal was scheduled to be developed between January and July 2019, ^[100] but the website had already been launched in 2018.

However, given the clear importance of monitoring and evaluation in the design and delivery of public services, ^[101] commitment-implementing stakeholders can aim to build on the status quo to yield potential impact in this area. For example, the Cabinet Secretariat can work with relevant civil society to review the data currently disclosed on the portal to ensure that they are published in an easily accessible and open data format. It is also important to consider the use of offline or mobile-based channels for disclosure, noting that low digital literacy and internet penetration rates ^[102] mean that a significant proportion of the population will not have full access to the online portal. To address this critical digital divide, stakeholders can develop and disseminate project reports and policy documents that can be presented by government or civil society representatives at regular citizen forums. These measures would allow citizens and civil society to engage with government data and better perform independent monitoring and evaluation activities.

The Cabinet Secretariat could also go beyond only providing greater access to information by creating opportunities for citizens to directly influence the direction of government policies and programs. For this purpose, the Cabinet Secretariat could establish a mechanism and procedure for the public to register comments on the disclosed information on the portal and establish protocol mandating a government response from the relevant institution.

12. M&E online information system of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of Mongolia

Complete:

In 2012, the government began developing http://www.unelgee.gov.mn, an online information system to support the monitoring and evaluation of government administration. An open version of the portal was developed in 2018, prior to the action plan’s publication, in partnership with the Asia Foundation’s project on Stimulating Good Governance and Transparency in the Civil Service (Steps), with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada. It publishes datasets on the following categories: government programs at the national and subnational levels; archives of laws and decisions; directions for economic and social development; results and analysis of the citizen satisfaction survey; responses to public applications and complaints; development concepts and policies at the national and subnational levels; general evaluations of government performance; government strategic plans; and regular updates on government activities and programs. [51] The portal is internally focused, allowing government staff to input progress, but not allowing public feedback.