Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

Annex 6. Survey of Civil Society Organizations on
the Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in Mongolia
The Mongolian CSO Survey was conducted to assess the opportunities for and constraints on the ability
of civil society organizations to influence the policies of the Government of Mongolia. The study was
conducted in April-May 2005 by The Asia Foundation.103 Almost 100 CSOs were surveyed in two
categories of respondents: a sample of randomly selected NGOs (35) registered with the Ministry of
Justice and Home Affairs (MoJHA), and a list of “active” CSOs (61) identified in consultation with
various NGOs, INGOs, and members of the donor community.
The team decided to take a dual approach because a survey of active CSOs would not reflect Mongolia’s
larger CSO environment, where access to resources (human and financial) and public officials is
markedly reduced. On the other hand, a random sample of registered NGOs would not reflect the dynamic
involvement of Mongolian CSOs in civic engagement and social accountability. Moreover, the team was
uncertain at the outset whether TAF would gain access to the MoJHA list, and if it could, whether it
would be able to locate most of these organizations and obtain their participation in the survey.104 In the
end, the survey is heavily dominated by CSOs located in Ulaanbaatar (93 percent). This does not reflect a
bias in the survey, however, because according to the MoJHA 90 percent of registered NGOs are based in
the capital, although only 50 percent of the population resides there.
A greater number of respondents would have enhanced the survey, particularly respondents from the
underrepresented provinces as well as informal organizations. Nevertheless, the findings from the survey
have been very informative, confirming and clarifying the qualitative research conducted for the study.
I. ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION
To assess the scope of civil society organizations involved in civic engagement, we need some basic
information about your organization.
In what year was your organization established? 105
Prior to the 1990 Transition 6%
1990–96 29%
1997–2004 55%
No response 9%
Location of main office (city or province) 106
Ulaanbaatar 94%
Other 6%
103 Recent Politobarometer polls conducted by Sant Maral are available at the Open Society Forum Web site www.sorros.org.mn.
104 In fact, the refusal rate for the randomly selected NGOs was nearly double the rate for active CSOs. Moreover, the list of
NGOs provided by the MoJHA frequently had outdated or insufficient information, forcing TAF to take the next NGO on the list.
105 We also asked the year in which CSOs were registered, but given that responses closely corresponded to the reported date, and
a third of the respondents gave registration dates prior to the 1997 legislation that set up NGO registration, this question was
dropped from our analysis.
106 The UB-bias reflects that the category of pre-identified “active” NGOs, which constitute more than 60 percent of the
respondents, is based in the capital. It is also a product of incomplete or outdated contact information from the MoJHA on NGOs
outside of UB, as well as the fact that most NGOs are based in UB.
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