Ulaanbaatar 2013

Mongolia Compact Gender Summary Report: Best Practices And Lessons Learned“These questions make people think about the harms of smoking and motivate them to change theirrisk-taking behavior,” says Dr. Enkhtuya Majig.Dr. Enkhtuya‟s enthusiazm in the fight against smoking at every place, every minute hasgiven her a new nick-name „Anti-tobacco Enkhtuya.‟ Everyone who smokes thinks about their badbehavior as soon as they see her somewhere around.Like other regions of the country, smoking was an issue in the Sukhbaatar aimag. Communitymembers, children in schools, and workplaces, including hospitals and other public places, weregreatly affected by smoke. Efforts to address this issue were limited. As a doctor, Dr. Enkhtuya, whoheads the Public Health Department and has been working in the sector since 1997, has played a leadrole in public awareness and outreach activities in this aimag. With the arrival of the MCA Healthproject, she has become a key and very visible leader in the fight against smoking.Years back, Dr.Enkhtuya had a chance to visit schools and she accidently found out thatsmoking was a disastrous issue in secondary schools. That was striking and shocking for her as adoctor. Straight after seeing this horrible situation she started acting. She worked with the schooladministration and management to battle against the use of tobacco among adolescents. She facilitatedtraining for teenage boys and girls to become peer educators and helped them develop educationalbrochures and leaflets for distribution to school children. This was her initial intervention towardsfostering a „Tobacco Free Aimag.‟ In 2008 Dr. Enkhtuya designed and led a small scale project“Hospital – Smoke Free Environment” in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and HealthPromotion Fund.Her efforts took off on a bigger scale when the MCA-Mongolia Health project was introducedinto her aimag. A “School –Smoke free environment” small scale project was followed by a “SmokeFree Aimag” advocacy action in 2012 in cooperation with MCA-Mongolia. To educate localcommunity on the harms of using tobacco, she used local media and developed promotional materials,educational information, brochures and information sheets and boards, placing them in hotel roomsand on doors with messages about the harms of smoke. She worked closely with family grouppractitioners to deliver workshops and share information with community members, especiallyherders who have limited access to such information. In conjunction with MCA-Mongolia, streetbillboards were developed and advertised with the slogan of “Smoke free aimag - our pride.”Enkhtuya realized that conveying such messages to the community is important but notsufficient, and that the right policy and regulatory framework was needed to reduce smoking andexposure to secondhand smoke. Following her advocacy, the government of Sukhbaatar provinceprovided strategic support by approving regulations and a resolution to prohibit the use of tobacconear public places and organizations (around 100-120 meters). This resolution bans tobacco at allpublic places, including pubs and restaurants, and prohibits the selling of tobacco to teenagers.A beneficiary young lady working in the pub says, “Now people are aware that they cannotharm others by smoking nearby, which resulted in a safe working environment for the pub workers. Itis even more important because most of our workers are young.”Smoking has been a longstanding problem with serious health consequence in Mongolia. Accordingto a 2009 survey, 27.6% of the population currently smokes. The behavior is more prevalent amongmales, with 48% of men and 7% of women being smokers. Nearly one in two persons is exposed tosecondhand smoke at home, while over a third is exposed to it at their workplace. With these strikingfigures in mind, the MCA-Mongolia Health Project has focused on reducing the incidence of noncommunicablediseases and increasing health-promoting behaviors, including reduction of alcoholand tobacco consumption.Given the fact that 80% of organizations, enterprises and public places of the aimag aresmoke free today, the remarkable effort by Mrs. Enkhtuya has greatly contributed to the promotion ofhealthy behavior nationwide, serving as a demonstration model for the national policy and regulatorymechanism.The word she likes to tell everyone as an individual brand name is that “Smoke-free environment isour aimag brand name, so be proud of it and do your best to keep this image.” She is truly an inspiringrole model not only among her aimag residents but also for women more generally who look toimprove their communities.It is increasingly clear that women‟s strong participation in society and economy is a keycontributor to the country‟s economic growth and development. Women‟s rights to property andPage 71 of 8071