XacBank and Mercy Corps partner on pasture restoration project in Khentii aimag
On Thursday, December 13, Mercy Corps’ Country Director to Mongolia, Wendy Guyot, signed a partnership agreement with XacBank CEO Bold Magvan. The signing marked the beginning of a year-long pasture restoration and herder livelihoods project, called the Green Pasture Pilot, that Mercy Corps will be conducting in partnership with XacBank in Bayan-Ovoo soum, Khentii. Through the project XacBank will be deploying a new eco-loan product that provides lower rates for herders who meet their “pasture friendly” criteria.
Mercy Corps and XacBank began discussions on potential collaboration in 2017 when the two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the need for a wide range of financial services and products to be available for the agricultural sector. Throughout 2018 both organizations worked from this understanding to develop the Green Pasture Pilot.
The pilot aims to address the issues of pasture degradation and livestock overstocking in rural Mongolia through incentivizing herders to reduce their herd sizes and adopt more sustainable livestock production practices. Participating households will be included in rigorous capacity building trainings, have the opportunity to apply for XacBank’s new eco-loan product and will also have access to a soum level fund for livestock procurement activities such as animal collection, examination, and delivery to buyers.
Through its year-long implementation from December 2018 to December 2019 the pilot aims to show that herders can better increase their income through increased livestock productivity rather than increasing the amount of livestock they own. Both Mercy Corps and XacBank acknowledge the need for such a project and the excitement they have at being involved in its implementation.
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a leading global humanitarian organization powered by a belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we forge shared-value partnerships with public and private sector agencies to bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Since 1999, Mercy Corps Mongolia has partnered with rural communities across the country to generate transformative change in environmental stewardship, good governance, and livestock development—to improve rural livelihoods in the face of an ever-changing context
