John Rieger (00:00):
Welcome to InAsia from The Asia foundation. I'm John Rieger.
Tracie Yang (00:04):
And I'm Tracie Yang.
John Rieger (00:05):
Mongolia is a COVID-19 success story. Sandwiched between China and Russia, the country acted quickly to halt travel, close schools and ban social gatherings. And so far, they've recorded just over 200 cases with no deaths and no community transmission. And that's a good thing.
Tracie Yang (00:22):
But the economic repercussions of this success have not been a good thing. And as so often happens, they look different if you're a woman. Joining us now to talk to about the situation facing Mongolian women, and particularly small business women, are The Asia Foundation's Saranzaya Gerelt-Od and Soomin Jun. Welcome to both of you.
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od (00:43):
Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for inviting us.
John Rieger (00:47):
First, tell us very quickly, Saranzaya where are you?
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od (00:50):
I'm from Mongolia. I'm in here, Ulaanbaatar city, at my office. It's 9:00 AM in the morning.
John Rieger (00:57):
And what about you Soomin? Where has the Coronavirus stranded you?
Soomin Jun (01:00):
Well, I'm right now in Korea. So I was supposed to go back to Ulaanbaatar in March, but I was stuck here until now and not knowing when I ever go back.
Tracie Yang (01:13):
Well, glad that you're both with us. Saranzaya, Mongolia has been under strict containment since late January. What's it been like? And how has it affected life there?
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od (01:24):
Yes, Mongolia is one of the first countries that have strict COVID-19 containment measures. All eight rent landlords were closed, schools and kindergarten were closed. The internal ban on gatherings cause sharp decline in economic activities, especially for small businesses between January and March. People were scared because China is very near.
Everyone is scared and government is very strictly measured everything and everyone wearing masks, but now the borders closed, but we had the election, parliamentary election 2020, and last month it looks fine compared with the other countries locked down. But the only problem is that people cannot go outside. And when the woman mostly go to the grocery shopping, they can't bring their kids outside. Kids are locked at home. So it's especially hard for the woman and female entrepreneurs in Mongolia.
John Rieger (02:26):
Yeah. Now you both work with women entrepreneurs in Mongolia, and you've just done a short survey on the effects of the lockdown. How has the economic downturn effected the women you work with?
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od (02:36):
You know the close, schools and kindergartens, affect the woman entrepreneurs more. And the care responsibilities is more on women at home. They have been struggling to run a business while taking care of the children and their businesses completely fail due to COVID-19. So according to our survey, all of many clients mentioned that they are mentally exhausted to just keeping their businesses while taking care of the children. And can you imagine that children are stuck at home for almost half years? So it's very difficult situation for female entrepreneurs. We also recognize that there is a sharp increase in domestic violence. So we have closely cooperated with the woman mundane jobs we're providing the domestic violence booklet in cooperating with the police department office in North Ulaanbaatar city.
Tracie Yang (03:36):
In your essay for this weeks in Asia blog, the two of you write about a woman named Chuluuntsetseg and entrepreneur you've supported through the WBC, the foundation's Women's Business Center. Tell us a bit about her story.
Soomin Jun (03:52):
Chuluuntsetseg is one of our business incubator graduates. So we, the WBC has a business incubator program, which is a four month accelerated business support for women entrepreneurs. So she's used to produce bedsheets, but when the border with China closed, she lost her source of raw materials and it was very difficult for her. And then next one, the government shut down any public gatherings and also called on a ban on the February celebration of Tsagaan Sar, which is the Mongolian Lunar New Year holiday. She could not sell anything, but she was expecting to increase her sales during that period. It's the day when people usually spend a lot for gifts for families and friends. People usually take out a loan to stock up her, their businesses to sell during this new year holiday. And when the celebration was banned to celebrate, it left many businesses, including Chuluuntsetseg's business overstocked and in debt.
John Rieger (05:02):
It's pretty much a perfect storm, businesses go into debt to stock up for the holidays. And then the economy shuts down. What has the Women's Business Center been able to do for small entrepreneurs? Like children's at sag?
Soomin Jun (05:13):
Okay. The Women's Business Center was able to provide her an emergency grant and 15 other women entrepreneurs, like Chuluuntsetseg, were supported through the funds. And through the fund, she was able to identify new local suppliers for her raw material. And she was matched with a mentor to go through her difficult situation with her business. And she was also advised to utilize various ICT tools, for example, Facebook boost option and using the WBC's new online shopping mall instead of relying on governments various product expos, which have been canceled now to also, producing cotton masks and gloves instead of her previous products, which were bed sheets and blankets.
Tracie Yang (06:06):
So,
It sounds like you found your niche.
Soomin Jun (06:09):
You know, before this happened. We did not imagine such an epidemic would cause a global economic crisis and that it would affect our women entrepreneurs so much, but building resilience for women businesses was crucial. Especially for Mongolian economy, which is composed of extractive industries. Which will take a long time to recover after this pandemic. And through the Lotus Circle's Rapid Response Fund, we are able to set up a hotline for anyone who is experiencing mental difficulties to just call and we'll provide a one-on-one followup treatment afterwards, if needed. All this was possible through the generous support from the Lotus Circle Fund. And their support was very helpful because it was so flexible. Maybe this is something that many other organizations that run by fundraise money might need to consider because you know, being flexible during this difficult time helped us identify where the actual needs are for our women entrepreneurs and being able to make those payments quickly and contract with women led NGO's that maybe in the past, we did not work with together. That was only possible because of their support.
John Rieger (07:35):
I applaud your efforts with the Women's Business Center and the Lotus Rapid Response Fund, but they must seem like just a small drop in an ocean of troubles for Mongolia, small business women. Do you see a possibility of expanding your efforts?
Soomin Jun (07:48):
Yes, definitely. This support is, a very small support since our Women's Business Center has now more than 600, 6,000 sorry, registered clients, which all have been affected by the pandemic.
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od (08:05):
COVID-19 shows the many shortcomings in our current systems that is not inclusive and not applied for everyone, especially women and children. We are not sure that when government of Mongolia opened the borders because there's a sharp increase in cases of COVID-19 in Russia, right now. And furthermore, there are over 10,000 Mongolians stuck abroad and many children can't see their parents. Yeah, we're living in a very complicated time, but we hope that we will adopt this new normal, as smoothly as possible.
John Rieger (08:43):
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od and Soomin Jun, thanks for joining us.
Saranzaya Gerelt-Od (08:47):
Thank you for having us.
Soomin Jun (08:48):
Thank you.
Tracie Yang (08:49):
And that's our show for this week. You can read Saranzaya and Soomin's essay about supporting Mongolia's women entrepreneurs in the current edition of the InAsia blog. Until next time, I'm Tracie Yang.
John Rieger (09:03):
And I'm John Rieger. Thanks for listening.
