Research Achievement Report
Graduate Student Researcher Development Grant by
Taikichiro Mori Memorial Research Fund for the
academic year 2009
Project name: Equity issue among Pastoral Community organizations in
Mongolia
Name of the Researcher: Narangerel Yansanjav
Affiliation: Graduate School of
Media and Governance
Duration of the
research: Aug, 2009- Jan 2010
Acknowledgement: I would like to
pass my deep gratitude to Taikichiro
Mori Memorial Research Fund for providing the fieldwork with financial support,
without which the researcher could not afford to make it happen. Also big thanks to my professor Lynn
Thiesmeyer, who gave her extended guidance, without it the researcher could not
acquire the essential data and observation for the thesis.
Achievement
1:
Produced
survey and questionnaire for fieldwork (June – July 2009)
Based on my
main advisor professor’s guidance and recommendation, the researcher developed
three different survey questionnaire for three different informants; 1)respondents-
herders and 2)Community leaders, 3)key informants- Local government officials
and related Ministry Authorities. In
order avoid being bias the researcher used triangulation (asking same questions
from different type of informants).
Totally 48
individuals were interviewed.
Box 1 Number
of Interviews with individual and Key informants and Group discussion Individual
herders
30 Barchin Khairkan Community 5 Taliin Bulag Community 5 Khamtiin Khuch Community 5 Khankhar Community
5 Taval Tolgoi Communty 5 Ar Bayan Community
5 Community
leaders
4 Key
informants 6 Informal
focus group meeting 8 Total
interviewed
48 |
Achievement 2
Fieldwork
conducted in Mongolia (August to September 2009)
The fieldwork
was conducted in Arkhangai province (northern Khangai), Tsenkher and
Tuvshruulekh soums [1]. Arkhangai province is located slightly west
to the center on the northern part of the Khangai Mountain. Currently Arkhangai covers 55,313.82 km²
(21,357 sq mi), and has 89,282 citizens, who live in 19 sums and 99 bags
(subdistricts).
In winter the average temperature is −30
°C to −38 °C (−22 °F to −36 °F) and in summer the high
temperature is between 25 °C and 36 °C (77 °F and 97 °F).
The main field of economy in the province is
agriculture, predominantly animal husbandry. According to 2007 data, the
province has 2,912,500 domestic animals: goats, sheep, cattle (incl. yaks and
khainags), horses.
According to the Natural Zone mapping of the
country, the province is included in the Mountain
steppe area (see map).
Methodology: The research relied on
qualitative approach, where Participatory analytical tools were employed along
with “thick description” (Geertz ,The Interpretation of Culture, 1973) where I
had tried to keep record on everything I observed as much as I could do using
my dairy notes, the camera (photo and digital) and the tape recorder which was
recommended by my advisor professor.
Sampling:
The target groups were herders who live in forest steppe area of the
country. In each Community organization,
all the members’ livelihood was identified by local residents (social worker of
the village, bag (Admin. Unit within the village) randomly chosen herders (2)
using Participatory Wealth ranking tool[2]. The mean criteria that the above local residents
used were: Livestock number, number of family members, physical assets (car,
truck), relatives in bigger cities, experience in herding, possess winter
camps, pension from government, whether any children study at Universities.
Secondly, once the livelihood of the herders were identified the
wealthier, better off and poor households were chosen randomly. Sometimes due to the herders time
availability the researcher used snow ball sampling technique, where finding
one respondent by asking others than suit for the criteria [3].
Semi structured interview:
The main method used during the fieldwork was semi structured
interviews. The research was conducted
in the area of nomadic people where group of households live distance (10-20km)
from other group of households. In that case this method was most suitable for
individual herders to interview rather than group discussion. Also the fieldwork was overlapped with some
of the main activities of local herders such as hay collecting which makes local
people busy, the group discussion was not suitable. Also since some of the respondents were
illiterate semi structured interview did not require them to read and write
instead it was encouraging them to talk more casual way while researcher can
correct immediately when the misunderstandings occur during the
interviews.
The each interview was started with casual
icebreaking and introductions. Before starting the main interview I informed
every respondent by explaining my research work and it helped them to relax
before interview and avoid sensitive issues that might be occur during
interview. Also the open-ended questions
allow both researcher and respondents to talk freely and openly.
During the interview some PRA tools were used
to evaluate his/her personal opinion on the Community performance such as
H-form. The mobility map was drawn by each respondent to understand respondent
households’ annual mobility situation and its usage of pasture. These exercises were allowed respondents to
brainstorm and made the interview more interactive (draw map) rather than
asking and answering all the time.
34 individual interviews were conducted from 5 different Community
organizations. Additionally 18 key
informants including focus group meeting participants. Totally 48 respondents interview were
captured.
Key informants interview:
In depth interviews were conducted with key informants from local
government and some related development program officers.
During the interview the government policy issue on Community
Organization in local area and its right and responsibility and related law
enforcement was discussed. Additionally,
the local pasture use by the herders and role of community organization in
nature conservation was deeply illustrated while cross checking questionnaires
were attached. From the local area 1
Vice governor, 1 Natural resource inspector, 1 Social worker was
interviewed. From related development
programs the Managing director of UNDP Combating Desertification project,
Community Development officer of Altai Sayan, Community based conservation
project of UNDP and Director of Policy research center and Director of New
Zealand Nature Institute were interviewed.
Informal focus group discussion:
Due to lack of time availability among herders the focus group meeting
was conducted only once during the fieldwork with 8 participants. During focus group meeting different PRA
tools were used such as social and natural mapping, trends on natural resources
to capture the group perceptions and attitudes.
The participation level of the herders was active and it was useful to
observe how the individuals react and commented on others view. Sometimes it was not easy for researcher to
capture every single talk during the group meeting so again tape recorder was
used.
Collection of secondary data:
The secondary data was collected from the
following institutions: Local institutions, National library, National
statistical office, Project reports (UNDP, FAO, IFAD, ADRA) Public documents
(newspapers, policy papers), local
reports from Arkhangai province (2 soums).
Limitations
during the fieldwork:
The number of obstacles
has been occurred during the fieldwork:
Time: Since the nature of nomad people is to move
from one place to another looking for good grass for their livestock, I had to
travel 40-50 km to find my respondents every day. It was time consuming
although it was fun on the horse. Also
sometimes interviews lasted 2 hours and since the housewife had to milk the
cows and prepare the dairy products and feed the children the interview took
place in between her daily busy schedule.
However for man it was a bit different situation unless he receives
unexpected guests from the local area, which took several hours to wait the
guest to leave the house.
Weather:
Due to the heavy rainfall
during the summer the water level of big rivers was raisin and gave difficulty
to cross the river on the horse to reach the household on the other side of the
river.
Achievement 3
The primary and the secondary data and
observation from the fieldwork were analyzed (October 2009 –Jan 2010)
The collected primary and the secondary data
and the observation during the fieldwork captured the most essential
information for the thesis writing. The
crucial and complicated task is to analyze those data, find relationship
between them, look for patterns and came up with actual framework. The researcher’s next step would be to
academically illustrate the case and prove it based on empirical data and on
literature review. The following main findings are the key issues to be
discussed in the thesis. Finally and
hopefully it would be the recommendation to Mongolian government, to current
and future donor funded programs and to herder Community organizations toward
improvement of Herding households and of better pastureland management in
pastoral land of Mongolia.
·
The Community organization was established
without common consensus of its members.
·
There are no regular meetings or activities
within the community
·
Too many member households comparison to the
Customary organization in one Community and it not only make the service
delivery (from government and the project) slow and inefficient it also
creating mistrust among the members.
·
However the herders hope that Community
Organization would positively impact on their livelihood, since the pastureland
is degrading and poverty is increasing and the customary organization is too
weak to support them.
·
Due to lack of adequate information and
organizational and management skill the CO is weak.
·
The
pasture land management and its enforcement is not active among members.
·
According
to the Community law from the government, members have more responsibilities
than rights
·
Poor
households are getting poorer when rich herders have more access to pasture.
·
The
increased number of livestock causes to land degradation.
·
The
Government Policy toward improving herders livelihood is mainly directing to
rich herders who own more than 500 animals through developing intensive farming
·
Donor
funded projects in the rural area are overlapping and its destructive to Herder
Community organization
Charts from the fieldwork
Photos
from the fieldwork