Facilitation and funding was provided by IFRC’s IDRL Programme, the IFRC Delegation in Ulaanbaatar and the Mongolian Red Cross. Participants included Government representatives and agencies involved in disaster management and/or law making and key partners.
Through group work, participants explored the challenges around entry of foreign aid workers, entry and distribution of foreign relief goods, and issues around quality and accountability. Participants shared views on how procedures might be strengthened, based on the IDRL guidelines and best practices in other countries.
Participants observed that, while existing laws and regulations establish some protocols to facilitate the entry of goods, a number of gaps still remain. In particular, representatives from border control and customs agencies expressed the need to improve the regulatory framework and collaboration of these two agencies with regard to their approach to relief personnel and goods.
“This workshop was important because it made us look closer at our existing legal norms on these issues for the first time,” noted Mongolian Red Cross Secretary-General Jadamba Zambagarav, “it was a good starting point for establishing communication between agencies on IDRL.”
Participants at the workshop recommended that the government should consider a deeper review of its relevant legal frameworks in order to address the gaps identified.