Ending poverty in Mongolia: From socialism to social development

While recent literature on social welfare has included Asian countries, less is known about low-income and former socialist countries in Central Asia. This article combines a documentary-historical method with a value-critical approach to analyze Mongolia’s social policy response to poverty. Mongolia is unique in Asia because it transformed from nomadic pastoralism to socialism without a phase of capitalist industrial development. The case study found that Mongolia lost social welfare when it transitioned from socialism, a statist model, to market liberalism and multiparty democracy. In the 21st century, Mongolia has been aspiring to promote social development by redirecting mining revenues to a human development fund. Mongolia is potentially an exemplar of social development strategies affirmed at the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development (Rio+20) regarding a green economy for inclusive growth and poverty elimination. Future social welfare research should consider the importance of sustainability. Key Practitioner Message: Global standards for tracking poverty alleviation will be integrated with sustainability measures beginning in 2015. Mongolia hopes to foster social development and sustainable livelihoods by reinvesting revenues from mining into human capital and health care. To sustain future generations, social policy needs to consider the relationship between natural capital, social capital, and financial capital