COUNTRIES: Mongolia
DURATION: 05/02/2016 - 09/30/2021
FUNDER: USAID
PARTNER: International Republican Institute, Centre for Citizenship Education
CONTACT[email protected]

Program Description

USAID's Leaders Advancing Democracy (LEAD) Mongolia Program is a five-year initiative helping to build the next generation of democracy champions across Mongolia.

Through this cooperative agreement with USAID, World Learning, together with its partners International Republican Institute (IRI) and Centre for Citizenship Education (CCE) are undertaking a variety of leadership programs, international exchanges, and civic education activities.

The LEAD Mongolia Program consists of three important and interconnected activities, designed to support promising young leaders to work collaboratively to solve the country’s most pressing issues. The program includes a U.S.-Mongolia Emerging Leaders Exchange Program with 230 young leaders aged 25 to 40 from different sectors; an international LEAD Alliance, which connects Mongolian emerging leaders with like-minded peers in Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar, and positions them as regional leaders; and a civic education curriculum development and citizen engagement component with high school students.

World Learning is partnering with USAID on this important initiative to support Mongolia’s best and brightest young democracy advocates to realize their vision for positive change in their country. Our participants, known as LEAD Fellows, work together and work on projects that create positive change in the areas of poverty and unemployment, environment and urbanization, and transparency and anti-corruption. Participants are also trained to be inclusion champions, equipped with best practices on how to incorporate inclusion in their projects and careers and advance their understanding of inclusive democracy and development.  At the conclusion of the LEAD Mongolia Program, these young up-and-coming leaders will have the requisite skills, knowledge, and networks to engage constructively with and within their government, communities, or other institutions for improved democratic outcomes.

Program Goals

LEAD Mongolia is working with Mongolia's best and brightest young leaders, providing them opportunities to breathe life into their vision of positive change. Our three core program activities include:

  • An intensive Emerging Leaders Program, which brings together 230 emerging Mongolian change makers to build skills, network, and implement group projects to address issues of poverty and unemployment, transparency and anti-corruption, and environment and urbanization.
  • The LEAD Alliance connecting Mongolian Emerging Leaders with counterparts in the region to position them as champions for regional democracy and mentors for 65 LEAD Alliance Fellows from Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar.
  • Civic education curriculum development and citizen engagement initiatives with high school students, which includes competitions for thousands of students across Mongolia to take action to solve real community problems.