Mapping the Care System in Mongolia: What do We Know?

Abstract

We aimed to map paid and unpaid care work in the context of the national economic,
social assistance and social welfare policy of Mongolia. We used the secondary data including the Mongolian Time Use Survey 2015, 2019, Labor Force Survey 2018, Household
Socio-Economic Survey 2018, health, education sector statistics available at the National
Statistical Office information platform on www.1212.mn, and data and reports published
by the line ministries and international organizations and reveiwed findings by other researchers. Based on the research review, we found that about 30 percent of the central
government budget in 2021 was spent on care services including education, health, and
directly paid cash allowance and financing care homes for elders, children and people with
disabilities. Moreover, the unpaid care sector produces value equal 15.3- 17 percent of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2015 and 2019. We identified data gaps for measuring paid and unpaid care. Mongolia has relatively good data for examining the care
sector, but faces limitations on understanding paid care for elders and disabled people,
particularly the extent of informal paid care, and also informal paid care for children 0-2.9