Tuya Choijil

When Mongolia became a capitalist society extraction increased tremendously, especially with the government’s ‘gold program’. But this increase was too widespread and the benefits not clear.

I saw the negative impact on the environment but decided to get involved so that local communities who were hurt by extraction could be heard – especially in order to protect the environment. This campaign provided us an opportunity to be engaged and voice our opinions on different platforms. Publish What You Pay has been one mechanism, but there was also a “citizen’s council” in Mongolia made up of hundreds of different environmental NGOs from all over the country.

Mongolia joined the EITI in 2006, open society foundation and other organisations involved us in various trainings and information sessions. We started to become very informed on the issues of transparency and it really strengthened my belief that I should be part of this movement, so in 2009 our organisation joined PWYP Mongolia.