Mongolia Non-Governmental Organizations (Essay Sample)

Running Head: MONGOLIA NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
MONGOLIA NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
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Relative size of Mongolia NGOs
Mongolia is a landlocked country in central Asia. The neighbors are china to the south and Russia to the north. Its capital city is Ulaanbaatar. It is the largest city in the country housing about 45% of the country's population (Anheier & Themudo, 2002). The leaders run a parliamentary system of governance. Mongolia entered in an agreement with the World Trade Organization in 1997 in its quest to participate in regional economic trade. Since the country moved from centrally controlled to an open society, there has been a significant development and growth of NGO's. Four structural points or factors define the relative size of these NGO's (Anheier & Themudo, 2002). The first factor is the legal structure of the NGO. In 1997, the country's legislative assembly passed the NGO law, which marked a big step towards growth and development. The law was set to encourage the growth of NGO's. Incentives such as tax exemptions were placed to encourage more settlement. Contributions to NGO and and their activities are exempt to tax. The law also favors the development and running of NGOs in many other ways. If the NGO sent an application to the ministry of justice and it stays for 30 days without response, the NGO is deemed o be legally active (Anheier & Themudo, 2002). The second factor is the type and classification of NGOs where the law separates public benefit NGOs to member benefit NGO. Public NGOs operate for the benefit of the public in fields of culture, art, education, sports, science, and health. Mutual benefit NGOs are those that serve the legitimate interests of its members (Anheier & Themudo, 2002). The third factor is financial sources and fundraising activities. Mongolian NGOs raise most of their funds by organizing donor meetings, musical performances, shows, lotteries, among many other activities. The fourth pillar or factor is taxation policy. Even though taxes are to a large extend excepted, the organizations must pay fixed taxes. The law is lenient because it does not strictly prohibit NGOs from engaging in commercial activities (Anheier & Themudo, 2002).
There are more than 4,000 non-governmental organizations in Mongolia. All these organizations are fully registered. In approximation, 2% falls in the class of member benefit organizations. The rest of the organizations are public benefit organizations (Anheier & Themudo, 2002).
Importance of NGOs in Mongolia
The non-governmental organizations help to fight for women rights in Mongolia. One of the characteristics of Middle East countries is lack of freedom and respect for women rights (Warner & Sullivan, 2004). These NGOs help in liberating women to face equal opportunities as men. The other importance is liberating Mongolia's economy. The NGOs help liberate prices of commodities in a quest to enabling local residents to afford these commodities (Warner & Sullivan, 2004). So far, great stability on commodity prices has b...