Field assessment done by the project coordinator revealed that almost 70 per cent of herders in 5 soums* of Zavkhan aimag* have no or little understanding about benefits of social and health insurance. The project focuses on new way of peer-to-peer training to deliver information on benefits of social insurance schemes including information of how to get enrolled in them. Representatives of government and non-government organizations, such as the provincial social insurance department, life-long education center, pastureland user groups and cooperatives (of which herders are the members), trade union and employers’ organizations. There are total of 36 participants from of Otgon, Ider, Tes, Ikh-Uul and Durvuljin soums, as well as from the aimag center.

After completion of the training, representatives of each soum will be divided into two groups with 3 members and will conduct a 40 minutes training to herder families on each subject described below:

• Social and health insurance law and legislation; Social Insurance benefits;
• Sustainable development, climate change and how to prepare and respond to possible shocks such as dzud*
• Promotion of herders’ cooperatives

Aimag – equivalence of a province. There are 21 aimags in Mongolia
Soum – lower administrative unit. Aimags are divided into soums
Dzud – harsh winter causing loss of animals