Mongolia’s Social Security System and Its Challenges

Abstract

Mongolia provides an exemplary case study of social security systems, as it stands out among transitional countries as one of the first to have introduced, within a short span of time, social insurance, public assistance, and social services systems that, taken together, take on the shape of a welfare state. The social insurance system consists of five insurance schemes—pension insurance, health insurance, industrial accident and occupational disease insurance, unemployment insurance, and benefit insurance—that also encompass worker's compensation insurance, pregnancy and maternity pensions, medical insurance for new mothers, and casualty benefits for short-term work stoppage. Mongolia’s social security system provides well-developed public assistance and social services to various socially vulnerable groups without requiring means-testing. Mongolia’s public assistance programs cater to diverse target groups, and there is also a tradition of rewarding individuals of national merit due to the socialist background. Overall, Mongolia’s social security system benefits not only socially vulnerable groups but also individuals in the upper-middle class.