Working on the front-line of a changing climate: meet WFP’s pioneer in Mongolia
Facing the challenges of working solo in one of the coldest and most polluted places in the world
I spoke with Darko Petrovic, who reflects on his recent assignment in Mongolia, a new country for the World Food Programme (WFP), where we’ve been exploring options to improve families’ food security in the face of weather extremes.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you ended up in Mongolia?
My name is Darko and I’m from Serbia. I’ve been with WFP on and off since 2009 when I joined as a Food Security Analysis Intern in The Gambia. Fast forward some 10 years and my then supervisor called me and asked if I was interested in going to Mongolia.
“But I thought WFP didn’t have an office in Mongolia?” I asked. “Exactly,” she said, “this is where you come in.”
I couldn’t resist an opportunity to do such promising frontier work for WFP, delving into a country where we don’t have a presence, seeing where we can bring our added value. So I said yes. And here I am in Mongolia with my colleague Chiara Guccione who deployed from our Berlin office.
Wow! So you’re in effect a kind of an early WFP Pioneer. Tell me about why WFP is in Mongolia?
The question is not so much “why is WFP in Mongolia?”, but “why was WFP not in Mongolia sooner?” Mongolia stands at the forefront of the impacts of climate change and faces really harsh natural hazards. Despite there not being a hunger crisis in the typical WFP sense, the winters are incredibly severe, with heavy snowfall across the majority of the country. Temperatures drop to -30°C and even -40°C in some places, while in the summer it can hit up to +45°C. It was hard for me to imagine a climate so severe — but trust me, seeing (or feeling!) is believing.
Up to a third of the country relies on pastoral farming for their livelihoods, which plays a vital role in the economy. But a winter phenomenon called the ‘Dzud’ — a combination of growing-season drought and extremely low temperatures and heavy snow — makes it difficult for animals to access pastures and survive. The Dzud can destroy the livelihoods of thousands of herders, forcing them to move in desperation to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, in search of work. It is not uncommon for the Dzud to kill over 1 million heads of livestock in one winter. This has an indirect but very real effect on food security and nutrition in the country, and the recurrent nature of the Dzud means vulnerability is chronic among many pastoralist communities.
In this context, Mongolia needs support in bringing together the different stakeholders and initiatives that work on this issue, from various government offices, to the climate monitoring service, to NGOs and UN agencies. There is a real need to enhance disaster preparedness and response capacity in the country, and in this sense WFP has the potential to act as a kind of glue, helping bring all actors and resources around a common emergency preparedness and (early) action coordination platform. We are well placed to provide this through our experience in other countries, and innovative technology and tools we use elsewhere, like PRISM, which we’ve rolled out in Cambodia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, mVAM, the 72 Hours Assessments, and shock responsive social protection.
I think WFP has a promising future in Mongolia — our interventions have the potential to be low cost and high impact. Our role is really relevant in this hazard-prone context and has also been recognized as such by the government and partners.
What’s Ulaanbaatar like? I’ve heard it’s the most polluted capital in the world?
Think of the most polluted place you’ve been. Multiply that many times over. And then add arctic temperatures and mammoth traffic jams. It’s intense.
The ‘WFP compound’ was in effect our apartment. We often worked from the Mercy Corps or the UN Resident Coordinator’s office, but when it was too cold to go outside we worked from home. When I say too cold I mean really, really cold — there were days when temperatures dropped to -35°C.
For me, the pollution was the most upsetting part and an important learning curve for healthy living.
Ulaanbaatar is the most polluted capital in the world, and to get to the office you have to dress up in the warmest clothes money can buy, put on a really serious anti-pollution mask, and wade through thick layers of filthy smog.
But at the same time, Mongolia has been really amazing. We’ve met some incredible people and built many constructive partnerships. We’ve also been lucky enough to travel outside the capital, a real eye-opener. The sheer vastness of the country and how remotely so much of the population lives really amazed me. Not to mention how fragile the whole system is in the face of climate change, and how visibly vulnerable Mongolia’s herders are to the impacts of natural hazards.
Tell me what it was like running an office of one?
Well, for much of the time it was just me, but I was never alone. It really was a collective effort of a dedicated group of WFP staff, especially in the initial weeks, supporting remotely or through missions from Bangkok, Berlin, Colombo, Jakarta, Rome and as far away as San Francisco. Key partners on the ground also provided key support, including the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Mercy Corps, or specialist services from Oxford Policy Management.
This is the so-called “alternate presence model” in action, with oversight from the WFP Regional Bureau in Bangkok, and so far it worked out pretty well — thanks to modern technology and adaptable staff. And a dash of good fortune, in that we were spared a Dzud this year.
Our main objective was to build relationships with key stakeholders, engage potential partners, gain a better understanding of the operational context and see whether to establish a longer-term presence in Mongolia. The assignment was mainly exploratory and built on efforts which started in 2017, when WFP conducted a Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) jointly with FAO, and participated in early warning early action workshops, which were initiated by the Humanitarian Country Team in Mongolia.
We focused on options to add further value by providing technical assistance and capitalising on our experience elsewhere. My job focused on bringing this all together and making it happen in a narrow window of time — building relationships and seeing where there is a space for WFP to position itself strategically for maximum impact.
And how did it go? What’s next for WFP in Mongolia?
We have now completed the exploratory work carried out under the preparedness project, and established that we have an important role to play. We’ve built a strong network in Mongolia and have government support for our activities. We are now taking our proof-of-concept to resource partners and looking to take the next steps. It’s an exciting time.
Do you have any tips for WFP staff ‘going solo’ in countries where we don’t have a presence? What would your top five be?
#1 Don’t go solo — Get support from specialised colleagues, who should be ready to share the challenges and the results with you throughout the assignment — and be ready to negotiate a scale up/down of that capacity.
#2 Be open-minded and flexible — These kinds of assignments rely on many assumptions, which need to be tried and tested. Be open to new information and be prepared to change your mind. Be flexible enough to change course if needed. Make plans B, C and D in advance.
#3 Prepare in advance — Read, read, read! There is no on-boarding package, and no national staff to lean on in times of need — you’ll have to rely on the Lonely Planet, Google, and your wits. Map out the different stakeholders, and try to learn as much as possible about the context. The lighter our own operational capacity is, the stronger our partnerships need to be.
#4 Reach out to people through your personal and professional network and social media — see who else you or your connections might know in Mongolia. It will help you discover and understand the country and culture from many unexpected angles.
#5 Get practical tips — I was lucky enough to have been warned by a colleague about the cold and the pollution so brought a stock of industry-grade masks and really warm clothes. Better be safe than sorry!
Finally, what’s the most memorable moment of your time in Mongolia? Is it true you ended acting up on Mongolian national TV?
A massive part of my job was about getting to know people quickly, and building good relationships. In locations with a small aid worker crowd, the fact that people work and also socialise together means the bonds between colleagues are strong. One such bond resulted in me being unexpectedly asked to act in one episode of a Mongolian TV series called ‘The Luckiest Period’. It’s about a young Mongolian IT consultant named Bogd who after completing his degree in the US decided to return home and build a new life. It’s a romantic soap-opera, in which I played Steve, the manager of a California software development firm. Bogd eventually falls in love and is torn between professional and personal commitments — a life somewhat reminiscent of WFP. I must admit I never expected to end up acting with WFP, but life is full of surprises!
Find out more about WFP’s work in Asia and the Pacific.
Watch: Urban Nomads: Mongolian herders face cultural, political and climate change on road to new future - Thompson Reuters Foundation Documentary.
