Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan
Former Prime Minister, Mongolia
Focus: Balancing the Central and Local, Civil Service
Topics: Evaluation and Performance, Civil Service Recruitment, Performance Management System
Keywords: training, recruitment, performance management, capacity building, Mongolia, New Zealand, New Public Management
Interviewer(s): David Hausman
Country of Reform: Mongolia
Location: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Date: Tue Dec 1 2009
Abstract
Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan, the former prime minister of Mongolia, discusses the introduction of the country’s first civil service reforms. He explains the civil service issues Mongolia faced after the transition to democracy and touches upon some of the strategies taken to address them. He discusses working with the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and how Mongolia tried to model many of its reforms on the steps the government of New Zealand was taking. Enkhsaikhan emphasizes that the largest issue the government faced was capacity building, and he explains the difficulty of attracting high quality workers away from the private sector. He briefly touches on steps taken to build support for these reforms within the different levels of government.
Case Study: From Central Planning to Performance Contracts, New Public Management in Mongolia, 1996-2009
Full Profile
Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan was prime minister of Mongolia from 1996 to 1998. He represented the Mongolian Democratic Union Coalition, making him the first prime minister in over 80 years to come from a party other than the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He later held the positions of deputy prime minister and chairman of the Democratic Party. Among many high profile positions, Enkhsaikhan was chief of staff to Mongolia’s first president from 1993 to1996. He was directly involved in major economic reforms, including the introduction of private property and the privatization of state-owned resources. Enkhsaikhan holds a doctorate in economics from the State University in Kiev, Ukraine.
