Ulaanbaatar, May 22, 2025 /MONTSAME/. The “We Women” Forum, jointly organized by the Secretariat of the State Great Khural, the United Nations, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), opened on May 21, 2025, at the State Palace.

Speaker of the State Great Khural of Mongolia Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve delivered opening remarks, stating, “Last year, amendments were made to the Law on Parliamentary Elections, adopting a mixed electoral system and legislating that no less than 30 percent of the candidate list of political parties and 50 percent of candidates in constituencies must be women. As a result, of the 1,341 candidates in the 2024 Parliamentary Election, 38.7 percent, or 520 candidates, were women, a historic high, and 32 women were elected to the State Great Khural, bringing women’s representation in Parliament to 25.4 percent, also a record.”

In other words, Mongolia now leads Asia in terms of women’s participation in parliament. In addition, according to the results of the 2024 Local Elections, women account for 17.9 percent of representatives in the Citizens’ Representative Khurals of the Capital City and Aimags and 28.8 percent in the Citizens’ Representative Khurals of Soums and Districts.

Deputy Speaker of the State Great Khural Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar noted, “Compared with the percentage of women in the Parliament, the figure in Citizens’ Representative Khurals is lower, but the soum and district level is higher by three percent. Although the number of women in Citizens’ Representative Khurals in local areas is gradually increasing, very few have been elected to leadership positions. At present, women representatives chair the Citizens’ Representative Khurals of Darkhan-Uul and Uvurkhangai aimags. The “We Women” Program will be continued systematically, based on the specific conditions of each region and aimag. This will strengthen cooperation between women deputies and women MPs and allow women to play a stronger role in local policymaking.”

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Mongolia Choi Jin-won said, “The UN Development Programme’s ‘Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Participation at Decision-Making Levels’ Project, funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), has delivered significant results for policy and social reform. Women now hold 25.4 percent of the seats in the State Great Khural, an impressively high figure for the region and even higher than in the Republic of Korea. Yet more important than the statistics is that citizens are experiencing the tangible, positive changes that women’s political representation brings to society.”