The World Bank and the Mongolian
Government launched an index-based livestock insurance project on a trial basis
in 2005. Its success in the years following led to its extension to new areas
every year.  The goal now is to have all
livestock of Mongolia insured by 2013.

Bayankhongor, Uvs and
Khentii provinces were covered in 2006. Sukhbaatar, Bulgan, Darkhan-Uul,
Gobi-Altai, Zavkhan and Selenge provinces were added in 2009 and 2010. The World
Bank plans to have six more provinces enrolled by 2012 and the rest in 2013.

The index-based insurance aims
to insure herders and herder households
against a dzud or any other natural disaster. The project calculates the
mortality for indemnity payments at the soum level not according to losses
suffered by individual herders. Herders in 48 soums who had
insured their animals are now receiving MNT 1.8 billion  for their losses.