Following a year of extreme weather, including a very severe winter followed by a drought, not to mention some severe flash flooding, Mongolia’s herders have suffered severely. The Mongolian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), is keen to find ways of  being able to alert herders in advance of weather events, such as snowstorms, in order to keep them, their families and livestock safe and limit any damage. Together with Mercy Corps, a US international humanitarian aid agency with extensive experience in helping in disaster environments, NEMA  has released an SMS application for herders which provides advance weather information. Since June, a total of 57 herders have been participating in testing the application; 51 percent of them receiving direct forecast information. More than 90 percent ranked the SMS application as being effective.

Following the successful pilot-run of the app, an Memorandum of Understanding was concluded on 12 October between NEMA, Mercy Corps and the chief executives of Mongolia’s four service providers.

Now more than 160 thousand herder families in all 21 provinces can use the app.