We sat down with UNFPA Representative to China and Country Director for Mongolia Dr. Justine Coulson about UNFPA’s work and her visit to Mongolia.

Dr. Coulson has dedicated her career to international development and gender equality. Before joining UNFPA in 2016 as Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, she had worked in East and Southern Africa, Asia, and Latin America for over 10 years.

She holds a Ph.D. in Gender and International Development from the University of Newcastle, UK and a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Liverpool, UK.

- Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your work, and about UNFPA?

- I’m the representative for UNFPA in China and I’m also the country director for UNFPA Mongolia. It means that whilst we have a very strong team here, mainly of Mongolian nationals with an international head of office, I live in Beijing, and I provide a lot of strategic support to the team.

UNFPA stands for the United Nations Population Fund, and we work specifically on sexual reproductive health, and rights, which means working around women’s health, well-being, and rights. We also work with adolescent girls, and on youth development, health and well-being of young people as well as having a focus on population data and helping governments to have strong population data to help them plan their economic investments more effectively.

- This is your first visit to Mongolia. What were the main objectives of your visit? What is your impression of our country?

- I felt that it’s very difficult to support a country team when you’ve never been there. This is the very first time I’ve been to Mongolia and it’s a country that I’ve wanted to come to for a long time, so I’m pleased that my job has allowed me to come here. I’ve always known that Mongolia has a unique culture and I wanted to come and learn more about it, and about the work that we do here.

I also wanted to meet with our partners both in government and in our community organizations to listen to the challenges that they have and to see what more I think we could be doing as UNFPA to support the government and the partners in Mongolia. I’ve been struck by the openness of our government partners in terms of engaging with us and working with us on our areas of work.

I’ve also seen some great projects that are being delivered on the ground for communities, particularly in the area of gender-based violence and supporting women who are survivors of gender-based violence.

The other thing that struck me was on my way to Darkhan, we stopped off with a herder family and they offered me the most beautiful meal and then I got to ride their horse. It’s a country and culture that has such a strong sense of hospitality and I think is very open to visitors and wants to welcome them very warmly. It was even beautiful in winter in the snow. It’s such a vast landscape and it has been incredible.

- How long has UNFPA been working in Mongolia and what are your main areas of work?

- We first started working in 1992 and the work we do can be summarized as focusing on four key areas. One of them is on sexual reproductive health, which is particularly working to improve the quality of maternal healthcare for women, and this is an area where Mongolia has had a huge achievement in terms of reducing the number of maternal deaths and providing real, good quality maternal health care for women who are pregnant and having children. The other area is working with young people on youth development and youth leadership, preparing a generation of young people for the future.

Looking at aspects of sexual reproductive health, for example, we do work on comprehensive sexuality education. We support schools in the curriculum and developing the curriculum. Then we do work around gender equality, but I think here in Mongolia we’ve been very focused on working with the government and community-level partners to ensure a much stronger response for survivors of gender-based violence.

When I went to Darkhan, I got an opportunity to visit a One-Stop Service Center, where women and their children can come if it’s no longer safe for them to be at home because of gender-based violence. There, they get looked after and are given psychological support. They have somewhere safe to start rebuilding their families and we introduced a sort of women’s economic empowerment element so they can learn new skills to start earning income and it’s very impressive.

Then the other piece we work on is around supporting the government in terms of research and data because it’s important when we are looking at investments in a country to advance socioeconomic development that’s based on evidence. Then we can find out who are the people in most need and therefore lets us invest more in those areas so that everybody can benefit from the socioeconomic development in the country.

- Why does UNFPA work with youth?

- Young people are the future of the country, and you should want to invest in your generation of young people. What investing means is an investment in education, health, and well-being and for us that would mean, for example, providing comprehensive sexuality education and developing peer educators who can advise and guide other young people on making the right choices. It means investing in skills and ensuring employment opportunities for young people in the future.

I also think investing in young people is to develop their sense of citizenship and a desire to serve their communities, but at the same time, young people also have rights in their sense. It’s not just that they're the future, they have needs now.

Recently, I met with some members of our UN Youth Advisory Panel, and they were talking to me about some of the challenges of growing up as a young person in Mongolia, especially in urban areas. They had concerns about their future, future jobs, and the challenges around dealing with social media, and we had a very interesting conversation. That’s why we feel investing both in girls and boys is very important in terms of both their rights and building the future of the country.

- Tell us about ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) and what Mongolia’s commitments to it are?

- So, next year we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of ICPD.

In Cairo, in 1994, governments from all over the world came together for the very first International Conference on Population and Development. From it came out a Program of Action that all countries adopted where they all agreed that reproductive health was a right. What it meant was recognizing that women have the right to choose whether to have children, when they have children, and how many children they have, and that was quite revolutionary at the time.

Another aspect was recognizing when talking about population, it’s not about numbers but about individuals, and thinking through to make the best investments in social support to ensure that everybody benefits in society and doesn’t increase inequality but to develop together as a country.

This was the first time that this had been agreed upon globally. Every five years, we get together to review progress and Mongolia has started writing its national-level report.

In November, Asia Pacific countries will review everybody’s progress and countries will have an opportunity to share good practices and to learn from one another.

In 2024, there will be a celebration of ICPD 30 where we can see where we are as a world globally on delivering reproductive rights for everybody.

- What are the most memorable experiences of your visit?

- My most memorable visit is going to visit a herder family. They’d never met me before and they knew nothing about me and when I visited their ger, they had laid on the most beautiful meal that she had cooked all by herself. It was amazing to me that she has this one pan, and she delivered this beautiful meal and there was meat, and then she made this incredibly layered bread and there was fresh curd for the bread. She boiled down the curd with raisins and it was like a sweet dessert. It was just a lovely experience.

Another experience was, I’d always assume that people who live that lifestyle were probably people who you know haven’t had an opportunity to be educated but she was explaining to me that she and her husband had been together for nearly 50 years, and they met at veterinarian college. They both trained as veterinarian technicians and then chose this lifestyle, and they were living with a cooperative where every member in the cooperative offered something, whether it was meat or honey from their hives or anything. I just found it such an amazing way to live and the idea that it was a choice and that’s how they chose to live, and just that very warm hospitality brought me joy and we had such a lovely afternoon. It became a big memory of my life.

- Lastly, what led you to become who you are now and work in the direction of the population development sector?

- I grew up in the UK in the 1970s and at that time we had a lot of gender inequality in British society. When I went to secondary school, the girls were sent to learn sewing and the boys were sent to learn carpentry and you couldn't choose. I thought that was wrong, I thought that anybody should be allowed to choose anything.

From that point, I’ve always been and I’ve always believed very strongly in gender equality. I’ve always believed that opportunity should be open for everybody so regardless of whether you’re male or female, even if you come from a poorer household, I think should have just as much opportunity as people that come from a wealthier household.

When I grew up, it didn't matter whether you were rich or poor, if you studied hard enough you got the support to go to university. Ever since then, I’ve really believed in fighting against social injustice and fighting for equality. Honestly, although I’ve been working now for 28 years, I still get up every morning and I feel as passionate as I did when I was 24.