Provide an overall assessment of the effectiveness of the activities undertaken to achieve the expected results and of the efficiency of the use of funds for implementing the activities. Please indicate how the activities contributed to achieving the results and whether other activities could have contributed better to achieving the same results. Also indicate whether the same results could have been achieved with less funding, whether the human resources available were appropriate and whether communities, groups and individuals could have been better involved.
After the inscription of “Mongolian calligraphy” on the UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2013, numerous initiatives and positive approaches came to safeguard this heritage element. According to the 105th Decree of the President of Mongolia, the first Sunday of every May has started celebrated as “Mongolian National Day for Script” since 2003, and by the 25th Decree of the President of Mongolia in 2017, the 1st of September has been declared as “National mother tongue day”.
On these Decrees, it has appealed to increase the frequency of the news, information, publications, and programs associated to mother tongue, culture, history, traditional culture, and customs for promoting the mother language, increase the pride of mother language and disseminating for the public. Indeed, this appeal has influenced the increase of the involvement and initiative of practitioners, apprentices, learners, government and non-governmental organizations, and those multifaceted activities organized for disseminating and promoting this heritage played the main role in the raising of awareness of the general public.
It has stated on the Decree that on the celebration of “Mother Tongue Day”, the universities, vocational education and training institutions, secondary schools, and preschools in Mongolia should conduct the first hour of the school year classes within the subjects of the Mongolian language, Mongolian literature, and Mongolian history, and the state central administration of the Education shall responsible this issue further. Indeed, this became the basis of the learning and study of Mongolian calligraphy.
The exhibition "Bichig Soyol" is being organized since 2014 and it has expanded as an international exhibition within the last years. In 2019, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports of Mongolia, Government implementing agency Culture and Arts Authority, the Union of Mongolian Artists, and center “Bichig Soyol” have jointly organized the exhibition and calligraphers from the Ulaanbaatar city, Arkhangai, Bulgan, Dornod, Dundgovi, Sukhbaatar, Selenge and Khuvsgul provinces of Mongolia, and Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China were participated by their calligraphy works.
The registration and information database of cultural heritage has been established and regularly updated and the legal environment has improved. As of 2020, 22 practitioners of this heritage element registered in the State registration and information database of cultural heritage, and according to unofficial number, a total of 200 apprentices are learning and actively involved in activities associated with Mongolian calligraphy. Indeed, this number shows that the number of practitioners and apprentices is increasing year by year.
In 2020, the Government of Mongolia has made historic decision that to establish the Ministry of Culture separately from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports. The newly established ministry has 7 departments, and one is the Cultural Heritage Department. The department is responsible for managing the implementation of policies, plans and laws for the protection of cultural heritage, developing procedures, rules and legal documents required for their implementation, and providing advice and all-round support. This department has a coordination officer for policy implementation of intangible cultural heritage.
In 2021, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Mongolia the training and exhibition project “The secret history of Mongols” has been implemented. This project aimed to transmit Mongolian calligraphy through teaching to secondary school teachers in Ulaanbaatar city and to promote this heritage element to the public. Within the frame of this project, a total of 90 teachers including 69 public schools, 13 private schools, and 2 vocational education and training institutions in Ulaanbaatar city were taught the “Mongolian calligraphy”.