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From nomadic life to digital transformation, meet Mongolia’s former minister and tech pioneer
At age 27, she launched an initiative that transformed her country forever and put it high on the global map, and 5 years after, Mongolia has become a digitised nation and an example to many developing countries.
Bolor-Erdene Battsengel grew up in a nomadic community in Mongolia, having to help her family shepherd livestock. In her community, there were huge inequalities with no access to the internet, education, or equal learning opportunities.
This motivated her to pursue education, and with hard work, she gained admission to one of the world’s most prestigious universities, Oxford University.
After realizing gaps in her country’s leadership, she joined the government as the first and youngest female to occupy the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Development.
In her position, she spearheaded the creation and roll-out of the country’s e-government system, e-Mongolia, which digitised over 1,000 services for citizens and made public services available online.
In 2021, she started the Girls Code Programme to teach young women from rural areas how to code and to provide them with equal learning opportunities in technology.
“I really wanted to give girls and even boys, especially in the countryside who are not connected to the internet, who do not have that advantage, the money or the good school or good facilities. When you see it from their perspective, it’s quite unfair that they have to compete with their peers who are from well-off families or who are well-educated in the job market. So I really wanted to give them equal opportunity and the results have really been incredible so we wanted to expand the program not only to Mongolia but different developing and emerging countries and the ultimate goal is to give equal education opportunities to those who do not have internet,” she told GSW’s Wonder Hagan.
Her dreams did not come without challenges. According to the former Mongolian Minister, funding which is a critical part of the programme has been a major challenge because it operates as a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO).
“Because it’s an NGO and we target girls from disadvantaged communities, the first challenge is mostly funding because it’s very hard to cover all the costs. We buy them laptops, food, and accommodation, everything is paid for by the program. The second one would be organizing the boot camp because most of the girls are in their teenage years, they are starting to date, and fall in love, so these girls, for us to keep them focused and working hard, it’s a challenge but a reward as well. They keep it up very well but mostly really go further than we expect,” she noted.
Today, the Girls Code Programme has produced 90 graduates with about 10 girls studying at respective prestigious universities. The program which is going to be launched in March this year will recruit more girls for training and tech career prospects.
“We have 10 girls studying abroad at NYU, Harvard, and other prestigious universities. We have a winner of the International Coding Competition from the girls, and now we are launching the program on the 8th of March on International Women's Day for this cohort. This year we are hoping to have about 50 girls but in addition to that, in 2023, we introduced a coding International Mentorship program. It's not only for girls but both boys and girls who are starting their careers so we have well-known international experts,” Bolor told GSW.
Bolor is currently an Oxford University fellow studying misinformation and cyberbullying targeting women and digital infrastructure.
Her legacy of a digitised country remains known widely around the world, with bigger visions of making Mongolia a technology hub on the Asian continent.
