The Open Society Forum promotes active civic participation in Mongolian political and social life. The successor of the Mongolian Foundation for Open Society, the forum builds on the legacy of the foundation’s work. It provides a physical and virtual space for high-quality policy research and analysis; broad public access to information about state activities; and a venue for public engagement in policy formulation and implementation. Its initiatives focus on monitoring elections, expanding access to justice, promoting transparency in natural resource revenues, and increasing citizen oversight of government budgets and expenditures.

In Mongolia, a country with abundant mineral wealth but limited industry in other sectors, debates over resource management often dominate political discourse. The Open Society Forum has been a key advocate for transparent and fair management of mineral wealth, helping to ensure that Mongolia meets the standards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an international oversight body that monitors reporting of resource revenues. It has also supported broader public monitoring of other national fiscal policies and budget processes.

In the area of access to justice, pilot legal aid centers established and run by the Open Society Forum and the Open Society Justice Initiative have been very effective in providing legal aid to indigent people, leading the government to launch an effort to replicate these model centers in each province throughout the country. The forum has also been at the forefront of ensuring that elections are free and fair by supporting nongovernmental organizations engaged in election monitoring and voter registration. Those efforts have helped open up Mongolian election procedures, which had previously restricted the role of domestic election observers.