Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing & Resilient Urban Renewal — Ger-District Eco-Districts

Ulaanbaatar's ger districts — unplanned settlements where roughly 840,000 residents live in traditional tents or self-built houses on individually fenced plots — have almost none of the green infrastructure found in the planned city core. A 2014 national Green Development Policy set a target of 30% green space across the city's residential area by 2030 and a per-capita green-space goal of 30 m², but independent academic assessment finds current citywide green space at only around 1.8% of area (roughly 0.12–5 m² per resident, against a World Health Organization benchmark of 9 m²), attributing the shortfall to rapid population growth and weak policy implementation.

To close part of that gap, the Asian Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund co-finance the Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing and Resilient Urban Renewal Sector Project (GCF project FP077), approved in 2018 with total project value of about USD 570 million, including a USD 145 million GCF contribution (a USD 95 million loan and a USD 50 million grant) alongside ADB and private co-financing. The project is redeveloping roughly 100 hectares of ger-district land into 20 eco-districts of about 5 hectares each, delivering an estimated 10,000 low-carbon, climate-resilient affordable housing units with integrated green space, alongside roads, water, sewerage and district-heating connections. The GCF appraisal projects around 432,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided and roughly 350,000 people with increased climate resilience over the project's life, running to a planned completion around 2030.

Caveats: these are ex-ante financier estimates for a programme still under construction, not measured post-completion outcomes; the 100 hectares covered is a small fraction of Ulaanbaatar's roughly 300+ km² ger-district footprint; and the same academic literature that documents the green-space shortfall also flags weak inter-agency coordination as a recurring risk to delivery.

Read the full analysis: https://www.adb.org/results/building-affordable-green-houses-mongolia-s-ger-districts