Study title

Interview transcripts and focus group transcripts from interviews and focus groups with individual herders and local residents, local government officials, representatives from mining companies, representatives from NGOs and civil society organisations, and truck drivers in Khanbogd, Gurvantes and Sukhbatar counties and Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and from Naryn, Chatkal and Ala-Buka districts in Kyrgyzstan undertaken in 2018 and 2019.This project develops a dynamic Mediation Model for Sustainable Infrastructure Development (MMSID) to promote inclusive economic development and social welfare in the context of Chinese mega infrastructure initiatives in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. While large-scale infrastructure projects represent a key mechanism of economic growth and development, they also bring unintended and negative consequences to local populations and environments. These challenges can be compounded by specific regional contexts. This is the case in contemporary Asia where China's One Belt-One Road (OBOR), representing more than £1 trillion in investments, is set to transform societies, economies and landscapes through infrastructure megaprojects. Opaqueness in Chinese procurement rights points to the potential for resource contestation between current rural users and state-driven contracts. This contrasts with standards established by international funders such as IFC, World Bank, ADB and OECD. The speed and scale of OBOR investments present particular social and environmental challenges to China's neighbouring states of Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan. This includes project siting, use of scarce resources such as water, and land degradation. In addition, these states have limited capacity of national government agencies, weak governance institutions, historically poor inclusion of local populations in development processes, fragile, dryland and mountain environments and the prevalence of Sinophobia. These challenges result in the need to foster...