Insufficient fertility rates have, for some time, prompted the state to offer serious incentives for having children.
Women who have six or more children, for instance, receive a medal called the "First Order of Glorious Motherhood," along with 200,000 tugriks (about $154), which corresponds to the monthly wage of an industrial worker in the large, landlocked country.
Four children bring mothers the honor of "Second Order of Glorious Motherhood," and 100,000 tugriks ($77). In some cases the payment is annual, otherwise it is given each quarter of the year.
Since these incentives started in the 1950s, more than 129,000 Mongolian mothers have won such awards — though the policy has been start-and-stop since it began.
So, the question is, does it work?
Between 1970 and 1975, the average Mongolian's childbearing rate was estimated to be 7.33 per woman. That rate fell to 4.6 by 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down.
And then Mongolia’s fertility rate took a sharp turn for the worse in 1991. That's when the Soviet Union collapsed. When that happened, — down the drain went its contribution of nearly one-third of Mongolia's GDP.