For the last two days the specialists of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan and its Institute of Strategic and Sustainable Development have been exposed to good international practices in integration of demographic trends into sustainable development. To deliver the seminar Dr. Anastacia Bobrova, UNFPA International Consultant from Belarus was invited to Turkmenistan.
In the course of the seminar, the experience of Belarus in advancing the SDGs was discussed in detail, mostly by focusing on the SDGs Road Map of Belarus that provides overall vision, supported by strong background, information on each SDG, its targets and indicators, and, most importantly, a strategic set of actions towards attaining the SDGs. The participants found this experience very useful and relevant, and discussed the ways of replicating it in Turkmenistan. While Turkmenistan has committed and embarked on implementation of the targets under its SDG agenda, there are areas that need to be strengthened in terms of coordination, aligning the statistical system and data collection methodology with international standards and use of gender-disaggregated data and demographic projections in national policy development, implementation and monitoring.
“The interrelation of demographic and economic processes in the modern world is most often interpreted from the position of demographic determinism, and is explained by the presence of independent factors, the direct impact of which outlines demographic trends. The problem of determining such factors is an extremely important task at the stages of building any program of socio-economic development,” notes Dr. Bobrova.
Ms. Mahri Halnazarova, representing the Institute emphasized that “the seminar agenda was very informative and provided sound knowledge, especially the session on impact of demographic trends on sustainable development with case studies from China, Russia, United States and African continent. We also pay attention to demographic trends in our country and the methodologies suggested at the seminar will help us to provide better tailored and comprehensive socio-economic projections”.
The seminar helped the specialists better understand the theoretical and practical applications in using gender disaggregated demographic data in analysis and development of socio-economic projections to ensure they are sustainable and incorporate current and future demographic trends. The strong interest in developing the SDGs Road Map with the clear vision on integrating demographic projections into the SDG process was expressed by seminar participants. In addition, the ways of expanding partnership with the Institute of Economy under the Academy of Science of Belarus and further cooperation with UNFPA in development of the SDGs Road Map were discussed.
UNFPA and the Institute of Strategic and Sustainable Development have initiated partnership by signing a joint project within the framework of the UNFPA Country Program for 2016-2020 and the Co-financing Agreement between UNFPA and the Government of Turkmenistan. Within the framework of the joint project it is envisaged to learn the methods of integration of demographic trends in the processes of sustainable development, analyses of current statistics using modern technologies and making short- and long-term forecasting of social and economic development.
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For additional information, please contact:
Bayramgul Garabayeva, UNFPA Assistant Representative
Dovran Yamatov, UNFPA Programme Analyst on Population Dynamics and Gender
Tel: 488325
