UNFPA Country Director for Turkmenistan Ms. Giullia Vallese visited Turkmenistan this week. The purpose of the visit was to reconfirm the UNFPA’s commitment to support the Government reforms in the areas of women and adolescent reproductive health and rights, gender equality and population and development. This is the first visit of Ms. Vallese, newly appointed UNFPA Country Director to Turkmenistan.
UNFPA Country Director had series of high-level bilateral meetings with the government partners. During her visit, she has also co-led the UNFPA Programme Review Meeting to review the results of the partnership with national and development partners in 2016 and 2017, and identify the priorities and the prospects of cooperation for 2018 and 2019.
At the meeting with the partners at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the extensive discussion was focused around the issues of bilateral cooperation between Turkmenistan and UNFPA. Ms. Vallese commended the Turkmen side for realizing the co-financing commitments and informed that UNFPA will provide additional funds into the Country Programme to match the Government funds.
The sides further discussed the ways for UNFPA to continue supporting the country in advancing the principles of the ICPD in light of the new UNFPA Strategic Plan for 2018-2021. Ms. Vallese reassured the partners that the Country Programme Action Plan for 2016-2020 is well in line with the new Strategic Plan and our priorities of partnership. The sides also discussed the implementation and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UNFPA’s technical support in integration of the reproductive and maternal health, youth, gender and data related SDG targets and indicators into the national development programmes and strategies.
During the meeting at the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan, UNFPA Country Director congratulated Deputy Minister on taking full financial ownership in increasing the access of women, couples and young people to reproductive health commodities. The sides agreed that this will have a direct impact on improving the maternal health in Turkmenistan.
Last year the Government also established the State-Private Coordination Committee on ensuring the supply of contraceptives to state and private pharmacies and reproductive health rooms countrywide. Ms. Vallese commended for rolling out a total market approach, which requires an effective coordination and cooperation between private and public sectors in making contraceptives and family planning services available to the population. She expressed readiness of UNFPA in working with the Government to ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable women are met in their access to family planning services.
UNFPA delegation also held talks on the prospect of cooperation in the area of gender equality and women empowerment with the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights. Ms. Giulia Vallese congratulated the National Institute for the coordinating role in implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on Gender Equality in Turkmenistan for 2015-2020, an important instrument for addressing CEDAW Concluding observations and advancing gender equality in Turkmenistan. UNFPA Country Director commended the Government for developing the monitoring and evaluation system for the National Action Plan, which will help measure the success and results of the Plan.
During the meeting with the Minister of Education of Turkmenistan Mr. Mammetmyrat Geldinyyazov, the delegation held talks on importance of increasing the access of young people to quality information on adolescent reproductive health in secondary schools. Ms. Vallese commended the Ministry’s commitment to promote reproductive health education outside of the classroom through launch of a Youth center at the Palace of Youth in the capital, encouraging the expansion of the Youth centers to the regions of Turkmenistan
Ms. Vallese met with Ms. Ayna Orayeva, the Chairperson of the State Statistics Committee and commended the Government’s socio-economic progress, and reinforced UNFPA’s commitment to provide expert support on population data analysis and forecasting.
UNFPA Country Director also congratulated the Chairperson with the ongoing integration of the SDGs. She informed that UNFPA stands ready in supporting the integration of the ICPD related SDG targets and indicators, including the indicators of Goal 17 on data, into the national development programmes and strategies, and sectoral plan of SSC. The partnership will also focus on establishing systems to measure progress in implementation of actions towards the SDGs. In light of the upcoming Population and Housing Census 2022, Ms. Vallese reiterated the importance of Census for evidence-based socio-economic policies, as well as for the SDG and ICPD progress monitoring.
Interaction with the government partners, mass media, development partners and representatives from UN agencies and UN member states continued at the UNFPA Programme Review Meeting in Ashgabat.
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For additional information, please contact
Bayramgul Garabayeva, UNFPA Assistant Representative
Ene Tuyliyeva, Advocacy Communication Associate
Tel: 488325
Web: turkmenistan.unfpa.org, tm.one.un.org
