The Government of Turkmenistan will co-finance the 2021-2025 Country Programme between Turkmenistan and UNFPA. The Co-Financing Agreement was signed today by Deputy Chairperson of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Mr. Rashid Meredov and UNFPA Country Director for Turkmenistan Ms. Giulia Vallese, during the International Conference “Turkmenistan and the United Nations: cooperation for peace and trust”.
“Let me congratulate UNFPA on the signing of the Co-Financing Agreement for the 2021-2025 Country Programme, which opens up new opportunities for expanding our cooperation, which has been already well established,” said Mr. Rashid Meredov. “Our main partnership roadmap is defined by the approved Country Programme Document. We stay committed to the priorities in the area of gender equality, universal access to reproductive health services, youth and data.”
“The Government co-financing of its programmes is a testimony of Turkmenistan’s ownership and commitment to ensure the sustainability of its policies, development programmes and actions in the areas of reproductive health, gender equality, youth and population and development,” said Ms. Vallese.
“The acceleration in progress needed to achieve the 2030 Development Agenda, the International Conference on Population and Development and the commitments made by the Government during the Nairobi Summit at the end of 2019 will only happen with filling the required resources and stepping-up political commitment,” she added.
The new UNFPA Country Programme builds on the achieved results and aims to support the Government in providing expert support and policy advice to empower women, adolescents and youth enabled by population dynamics, human rights and gender equality, and creating conditions for the population to contribute to the development of the country.
The Country Programme will contribute to the achievement of the UNFPA transformative results: (a) ending unmet need for family planning; and (b) ending gender-based violence. It will also contribute to further ending preventable maternal deaths.
Nearly 30 years of partnership between UNFPA and the Government has expanded strategically with the Government now acting as the major funding partner. More than $800,000 have already been committed by the Government for the first year of the Country Programme within the framework of the signed Work Plans for 2021 in support to crucial reproductive health and family planning programmes, as well as in support to the Population and Housing Census 2022.
Under the Co-financing Agreement, UNFPA with the Government will continue enabling a policy environment to ensure high quality, inclusive and affordable reproductive health services with increased investments in family planning to reach the furthest behind and strengthen accountability mechanisms for health governance.
As the leading UN agency on Census, UNFPA will also be the key government partner on Population and Housing Census 2022. UNFPA will support to ensure access and generation of quality population data to incorporate population and development analysis into planning and policy decisions to achieve SDGs.
Within the framework of the International Conference, UNFPA also signed the annual work plan for 2021 with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Policy of Turkmenistan. Realizing the full potential of young people, including the adolescents, is a crosscutting priority of UNFPA’s work in Turkmenistan. UNFPA continues to lead the UN Joint Task Force on Youth Policy and will expand partnership with the government Working Group on Youth Policy in the implementation and monitoring of the State Programme on Youth Policy. UNFPA will also work with the partners in promoting the innovative mechanisms and platforms for youth and adolescents participation in decision-making and youth-adult dialogue, including through the digital-based initiatives.
UNFPA stands ready to continue enhancing its partnership with the Government, staying relevant, providing policy advice, technical expertise and support to empower women and girls, and young people in the country.
For more information, please contact:
Ayna Seyitlieva,
Head of Office
UNFPA Turkmenistan
Ene Tuyliyeva,
Youth and Communications
www.instagram.com/unfpa_turkmenistan
imo: +99362 833158
