Today, the capital has hosted a meeting between senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Economy and UNICEF Representative in Turkmenistan Christine Weigand. The meeting focused on key areas of the partnership and issues relating to the realization of the 2021-2025 Country Program of Cooperation signed between UNICEF and the Government of Turkmenistan, and the Joint SDGs Program on improving the system of social protection through the introduction of inclusive quality community-based social services.

One of the subjects for discussion was the monitoring procedure for the SDGs implementation, including the efforts to support the integration and cost estimation, as well as the collaboration with our country’s relevant institutions to facilitate better coordination of the activities. In this context, the meeting participants noted that President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had identified working towards achieving the SDGs as one of the top-priority tasks. 

During a discussion of the implementation progress of the Country Program, Christine Weigand declared UNICEF’s readiness to render assistance to the Government of our country in tackling objectives specified in the 2019-2025 Program of the President of Turkmenistan for the country’s socio-economic development, the 2020-2025 National Strategy of Turkmenistan on Early Childhood Development, and the 2018-2022 National Action Plan for Children’s Rights.  

The attendees also highlighted that the primary objectives of the state policy pursued by the nation’s leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov are to steadily improve the people’s well-being and quality of life, and to provide a stimulating environment for the development of human potential. In this context, special accent was placed on Turkmenistan’s active position on the provision of family-oriented quality social services at a local level, which serves as an important aspect of the social system, including the minimum level of social protection established by the United Nations.    

During the meeting, the participants spoke for strengthening the effective relations and identified specific steps to broaden the cooperation in the short term.