Turkmen Government and UNICEF hold five-year evaluation session, discuss future plansAshgabat, Turkmenistan, 29-30 November 2004 – The government of Turkmenistan and UNICEF will hold a review from 29-30 November to discuss their cooperation over the past five years and make plans for the next country programme from 2005 to 2009. The meeting will also mark ten years of collaboration between the Government and the United Nation’s Children’s Fund. Officials from various ministries, public sector organizations and other programme partners of UNICEF will take part in the Annual Review Meeting and representatives from Ashgabat and all five provinces of Turkmenistan will be represented. The first day will focus on the three main areas of the Country Programme of cooperation between UNICEF and the Government over the past five years. The main areas to be analysed will be: Mother and Child Survival, Development and Protection; Child enrichment, and Young People’s wellbeing. In the last five years successes have been achieved in all areas. For example, the Government enacted a law on the Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in 2002 and immunization coverage has been maintained at an average 95 percent for several years. In addition, a joint effort between the Government and UNICEF has resulted in several innovative concepts for promoting education and childhood development being adopted throughout the country. UNICEF remains committed to assisting the Government in shaping its policy agenda for full realization of children’s rights and was pleased to be involved in one of the country’s truly major successes towards the health of its children: the achievement of optimum iodine nutrition through universal salt iodisation. Earlier this month, in an event publicized worldwide, Turkmenistan became the first country in Central Asia to receive international recognition for achieving universal salt iodisation and was presented with an award on behalf of UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and the International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders. In the hope that the next five year programme of cooperation will build on these successes, the meeting’s second day will focus on how best to proceed in the following areas: Policy Advocacy and Development Planning for Children; Institutional Capacity Development, and the Velayat Programme for Children. These initiatives have components on child survival, development, protection and participation. This new five-year programme will again have as its core the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but will also be based on Turkmenistan’s National Strategies, the Millennium Development Goals and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework. “As the next phase of cooperation and our Country Programme 2005-2009 begins, it is great to look forward to another 5 years of fruitful collaboration with the Government on behalf of children – Turkmenistan’s greatest asset,” says Mahboob Shareef, UNICEF Head of Office, Turkmenistan. For more information, please contact Mr. Brian Hansford, UNICEF Communication Specialist, at:
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