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Country
Population Assessment
| UNFPA
assistance to Turkmenistan began in 1992 shortly
after the country gained independence from the former
Soviet Union (FSU). Initially UNFPA’s support consisted
of emergency assistance in the procurement of contraceptives
and related training. This assistance followed a
UNICEF/WHO Collaborative Mission with the participation
of UNFPA, UNDP and the WFP in February to March
1992 and which culminated in the ‘Tashkent Appeal
for Partnership’. As a follow up, UNFPA fielded
a mission to Turkmenistan in November, 1992 to advance
the process of identifying and formulating projects
covering all aspects of population, with an emphasis
on maternal and child health and family planning
and IEC. |
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1993 modest support was provided to help overcome
the severe shortage of contraceptive supplies as
well as to support training in the use of modern
contraceptives. A family planning KAP survey and
collection and analysis of demographic data were
also supported.In 1995, the Presidential Program
of Turkmenistan “HEALTH” was initiated to implement
significant improvements in health and health care
services, introducing state voluntary medical insurance,
developing private sector, improving health management
and quality of training and retraining of personnel.
The Presidential program became a guide for national
and international assistance in the health sector.
UNFPA’s cycle of program assistance during 1996-99
has also been developed to be congruent with the
Presidential program The assistance aimed to support
the MOH in its efforts to reproductive health services
with special emphasis on birth spacing in order
to reduce infant and maternal mortality. Specifically,
three projects were supported, (I) for equipment
and contraceptives for RH facilities in UNFPA project
sites, (ii) improving RH services and access to
family planning and (iii) IEC, population policy
and advocacy support to the national RH-FP activities.
The present Country Population Assessment (CPA)
exercise is the first such assessment carried out
for the country since the 1992 population sector
review mission of UNFPA that covered four CIS countries,
including Turkmenistan. It is also an initial step
in the UNFPA integrated country programming cycle
that starts from the year 2000. It consists of a
situational analysis and identifying critical needs
and suggest strategic actions to address these needs.
The UNFPA Country Support Team for Central and South
Asia in Katmandu participated actively at every
stage of the CPA preparation process. A team of
three Advisers consisting of Dr Godfrey Walker,
Adviser on RH-FP Services, Ms Malicca Ratne, Adviser
on Reproductive Health Information and Counseling
and Mr. G. Giridhar, Adviser on Management of Population
Programs (who coordinated the compilation of this
report), was responsible for preparation of draft
CPA report as per UNFPA format, using the background
papers prepared by the National Expert Team. Mr.
Jesper Ahrensburg, Program Officer, UNFPA-CST in
Katmandu greatly assisted the team in drafting chapters
four and six on mobilization of financial resources
for population and reproductive health programs
and areas of external assistance. The CST Advisers
made field visits as appropriate for the situation
analysis, met with a number of people involved in
population and reproductive health, held discussions
with relevant international agencies and met on
several occasions with the national experts who
prepared the background documents. The Mission is
very grateful to everyone who provided unstinting
assistance during the preparation of the draft CPA
document. |
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