Today in Ashgabat was held the fourth meeting of the Managing committee of the Joint Program on inclusive and high-quality social services at the local level under the co-chairmanship of the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Turkmenistan Muhammetseit Sylapov and the UN Permanent Coordinator Dmitriy Shlapachenko, according to a press release from UNDP.

The progress and agreed on further steps to expand the results achieved to ensure the sustainability of the program's achievements were considered at the meeting.

The Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis and deputy heads of leading line ministries and departments, heads and representatives of participating UN agencies took part in the event.

The participants highlighted the main achievements in the transformation of the social protection system of Turkmenistan within the framework of the Joint program:

• Successful piloting of a new model of inclusive social services, during which the needs of 5,000 vulnerable people were assessed, covering more than 3,100 people, including 235 vulnerable children and adults using new types of specialized social services provided by trained social workers;
• Development of the Law on Social Services adopted by the Parliament of Turkmenistan in December 2021. It made it possible to finance the activities of trained personnel of social workers from the state budget, starting from 2022;
• Development of core competencies in the field of social work for more than 700 social service providers, heads of social services and related departments, social work specialists and academia through more than 200 days of training, as well as the launch of a bachelor's degree program in the specialty “social work”.

The advantages, economic efficiency and relevance of the new model in comparison with the existing system of social services will be further reflected in the socio-economic analysis, which is currently being completed.

During the meeting, the participants watched a small video showing new specialized social services, piloted in Turkmenistan, found out about the results of Final Analytical Report which presents the data of assessments of social workers of etraps and specialized services. The analysis included recommendations for expanding the scope of the district level and specialized services, as well as evidence-based proposals for the recommended distribution of services throughout the country.

Specialists of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population presented the Social service development National Plan for 2022-2030.

The joint program “Improving the Social Protection system through the introduction of inclusive quality social services at the community level”, funded by the Joint SDG Fund, is implemented by UN partner agencies, namely UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and UNODC and the Government of Turkmenistan.

The aim of the program is the embedding of social services’ new model at the local level, accompanied with the corresponding revision of legislation and capacity development of national personnel of social services. The leading national partner is the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Turkmenistan and the leading agency are UN – UNICEF. The Mejlis, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry and the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan are another key national partner.

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