New specialized social services to prevent unintended pregnancy and domestic violence piloted in Turkmenistan

The Eastern European Institute for Reproductive Health (EEIRH) of Romania facilitated the trainings for the mentioned social services with participation of the health, law enforcement sectors, public organizations, and a cohort of newly trained social work specialists. 

“It is important to achieve two ambitious goals, where every pregnancy is wanted and every woman and girl live a life free from violence. The aim of the training was to provide practical guidance to ensure that all new social services piloted in two new areas will be translated into the realization of these rights of women, girls, including those with disabilities,” said Elena Micheu, Programme coordinator at the East European Institute. “While the primary audience for these training sessions is social service providers, these three-day workshops and experience sharing are also designed as a valuable resource for all stakeholders - involved in the design, development, implementation or promotion of social services for prevention of gender-based violence or unintended pregnancies.”

The pilot of 12 new specialized community-based social services were set up by the Participating UN agencies (PUNO) in the Joint Programme. Two social services on social support for prevention of unintended pregnancy and prevention of the domestic violence, piloted by public organizations “Beyik Eyyam” and “Keyik Okara” in partnership with UNFPA, include crisis information, crisis counselling, hotline, safe accommodation, legal advice, psychosocial support and counselling, assistance towards economic independence for women subjected to domestic violence and women and girls with unintended pregnancy. These services will be piloted in coordination with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  

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The Joint Programme “Improving the system of social protection through the introduction of inclusive quality community-based social services”, funded by the Joint SDG Fund, is being implemented by the partnering UN agencies, namely, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, and UNODC and Government of Turkmenistan. The Joint Programme aims to introduce a new model of social services at the community level accompanied by relative legislative reviews and capacity building of national social service workforce. The lead national partner is the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Turkmenistan and the lead UN agency is UNICEF. Other key national partners include the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Medical Industry, and Ministry of Finance and Economy.

Implementation period: 2020-2022.