Building the link between youth empowerment and human security within the Joint Programme on “Empowering and Engaging Youth in Mitigating the Threats of the Health Pandemic”

The UN-Government Joint Programme aims to empower and engage youth in Lebap and Dashoguz regions by planning, designing and implementing four community initiatives together with representatives of state and public organizations in these regions. The initiatives will integrate the human security approach and focus on insecurities of the most vulnerable groups of people in Lebap and Dashoguz velayats, in line with the principle of “leaving no one behind.”

Recognizing that the meaningful participation of state agencies in JP cannot exist without a comprehensive understanding of the human security approach, a one-day Human Security Training was organized by UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund, for 40 representatives of the Local Committee members in both regions. The training focused on programming youth policies applying the preventive, comprehensive, context-specific and people-centred approach of human security. 

Local Committee meetings gathered 28 local representatives of the Ministry of Sport and Youth Policy, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Industry, State Department of Migration Service, Police Department, local hakimliks, as well as Youth Organization, Women’s Union and Red Crescent, and encouraged a discussion over the coordinated approach to delivering the youth-led community initiatives targeting health, community, environment and personal insecurities.

The joint practical steps are undertaken in two piloting velayats of Lebap and Dashoguz, where Youth Reference Groups will work closely with the local authorities in developing and delivering four youth-led community-based initiatives that will combine both protection and empowerment measures to address multi-dimensional risks of the pandemic. The Local Committees will collect and preserve all knowledge and practices developed and gained under the Joint Programme to ensure the sustainability of its results.

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The UN-Government of Turkmenistan Joint Programme on “Empowering and Engaging Youth in Mitigating the Threats of the Health Pandemic” funded by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS) and Participating UN agencies (UNFPA, UNICEF, UNODC and OIM), is aimed at strengthening the dialogue between young people and decision-makers by promoting community cohesiveness, livelihood and dignity. Human security approach is used as an optimal framework as it develops a holistic set of interventions that are people-centred, context specific, comprehensive and prevention oriented.  

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund and the Ministry of Sport and Youth Policy of Turkmenistan are the lead agencies in the Joint Programme. Coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other implementing partners are UNICEF, IOM, UNODC and Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Industry, Institute for State, Law and Democracy, Office of the Ombudsman, as well as public organizations and local NGOs working with the communities.