The evaluation of the Joint Program on social services

The evaluation conducted by the international expert Mr. Artiom Sici and led by UNICEF aimed to assess the relevance, effectiveness, sustainability, coherence and the impact of the Joint Programme, to derive lessons learned to reach the most vulnerable people with inclusive social services.

“The outcomes of this evaluation will be important in the development and implementation of a national strategy for the development of the social services system in the country. Moreover, the ultimate goal of the evaluation of the Joint Program is to develop recommendations for the further development of social services in Turkmenistan”, noted Mr. Mohammad Fayyazi, UN Resident Coordinator a.i. during his welcoming remarks.

The participants learnt the results and recommendations for UN and Government developed by the international expert. The findings of the evaluation will be used as a basis for further dialogue, planning and programming between UN, Government of Turkmenistan and other key national and international stakeholders. It was noted that this was the first evaluation in the ECA region co-managed by the Government representing the best practice for other countries to learn from.

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 Labour and Social Protection of the Population of Turkmenistan and the lead UN agency is UNICEF. Other key national partners include Mejlis, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Medical Industry, and Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan. The project has been recently highlighted globally at the Joint SDG Fund webpage.

You can find more information on the results and achievements of the Joint Progamme implementation here.