UN, Government kick off the first joint programme on social services in Turkmenistan

The meeting co-chaired by the Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population and UN Resident Coordinator aimed to review and approve the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Steering Committee and the Working Group established to implement the JP.

The Steering Committee members representing the line ministries, Mejlis of Turkmenistan and UN Agencies reviewed the Work Plan and agreed on the next steps, one of them being the recruitment of 45 social workers.

“Improvement of social services has been a key priority area of cooperation between UN and the Government for the last several years. This is the first joint UN endeavour that offers holistic approach to transforming the model of social service delivery”, noted Ms. Elena Panova, UN Resident Coordinator.

The Joint Programme has three components that serve as its outputs, including:

1)         Developing an inclusive community-based social service model with its key elements prototyped;

2)         Establishing institutional mechanisms and enforcing legislative and regulatory framework to facilitate the introduction of the new community based social services delivery system;

3)         Strengthening the country’s social work and social service workforce capacity.