Turkmenistan shares experience on use of VNR data for country programming

Such Labs are organized annually to provide an informal platform to share best practices focusing on crosscutting themes and country experiences.

The meeting was conducted online, at which Mr Atajan Atayev, Head of the Department for Strategic and Sustainable Development of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan presented the process of VNR development in Turkmenistan and how the data from the national report was used during the CCA process and design of the Government-UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2021-2025.  

The UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan shared how the UN Country Team supported the Government to ensure that key findings’ from the VNR informed the CCA and Cooperation Framework. She also stressed that the VNR development process triggered extensive data collection and analytical processes aimed at measuring the country’s progress on SDGs. 

“The VNR process has served as an important joint platform for analysis of the country’s situation vis-a-vie the SDGs, thematically selected for the 2019 HLPF. The VNR has demonstrated the level of cross-cutting inter-connectedness of the concerned SDGs as well as the impact of their implementation on the groups that are most left behind”, noted Ms. Elena Panova, UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan.

The importance of delivering on SDGs was further emphasized in light of vulnerabilities emerging due to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The UNRC also mentioned that UN Country Team supported the Government in developing the socio-economic response plan to COVID-19 impacts, which was recently approved by a Presidential resolution.

Turkmenistan’s presentation helped to  bring the experience to other governments and UN Country Teams that are undergoing or preparing for the Cooperation Framework, socioeconomic response to COVID-19 or other country planning processes.