Evaluation of Turkmenistan's National Nutrition Programme

The NNP of Turkmenistan collaborated with public institutions to enrich the population’s diet through wheat flour fortification, breastfeeding awareness campaigns, and salt iodization access. The data was only collected from those that had access to health services, and was limited strictly to children and biologically reproductive women, lacking information of the welfare among other demographics, as well as community organization participation. There was no program follow-up data gathered. The structural inequality that is at the root of poor diet, as well as the limitations of the agricultural sector of Turkmenistan, are not addressed. Only the biological essentialism of women’s reproductive capacity is considered important for community sustention.

Abstract

Some key nutrition programmes and policies have been initiated in Turkmenistan over the past decades. In 2013, the Government of Turkmenistan endorsed the National Nutrition Programme for 2013- 2017 (NNP). The Government has already started developing the next generation of a nutrition programme that will cover the period of 2018-2025. Therefore, this evaluation is timely as its findings and recommendations informs and provides valuable insights into the development of the next programme as well as to the process of integration of nationalized SDG2 targets and indicators, concerning children and women. The evaluation was planned to cover the period 2010-2016 as per the original Terms of Reference (ToR), however, the absence of baseline data for some key indicators required the evaluation to extend the period of analysis to 2006 -2017 in order to be able to examine the changes in outcome and impact indicators using the 2006 MICS data. As requested by the ToR, the evaluation is targeted at the national level only. It examined both the Government’s role and responsibilities to develop and implement the NNP, including governance, management, resource allocations and capacity development, service delivery, quality assurance, surveillance and monitoring over the interventions under the NNP framework; and UNICEF’s role in supporting the scale up of direct nutrition interventions, as well as mainstreaming nutrition in non-nutrition sectors.

Description

The evaluation had three objectives: i) to generate lessons learned, evidence and learning to guide effective action towards the achievement of SDG2 in Turkmenistan and development of the next generation of the nutrition programme of the country, ii) to help define UNICEF’s role in supporting the country’s efforts in the nutrition-related SDG implementation process in the country during the next five years, and iii) to promote results-based management and evidence-based policy development and iv) assess UNICEF’s role and contribution to NNP implementation.

The evaluation covers the period 2010-2016 and is targeted at national level. It examined both, Government’s role and responsibilities to develop and implement the NNP including governance, management, resource allocations and capacity development, service delivery, quality assurance, surveillance and monitoring over the interventions under the NNP framework; and UNICEF’s role in supporting the scale up of direct nutrition interventions as well as mainstreaming nutrition in non-nutrition sectors.

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