In October 2018 UN in Turkmenistan jointly with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and SDG Center launched SDG month to mark 1000 days since the adoption of Agenda 2030. The monthly campaign was aimed to speed up the progress by raising awareness, driving concrete action and giving a chance for all to be a part of SDG rolling out process in the country. Lectures, trainings, debates, meetings and festival were planned for this month. This plan of action called on the contribution from all elements of society, including local and national governments, business, industry and individuals, as the process requires consensus, collaboration and innovation.

Turkmenistan owns all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and nationalized 148 targets and 175 indicators. The country has the national structure to monitor the implementation of SDGs in country. The Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan is given the leading coordinating role for monitoring and national reporting. The Turkmen partners have gone through the MAPS exercise and identified priority areas for acceleration. The Government is aware that 84% of SDG targets are reflected in the national programs, plans and laws as a result of Rapid Integrated Assessment of national laws, policies and programs. There is an agreement between the UN and Government on the establishment of the SDG Platform that will ensure integration of the work of all UN agencies and national institutions in implementing, monitoring and reporting on the SDGs, including the preparation to the National Voluntary Review. And finally, there is the Training and Methodology Centre for Sustainable Development Goals that is becoming a platform for learning and increasing awareness of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development among public at large throughout the country.
These are significant milestones reached in less than three years. In Turkmenistan, it was “thinking out of the box” approach in every stage of the nationalization of the 2030 Agenda that helped put all the above in place.
First, this was possible because of the 2016 “Super March” national consultations. Civil servants, experts, academia, youth and civil society together with the UN reviewed all the Goals in the course of seventeen days to understand the extent to which they meet the national priorities. These consultations resulted in defining the national list of SDG goals, targets and indicators.
Second, a series of joint UN-Government discussions and assessments around availability of data and existing methodologies to measure nationally adopted SDG indicators. Today, it is clear that Turkmenistan can report on 40-45% of SDG indicators.
And third, developing partnership with the national Training and Methodology Center that conducts training, delivers lectures and is engaged in the development of methodology to teach Sustainable Development Goals among civil servants, students, NGOs and the private sector. Today more than 450 people have been covered with key messages on Agenda 2030.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN Country Team in Turkmenistan and SDG Training and Methodology Center have held the Sustainable Development Goals month in October 2018 to speed up the progress by raising awareness, driving concrete action and giving a chance for all to be a part of this huge work. Lectures, trainings, workshop, debates, meetings, launch of SDG Youth Ambassadors and dance festival were held.
These activities mobilized and united Government, the youth, private sector, NGOs of Turkmenistan, whose activities could contribute to the effective achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SDG Center and UN developed a calendar of activities for October 2018. The main focus was to engage all sectors and society groups to take part in all activities so they better understand what was their role in the process of achieving SDGs in the country.

During the month there were 13 activities held for all levels including policy decision makers, NGOs, youth, academia and public at large. The below is the approximate engagement of audience.
Activity Audience Number Impact
Let’s talk SDGs training Representatives of academia, national ministries and students 50 The participants received certificates and continue to expand the knowledge on SDGs to colleagues and peers.
6 Meetings of working groups to discuss the preparation of the country to VNR process Representatives of the National ministries and UN 120 As a results of the thorough discussions the relevant ministries could prepare analytical papers for VNR
Meeting with NGO and private sector NGOs and private companies of Turkmenistan 50 The participants were introduced to the concepts of SDGs, the role of NGO and private sector in achieving Agenda 2030
Students’ debates Students of 6 national universities 30 participants and 300 spectators Students debated on the main health issues and were trained to academic debates
Model UN Students of 4 national universities 40 students Students discussed the role in achieving Agenda 2030 and drafted a resolution on it.
Impact Investment workshop Representatives of bank and private sectors 50 Participants discussed new tools and methods in innovative financing for SDGs
Young SDG Ambassadors Turkmen Youth from all regions 17 17 SDG Ambassadors were selected to accelerate the progress of achieving all Global Goals through peer education, clubs, discussions, sport events and others.
SDG Dance Festival Young participants with age range 4-30 300 participants and over 800 spectators Aimed to raise public awareness about Agenda 2030 for SDG wWith thematic dances, the performers conveyed the ideas and principles of Agenda 2030 through contemporary choreography with the core principle “leaving no one behind”.

Government ownership and whole of government approach

To successfully implement planned activities close collaboration and external financing was needed. This project received funding from UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UK Embassy from Turkmenistan.

Now it is planned to conduct every year a month of SDGs throughout the regions of Turkmenistan

Increased awareness of the population on SDGs

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