UNDP, Mejlis of Turkmenistan Sum Up Results of Cooperation in Outgoing Year, Set Plans for 2009

Ashgabat, 19 December 2008 – Representatives of Turkmenistan’s Mejlis and government bodies, the Central Bank, public organizations, heads of local administrations and local self-governance bodies (Gengeshi) got together at a year-end closing conference to discuss major areas of development of the system of local self-governance in Turkmenistan as part of the UNDP Project “Development of Local Self-Governance in Turkmenistan”. The conference was designed to sum up the results of joint cooperation between UNDP and the Mejlis of Turkmenistan in 2008 and set plans for 2009.

In her opening remarks, Mejlis chairperson Akja Nurberdiyeva emphasized the importance of creating new mechanisms and approaches to local self-governance in Turkmenistan as well as strengthening the capacity of local self-governance bodies. She also stressed the need for enhanced relations of Gengeshi with district municipalities, increased participation of local communities in Gengeshi activities, and interaction of Gengeshi with various departments of district municipalities to improve service delivery at the local level. Akja Nurberdiyeva encouraged the conference participants to use this opportunity to discuss lessons learned from the project activities in pilot Gengeshi in 2008 and come up with ideas aimed at refining the system of local self-governance in Turkmenistan.

Highlighting the project achievements in the outgoing year, UNDP Resident Representative Richard Young said UNDP played a major role in supporting the Mejlis of Turkmenistan to strengthen the capacity of pilot Gengeshi in a number of areas such as administration and management of Gengeshi, using participatory, transparent and gender sensitive methods of development planning as well as implementation of priority local socio-economic projects in rural areas. UNDP also supported the Mejlis of Turkmenistan in undertaking the analysis of existing legal and policy framework of local self-governance. Richard Young invited the conference participants to discuss the findings of this analysis in the course of the conference.

The conference reviewed the project activities in 2008 and heard the reports on the budgetary and fiscal policy at the local level, on the improvement of statistic data collection at the local level, on issues of interaction of local executive bodies with local self-governance bodies. The conference participants also shared experience of the past cooperation and discussed the results of analysis of existing legal framework on local self-governance presented by the UNDP national consultant. The discussions culminated in an agreement that further work should be carried out to improve the laws “On Gengeshi”, “On Archins” (heads of village councils) and “On the Farmer Unions”, and to create effective mechanisms to ensure financial independence of Gengeshi.

Wrapping up the discussions, the conference agreed that capacity building of Gengeshi members should be continued and the project activities should be extended to the district level to allow for closer interaction between village and district level governments.

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