Children and Women at Risk: What MICS7 Reveals About Protection and Opportunity in Turkmenistan

The State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan, together with UNICEF recently published the results of the seventh round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS7). Turkmenistan has been participating in the global MICS program since 1995. The work on MICS 7 began in 2022 and included training of specialists who collected nationwide data in 2024. UNICEF provided technical support while the survey was funded by the government of Turkmenistan, UNICEF, UNFPA and the EU. The report identifies significant shortcomings in child mortality, nutrition, foundational learning, and protection from gender-based violence. Below is the summary of the key challenges facing children and women in Turkmenistan.

Child Survival and Health

• Mortality Rates: The under-five mortality rate stands at 34 deaths per 1,000 live births, with a neonatal mortality rate of 16 deaths per 1,000 live births. Significant disparities exist based on residence and education:
  • Rural vs. Urban: Under-five mortality is 41 in rural areas compared to 25 in urban centers.
  • Regional Peaks: Dashoguz velayat has an infant mortality rate of 36, while Mary velayat has the highest child mortality rate (age 1-4) at 10.
  • Maternal Education: Children of mothers with only a secondary education face an under-five mortality rate of 38, while those of mothers with higher education face a rate of 15.
• Feeding Practices: The rate of exclusive breastfeeding for infants under 6 months is very low at 35.5%.
• Nutrition and Food Poverty: 21.0% of children aged 6-23 months live in food poverty (consuming foods from four or fewer food groups). Severe food poverty affects 8.4% of children in this age group, with highest in Lebap (20.2%) and lowest in Balkan (3.4%). Children in the poorest wealth quintile face much higher rates of total food poverty (26.9%) compared to those in the richest quintile (18.8%).
• Unhealthy Habits: High consumption of unhealthy items is reported among children aged 6-23 months, with 72.0% consuming sweet beverages and 57.9% consuming sentinel unhealthy foods.
• Violent Discipline: 66.5% of children aged 1-14 years experienced physical punishment or psychological aggression by household members in the month preceding the survey. Prevalence is highest in Akhal velayat (80.3%).

Education, Skills and Employment

• Early Childhood Education: Only 44.7% of children aged 36-59 months attend an early childhood education program. There is a massive gap between urban (71.1%) and rural (23.8%) attendance.
• Foundational Skills: Only 71.9% of children aged 7-14 demonstrate foundational numeracy skills, compared to 86.5% for reading. Among those attending grade 2/3, only 54.8% have mastered foundational numeracy.
• Youth Inactivity: 14.4% of youth aged 15-24 are not in education, employment, or training (NEET). This issue disproportionately affects young women (20.0%) compared to young men (8.0%).
• ICT skills: Women have lower ICT skills. Only 18.8% of women can verify the reliability of online information compared to 52.0% of men.

Access to Internet

• Household Access: 76.1% of households have internet access by any device from home.
• Usage: 83.0% of the population aged 15-49 used the internet in the last three months, and 74.5% use it at least once a week.
  • Urban vs. Rural: Household access is 82.8% in urban areas compared to 69.2% in rural areas.
  • Regional: Access ranges from 94.3% in Ashgabat to 49.7% in Balkan velayat.
  • Gender: Men (90.1%) are more likely to have used the internet in the last three months than women (76.2%).

Violence Against Women

• Intimate Partner Violence: 9.6% of ever-partnered women aged 15-49 were subjected to physical, sexual, or psychological violence by a partner in the last 12 months.
• Help-Seeking Barriers: Among women experiencing physical or sexual violence, 72.2% never sought help and never told anyone.
• Attitudes: 31.9% of women and 32.5% of men believe a husband is justified in hitting his wife for at least one of five specific reasons (e.g., neglecting children, going out without telling him, arguing, refusing sex, or burning food). This rises to 42.7% for women and 48.2% for men if “disrespecting the husband’s parents” is included.
  • Urban vs. Rural Trends: There is an inverse relationship between gender and residence. Urban men (35.9%) are more likely to justify violence than rural men (29.4%). Conversely, rural women (35.7%) are more likely to justify violence than urban women (27.9%).
  • Regional Extremes: In Akhal velayat, there is a massive disparity: 82.5% of men justify violence for at least one of five reasons, while only 29.5% of women in the same region do so. In Mary velayat, the trend is reversed, with 46.2% of women justifying violence compared to only 17.7% of men.
  • Education: For both genders, higher education correlates with lower acceptance of domestic violence. However, men with higher education still maintain a higher justification rate (34.1%) than women with higher education (27.2%).
  • Age: Young men (15-19) have the lowest justification rate among men at 13.4%. For women in the same age group, the rate is higher at 19.7%.

Equity and Agency

• Health Insurance: Coverage is a notable gap, with only 28.3% of women and 31.2% of men aged 15-49 covered by health insurance.
• Reproductive Agency: Only 62.1% of married or in-union women aged 15-49 make their own informed decisions regarding all three areas: sexual relations, contraceptive use, and reproductive health care. Decisions on family planning are specifically a challenge, with only 75.8% of women making these decisions independently or jointly.
• Access to contraception: 45.9% of women aged 15-49 years currently married or in union (or whose partner) are not using any contraceptive method.