The new UNICEF report indicates the prevalence of physical punishment against children (70%), children witnessing the abuse in the families (25.5%) and widespread acceptance of abuse among women (58%, MICS) in Turkmenistan.
UNICEF published Situation Analysis of Women and Children in Turkmenistan on January 9, 2025, which according to UN structure, contributes to framing of the 2026-2030 Turkmenistan-UNICEF Country Programme and to the development of the next United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).
The analysis provides an overview of the steps the government of Turkmenistan took toward the advancement of the rights of women and children, in alignment with the National Plan of Action for the Realization of Children’s Rights in Turkmenistan (NPAC).
The analysis examines societal structures and national policies, health and wellbeing, violence and protection, environmental and societal challenges, and living standards across Turkmenistan, highlighting both critical areas requiring attention and positive developments.
Improvements
Among the noted significant improvements are reduction of maternal mortality from 25 to 5 per 100,000 live births between 2000-2020, increase of safe water access from 82.8% to 99.9% between 2015-2019, and tripling GDP growth from 2% to 6% between 2018-2023.
In addition, since 2002, Turkmenistan has almost universal immunization coverage of vaccines, while by 2022, around 98% of children aged 1-2 years olds, received DPT, HepB3 and measles vaccines. Further, Turkmenistan scores fairly high on the Early Childhood Development Index with a score of 95 (out of 100) in 2019. Other areas indicate only slow change or incremental growth.
Institutional challenges
The analysis reveals that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child “consistently identified coordination for effective governance of child protection as a significant challenge”. The government of Turkmenistan proposed a coordination mechanism for overseeing children’s rights within the NPAC, yet this action remains pending.
The analysis emphasizes fragmentation across ministries and at the institutional level on the child protection structure. The report states that “No single state agency holds responsibility for child protection”. The child protection system lacks a central body to ensure unified functioning and mandatory coordination across national, regional, and local levels. At the operational level, statutory child protection bodies coordinate across sectors through different functions (Medical Pedagogical Commission, Guardianship and Trusteeship Body, and Commission on Minors Affairs), but their regulations have remained unchanged for over 50 years.
Social Services
The analysis notes that the Law on Social Services was adopted in 2021, but its services cover only 19% of the country, requiring rapid expansion. The social protection system has only 45 social work specialists nationwide. Analysis shows 56% of vulnerable populations need complex support services (including 67% of children with disabilities), with 4% requiring urgent assistance. Lastly, 2.19% of the population needs comprehensive specialized services, while 3-4% needs social workers to facilitate service access and ensure inclusion.
Violence Against Women and Children
The analysis indicates that almost 70% of children aged 1-14 experienced physical punishment or aggression from a parent or a caregiver, with more boys (69.7%) experiencing physical punishment than girls (67.4%), and more girls experiencing (31.4%) non-violent forms of discipline than boys (29.4%). The data further provides that 25.5% of children witnessed domestic violence (beating), while 5.9% of women reported that their partners also harmed children, potentially leading to behavioural issues like nightmares, withdrawal, and aggressiveness. Further, 61.3% of women experiencing intimate partner violence had children aged 5-12 exhibiting behavioral problems.
The data in the report indicates that one in eight women in relationships has experienced physical and/or sexual abuse by a partner with only 36.8% reporting their experiences. More that 30% of women who experienced abuse reported having abortions, 26% had miscarriages, and 6.3% had stillborns, whereas only 17% of women who did not experience abuse reported abortions, 16.8% for miscarriages, and 3.5% for stillborns.
According to the analysis, the majority of women from a focus group considered domestic violence to be normal with 77% stating that women allow themselves to be sexually abused, 69% believing that conflicts and disagreements are a normal part of any relationship, while 62% agreeing that men and women are equally violent towards each other. Majority of respondents (92%) believed that domestic violence is caused by substance abuse, while 46% feel they must tolerate violence to preserve their family. Finally, only 15% of respondents agreed that domestic violence is a private matter of the family, in which the state has no right to interfere.
Other Areas of Concern
Healthcare
Healthcare is the least covered sector with only 8.6% of the total budget going towards it, consistent increase of out-of-pocket payments over recent years (79%), and 30% of health facilities choosing whole or partial self-financing and charging user fees. The overall general government spending on healthcare is less than 1% of GDP and has been decreasing since 2020. With this in the backdrop, healthcare workforce has been only decreasing, for example density of physicians dropped from 2.7 to 2.1 per 1,000 people and density of nurses and midwives decreased from 7.9 to 4.3 per 1,000 people between 2000-2014. Overall number of physicians declined from 3,000 in 2007 to 2,592 in 2022. The analysis also underlines “insufficient number of home visiting nurses to provide quality support to families during the critical first 2,000 days of a child’s life”.
When it comes to health, infant, neonatal and under five mortality rates are either stagnated or dropped significantly since 2014. Only two-thirds of children meet minimum dietary diversity and acceptable diet criteria. In the meantime anemia affects over 30% of children aged 6-59 months. Furthermore, the analysis indicates limited visits to doctors among teenagers, for example only 23% of adolescents had visited a family doctor in the previous one or two years, only 3.7% of girls have visited a gynecologist and only 25% had visited a dentist in the past two years, while two thirds reported having “never” visited a dentist. 18% of adolescents were not satisfied with life, the same amount indicated periods of dramatically depressed mood over the previous year, with girls reporting it twice more often than boys, and about 36% of girls and 20% of boys indicated feelings of loneliness.
People living with HIV experience significant stigma, as only 1% of women expressed accepting attitudes towards people with HIV. In the meantime there were only 150 doctors who are certified in HIV management in Turkmenistan.
Education
Only about 3% of GDP is allocated to education, which has remained stable between 2012 and 2020. The number of kindergartens has gone up in Turkmenistan, alongside the increase in kindergarten fees, however, the number of enrolled children has significantly reduced in 2017 from 242.4 thousand to 204.7 thousand children and remained approximately the same since then. Overall, 82% of children (3-5 y.o) do not attend an early childhood education programme due to parental attitudes, while 29% do not attend due to limited access, including existing fees.
Disability
87% of children in residential care are children with disabilities. More than half of all children with disabilities, aged 3-17, do not attend any educational institution, including preschool or general secondary school. Nearly 80% of children with mental disabilities do not attend educational institutions, while 64 % of children with functional difficulties do not attend any educational institution, with only 22% attending general educational institutions.
The analysis indicates that 20% of those not attending any educational institution are capable of attending mainstream school. For the rest, the issue is refused services due to health status (66%) or lack of educational establishments adapted to the needs of children with disabilities (9%). As such, extracurricular activities are mostly in segregated residential schools and are not easily accessible to those living with families, while 71% of disabled children do not attend any school events, special activities for people with disabilities, or activities outside the school.
Climate Change
In recent years, Turkmenistan experienced record-breaking high temperatures, with the highest being 47.2°C in 2015. Currently the annual median probability of severe meteorological drought is around 5%. Meanwhile, 52% of children under 18 years are exposed to more than 4.5 heatwaves annually and 60% of Turkmenistan’s agricultural lands have already been affected by significant salinization and in recent years, with crop yields fallen by 20%-30% due to soil salinity and waterlogging.
