TURKMENISTAN: UNICEF SEEKING BROADER MANDATE FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001434

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2018
TAGS: PGOV SOCI UN TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: UNICEF SEEKING BROADER MANDATE FOR
SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: According to the acting representative for
UNICEF in Turkmenistan, the organization's current and future
program plans focus largely on health and education. The
organization has ambitious plans to expand its activities. A
good relationship with the government is helping to make it
happen. One thing that could stand in the way is the issue
of corruption, which overshadows UNICEF's work here as it
does pretty much everything else. END SUMMARY.

DRAFT PLAN ENVISIONS A DOUBLING OF EFFORT


2. (C) Charge and poloff met on October 31 with UNICEF
Acting representative Abdul Alim to discuss the
organization's plans for the next few years in Turkmenistan.
Alim said that his office is currently preparing a draft
program plan for the 2010-2014 timeframe. The organization
operates about one million dollars worth of program
activities here annually, and would like to expand that to
about 1.5 to 3 million dollars per year in the near future.


3. (C) Past programs have included social and health
related programs such as those that spearheaded the
(USAID-funded) iodization of the salt supply and vitamin and
iron fortification of flour produced in Turkmenistan. He
said these programs have been great successes, and 90 percent
of the salt supply is now iodized. Last year, UNICEF began
working with the Turkmen government, procuring machinery and
teaching the process of flour fortification. UNICEF has also
been involved with preventive healthcare programs such as
national immunization.


4. (C) Alim said the draft program plan envisions an
expansion of the immunization program and other areas of
preventive healthcare, but UNICEF representatives would also
like to start up an early child development program for
pre-school-age children. The organization had developed a
range of other education and health-related program proposals
recently, but Alim said that some of those ideas had been
immediately copied by representatives of Europa House after
the two groups met not long ago. UNICEF is not going to
complain, however, given the EU's growing role as a
significant donor.


5. (C) Although childhood mortality statistics have
improved for Turkmenistan in the last few years, there is
still a need for neo-natal support programs. Alim said that
there is little in the way of care for mothers and new
babies, and UNICEF is ready to propose programs that put a
new focus on this. (COMMENT: A national safe motherhood
program exists. USAID is doing training in support of this
program. END COMMENT.) Part of the program will also focus
on promoting a national nutrition policy. Alim indicated
that he will soon be going to Geneva to defend UNICEF's draft
program plan.

THE SEARCH FOR AN "AGENT OF CHANGE"


6. (C) He noted that cooperation with Turkmen government
representatives has been more rigid and difficult this year
than during the previous year. Alim said that the British
Ambassador had made a similar observation in terms of the
government's willingness to cooperate on social programs. As
a result, UNICEF has been searching for a prominent person in
Turkmenistan to be an "agent of change" who would advocate
for UNICEF and help promote its programs. In the absence of
an independent civil society, it has been difficult to find
someone.


7. (C) Alim had recently met President Berdimuhamedov's
sister at a recent independence holiday event, and was struck
with the notion that she might be a possible "agent of
change." She was not very distinctive in her appearance, he

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said, but she asked him many questions about how the Turkmen
people and Turkmenistan are perceived abroad. She is an
etrap administrator somewhere in the Ashgabat area. He said
he had probed her a bit, looking for her personal perceptions
of UNICEF and its work. He said later he had talked with his
local staff about her potential as a supporter of UNICEF, but
the staffers advised him not to pursue her, as the risks
outweighed the potential benefits when it came to those close
to the president.


8. (C) Alim said that he recently had another respected
Turkmen citizen who could potentially be an "agent of change"
over to his house for dinner. Through a mutual acquaintance,
he had met this senior official at the National Archives who
is also a recognized national Turkmen poet. The UN has asked
him to put together a book of children's' poems, and he is
considering the request.

CORRUPTION ALWAYS JUST UNDER THE SURFACE


9. (C) UNICEF has been successful in establishing trust
among representatives of the Ministry of Education. Alim
said he would like to bring in an expert on school
curriculum, and wants to promote this idea. He said his
staff works with Ministry of Education International
Department head Nury Bayramov's deputy on education projects,
since the relationship had advanced sufficiently to get
UNICEF staff direct access to education ministry personnel
rather than via the MFA. That said, Alim noted that they
have still had their share of "inconsistencies" in their
dealings with the government. He said he wanted to tell his
Turkmen interlocutors that inconsistencies in the
government's decision making could hold risks and costs, and
that this unpredictable behavior could cost the country its
access to specific UNICEF programs.


10. (C) Alim said that the president looks favorably on
UNICEF, and at the recent opening of a new kindergarten
facility in Ruhubulent, Berdimuhamedov turned to Alim and
said, "Can you do something like this?" Alim was not sure
what the president had in mind, but guessed that his
perception was that UNICEF could construct a similar facility
more cheaply and efficiently.


11. (C) EU-TACIS representative Michael Wilson also
recently made observations about misguided government
decision making and the growing shadow of corruption. He
noted that the "misallocation of state resources" and
corruption appeared to be on the rise, which he attributed as
a reaction originating in the Soviet period when people went
back to what they knew best during hard times. In his
opinion, despite the new constitution containing a reference
to private education, there is no information anywhere about
an actual private education system and a plan for introducing
private schools does not appear to exist in the Ministry of
Education. Wilson added that "the phenomenon (of corruption)
is impossible to stop and the bribes keep rising" for
entrance into universities.


12. (C) COMMENT: Alim may have been alluding not only to
the unpredictable behavior of interlocutors in the way they
communicate and make decisions regarding international
programs and proposals, but also to the element of corruption
which is endemic. Alim's interest in finding an agent of
change is admirable. If the president's sister is interested
in playing such a role, it would benefit UNICEF and its
programs here. END COMMENT.
CURRAN