On July 16, 2018, a delegation of Turkmenistan headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan S. Berdimuhamedov took part in the opening ceremony of the Ministerial segment of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the aegis of the UN Economic and Social Council on "Transformations towards a sustainable and resilient society".
Opening the forum, the Chairperson of ECOSOC Maria Chatardova noted that seventy-one percent of the world's population has access to clean water. But the basic level of sanitation is declining, and today 20 percent of the population does not have access to adequate sanitation, compared to 12 percent in 2000. Access to electricity has grown by ten percent and now is 87 percent worldwide, but one billion people do not have access to electricity.
Speaking at the opening of the ministerial segment, the Chairman of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajcak, noted that the achievements made against extreme poverty did not benefit everyone. In some parts of the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, people still live in conditions that most of us do not even know.
UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed noted that just over a month ago, member states approved an ambitious reform of the UN development system, whose goal is to offer Member States the methods of response and new tools for effective implementation of the Agenda until 2030.
In the afternoon, a meeting was held between Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan S. Berdimuhamedov and UN Under-Secretary-General, Head of the United Nations Office for Combating Terrorism V. Voronkov. During the meeting, Voronkov positively noted the results of his recent visit to Turkmenistan and the adoption of a counter-terrorism strategy for Central Asia. He thanked the Government of Turkmenistan for supporting the Regional Centre for preventive diplomacy for Central Asia, with the help of which the Third phase of the Joint Action Plan for Central Asia is being developed.
S. Berdimuhamedov confirmed the support of the Turkmen side for the third phase, noting the importance of consolidating efforts as a key step in the implementation of the Joint Action Plan and noted the need to intensify efforts and move on to specific actions in the field of combating terrorism and preventing violent extremism in the region.
Members of the delegation, Deputy Minister of Education of Turkmenistan A. Atabaeva and Deputy Chairman of the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan G. Annaniyazova met with Ms. J. Bourn, Assistant Executive Director of UNICEF for Education.
Representatives of the Turkmen delegation informed about the development of education in Turkmenistan, the introduction of digital education, new technologies for studying foreign languages, expanding access to education for children with disabilities. The parties exchanged views on the Fifth Multilevel Cluster Survey, which was held in 2016 and preparing for the next poll.
Ms. J. Bourn welcomed the introduction of new technologies in education, improving the quality of education and noted positively the transition to 12-year training.
