OREANDA-NEWS. August 26, 2010. According to the data collected for many years by different countries, in particular the CIS states, population challenges that have a direct impact on an economic growth, competitiveness and stability of states and, ultimately, the welfare of citizens is urgent in the modern world.

Taking this fact into account, the UN agencies identified strategic support to national efforts in the sphere of population as one of their objectives.

These challenges were the focus of the seminar on interagency cooperation on population and development issues initiated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Ashgabat. The main goal of the seminar was to present the experience of the CIS countries, in particular Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia, in on interagency cooperation in developing and implementing the national population and development concepts.

In his opening remarks Mr. Lenny Montiel, UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan, UNFPA Representative stressed that “the population is a broad concept assuming that political goals should be measured not in terms of size, but rather in terms of human capital. It is not occasional that the theme of this year’s World Population Day celebrated under the aegis of the UNFPA was ‘Everyone counts’. It reflects a new approach of the international community to the population issues: people, human rights, life quality for all citizens, but not just the population size and reproduction. One of the mechanisms for implementing the population and development policies is interagency commissions designed to coordinate efforts of all government and public institutions to effectively implement the population policy.”

The experts from Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia presented the brief surveys on the demographic situation in their countries and made presentations of the national strategic programmes in the sphere of population and development. Emphasis was put on the role of interagency collaboration in achieving the goals.

Sergei Sainciuk, Deputy Minister of Labour, Social Protection and Family of the Republic of Moldova shared experience in establishing and managing the activity of the Commission on Population and Development under the Government of the Republic of Moldova composed of representatives of ministries, agencies and organisations concerned. The main goal of the Commission is to analyze the evolution of demographic phenomena, trends in population development, identification of urgent problems and priorities of the population policy. The most important aspect was the identification of institutional responsibility for bringing demographic processes in conformity with the national development programmes. S. Sainciuk noted that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) had played a critical role in establishing this Commission.

In his presentation a deputy of the Majlis (Parliament) of Kazakhstan Ulan Kasymbekov focused on the work of the Social Council under the Majlis of Kazakhstan. It major activities include the analysis and projection of the population and coordination of the efforts of government agencies and communities to implement the population and development policy. Ulan Kasymbekov noted that Kazakhstan’s experience was of particular interest for that the Social Council provided a platform for a dialogue between the government and people. This dialogue facilitated working out constructive decisions that were further incorporated in legislative norms and social and economic programmes developed by the Government.

Aleksander Mordovin, UNFPA Programme Adviser in the Russian Federation, focused on the UNFPA’s assistance in developing and implementing the population policy. On the initiative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development in collaboration with the UNFPA the project “Strengthening national capacity for population policy development and advocacy” was developed in 2000 and the project “Development and implementation of regional population and development strategies” was developed in 2003. The research results were used as the bank of ideas for developing and promoting the social and demographic policies. The Council for the Implementation of Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy responsible for ensuring the coordination of the efforts of federal public authorities, entities of the RF, local government bodies, public associations, research and other organisations to implement priority national programmes and population policy was established under the President of the Russian Federation in 2005.

Despite the difference in demographic specificity and challenges in these countries, the conclusions made from the experts’ presentations had much in common. Firstly, sustainable development of the country can be achieved through developing the national population strategy that provides for implementing coherent long-term measures based on science-based projection. Secondly, the role of interagency institutions in evaluating a demographic situation, coordinating the work on national population and development strategies and making long-term projections is critical.

The seminar participants were involved in group discussions on the approaches to implementing population and development policy and shared views on the aspects of this policy in Turkmenistan. In particular, it was noted that all national programmes initiated by President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov were aimed at promoting the interests and rights of citizens and improving people’s welfare. A unified integrated approach to population issues would contribute to increasing the effectiveness of these programmes.

In conclusion it can be said that the population issues have strong economic and social connotations and produce a multidimensional influence on all spheres of life of our society and state especially such as education, health care, housing, social servicing, social protection and employment. Taken together they imply what is called the quality of life. To understand the importance of population activities is to guarantee sustainable development of the state.