May 24-25, 2022, International Organization for Migration (IOM) – the UN Migration Agency, Mission to Turkmenistan in partnership with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Migration Service of Turkmenistan organized a national workshop on using migration data for national planning and strategy development within the framework of the project "Building national capacity to collect, analyze and use migration statistics for the national development plans in Turkmenistan”, funded by the IOM Development Fund (IDF).

The objective of the workshop was to contribute to the strengthening the government of Turkmenistan’s evidence-based policy development for migration management and overall governance. This workshop aimed to assist in building capacity in the use of migration statistics for the development of a national migration strategy. The workshop focused on gender mainstreaming in the collection and analysis of migration data, ensuring that both male and female migrants are considered equally in national planning.

The workshop brought together representatives from the Ministries and departments of the Government of Turkmenistan which are collecting data on migration including the State Migration Service, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, State Committee on Statistics, Ministry of Education, Institute of State, Law and Democracy, and Parliament (Mejlis). The seminar featured presentations by international experts on migration management, statistics, sociology; national experts from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, as well as IOM regional experts on data research, collection and analysis.