What is the project about

Turkmenistan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries not only in the Central Asia region, but also in the world. Studies show that the Kopetdag mountain system that separates Turkmenistan and Iran has a high seismic activity which is confirmed, in particular, by the devastating earthquake of 1948 in Ashgabat with a magnitude of 7.3, which resulted in the death of about 80% of the local population. This fact is also confirmed by the Institute of Seismology and Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, which annually registers up to 6,000 seismic events in the framework of seismic monitoring of the earth`s crust.

In order to ensure the full implementation of Turkmenistan`s development goals, the Government of Turkmenistan has begun developing a focused agenda that will allow the country to become more sustainable in the face of potential natural and man-made emergencies. To this end, the Government of Turkmenistan and UNDP have reached an agreement on strategic integration of efforts for capacity building in disaster risk management in the country.

The main objective of the project is to strengthen the country’s capacity to assess seismic risks, as well as to prevent and respond to potential earthquakes and associated cascading emergencies. Pilot activity will be worked out on the territory of Ashgabat (or some of its regions) for the subsequent application of successful practices and approaches in similar work on the territory of other settlements of Turkmenistan subject to seismic risks.

What we aim to accomplish

Component 1: Understanding Disaster risk

Component 2: Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk

Component 3: Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience

Component 4: Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and “to build back better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction

Addressing Gender Equality Issues

UNDP recognizes the strong relationship between gender equality and disaster resilience, and the importance of this relationship to the achievement of the SDGs.

The statistics are staggering; when disaster strikes, women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die[i]. In addition, economically, disasters negatively impact everyone, but women are disproportionately disadvantaged.

Improving gender equality is crucial to strengthening nations’ resilience to disasters. Existing gender inequality across all sectors of society heightens women’s exposure to disaster risk, thus weakening the resilience of communities as a whole.

Women’s empowerment in disaster risk reduction improves resilience overall. It is necessary to include women’s and men’s voices, needs and expertise equally in disaster risk reduction (DRR), and recovery policy and programming. It is equally important to strengthen men’s and women’s capacity to assess seismic risks, as well as to prevent and respond to potential earthquakes and associated cascading emergencies.

Aiming to raise knowledge on disaster risks and enhance disaster preparedness for effective response and reconstruction efforts, the project will ensure participation of women and girls in the capacity development activities so both men and women equally benefit from project’s objectives to enable gender-responsive disaster recovery, climate and environmental resilience of local communities.

The project, through its activities will focus on building knowledge and understanding of stakeholders of the relationship between gender and climate change and will support capacity building for gender responsive and human rights-based action for resilience.