Geographical Locations - Turkmenistan

• (Statistical) Number of Inhabitants per Doctor: 274
• CIA World Factbook - Turkmenistan

Organisations and Networks

UN and Multinational

• WHO
  - WHO Country Profile - Turkmenistan
  - WHO - Tobacco control: Country Profile: Turkmenistan
  - WHO - Environmental Burden of Disease: Country Profile – Turkmenistan
• WHO - Regional Office for Europe (EURO) in Copenhagen (Denmark)

Government

Non-Government

• Central Asia NGO Network - "part of the "NGO Support Initiative for Central Asia," a project made possible through the support of USAID and managed by Counterpart International Inc. Counterpart Consortium has been working in Central Asia since late 1994. Current partners are the International Center for Not for Profit Law (ICNL), Aid to Artisans (ATA), and Counterpart International. Past partners are Goodwill International and Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA). Our goal is to provide information about the NGO community in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) to people throughout the world as well as to the NGOs of Central Asia"

Academic Institutions

National Policy and Related Documents

Reports, Guidelines, and Projects

• Human rights and health in Turkmenistan
  This 77-page report by Bernd Rechel and Martin McKee “aims to trace the impact of the dictatorship in Turkmenistan on the health of the country’s population and to document what is known about population health and health care provision, covering events up to mid-February 2005. Recent research has shown a surprisingly close association between the extent of political freedom and several measures of population health, after adjusting for economic factors …, although the precise nature of the impact of dictatorship on health is difficult to quantify, as health is influenced by a large number of factors, including socioeconomic situation, housing, nutrition, drinking water, lifestyle and access to health services.” [Report Introduction]
• The effects of dictatorship on health: the case of Turkmenistan
  Background: There is a health crisis in Turkmenistan similar to, but more severe than, in other Central Asian countries. This paper asks whether the health crisis in Turkmenistan is attributable to the consequences of the dictatorship under president Niyazov, who died in 2006. Methods: The basis for this paper was a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants complemented by an iterative search of internet sites, initially published as a report in April 2005, and subsequently updated with feedback on the report as well as a comprehensive search of secondary information sources and databases. Results: This paper describes in depth three areas in which the dictatorship in Turkmenistan had a negative impact on population health: the regime's policy of secrecy and denial, which sees the "solution" to health care problems in concealment rather than prevention; its complicity in the trafficking of drugs from Afghanistan; and the neglect of its health care system. Conclusion: The paper concludes that dictatorship has contributed to the health crisis facing Turkmenistan. One of the first tests of the new regime will be whether it can address this crisis. [author abstract] [BMC Medicine 2007, 5: 21]

Educational Resources

• CDC - Travel Information : Eastern Europe and the NIS
• Library of Congress, Country Study: Turkmenistan
• Soros Foundation : Turkmenistan - excellent information
• Turkmenistan Information Center - perhaps the best website on Turkmenistan currently available