At the second day of the 15th Session of the Biennial General Cooperation Meeting between the Secretariats of the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and their specialized organizations and agencies, which is being held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, until 20 July 2022, His Excellency Mr. Yerlan A. Baidaulet, the Director General of the Islamic Organization of Food Security (IOFS), had the opportunity to highlight the centrality of food security its challenges affecting OIC Member States at the Working Group on Economic and Scientific Issues, where the IOFS also played the important role of Rapporteur along with UN counterparts.
At the said Working Group, the IOFS Director General proposed several result-oriented activities to be implemented in a collaborative format with UN and OIC relevant Institutions. It is important to note that deliberations were around issues related to cooperation on economic and scientific issues with focus on trade and investment promotion, agricultural development and food security, South-South cooperation, tourism development as well as poverty alleviation in common Member States. Participants also reviewed implementation of joint activities since the last UN-OIC General Cooperation Meeting in July 2018, while updating the Matrix for activities to be carried out in 2022-24.
At the end of discussions, the Working Group adopted a dedicated Report, which, inter alia, carried out one of the most important proposals of the IOFS Director General, made while delivering his statement at the plenary on the previous day, for the UN-OIC Coordination Mechanism to be implemented with periodic meetings of the three thematic groups. In fact, such consultations are expected to be held twice a year virtually to go over ongoing agreed activities and possibly identifying potentials for further cooperation with the view of ensuring information sharing on major OIC/UN scheduled meetings and conferences and other relevant activities, as required.
On the sidelines of the Working Group, the IOFS Director General had some important bilateral meetings, including with Ms. Meena Singelee, Head Liaison Office at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Office in Geneva, and Mr. Mageed Yahia, Representative of the World Food Program (WFP) to the GCC Region, with whom he discussed potential activities in the IOFS Strategic Vision 2031 to be jointly implemented in near future.
