On 27 September 2022, a technical virtual meeting was held between a Team of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) and a Team of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to follow-up earlier consultations on strengthening bilateral cooperation, including those at the highest level held 09 September 2022 on the sidelines of the African Green Revolution Forum Summit, in Kigali, Republic of Rwanda, between Their Excellencies Mr. Yerlan Baidaulet, IOFS Director General, and Mr. Alvaro Lario, the IFAD President-elect.
The IOFS Team was led by Mr. Said Hussein Iid, IOFS Special Envoy on Africa, and assisted by Dr. Ismail Abdelhamid, Director of Programmes & Projects Office, and Mr. Abdula Manafi Mutualo, Senior Liaison Officer, while IFAD Team was led by Ms. Dina Saleh, Regional Director of the Near East, North Africa and Europe Division (NEN), and included several Directors of different regions to which that UN Agency is active, including Southern Africa, Asia & Pacific, West Africa, Latin America, etc.
During the meeting, Dr. Ismail made a presentation to highlight the IOFS strategic framework, which was by exchange of details of how the contents of said presentation overlapped with IFAD’s main work in the field of food security and agriculture. In such vein, the two sides dwelled on ways and means towards synergizing their work and agreed that a Joint Task Force would be established for periodic consultations towards designing the bilateral strategic partnership that may lead into a memorandum of understanding and plan of action in near future.
