Background

The goal of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among Islamic States in the political, economic, cultural, scientific and social fields.

As an outcome of the Makkah Summit in 7-8 December 2005, the OIC adopted the 10-Year Programme of Action (PoA), presenting a pronounced new orientation at the General Secretariat of the OIC.  The 10-Year Programme of Action assesses the most prominent challenges facing the Muslim World today and outlines pragmatic and objective strategies to address them effectively.  It responds to the need to cooperate decisively and take the necessary initiatives to face the grave political, socio-economic, cultural and scientific challenges of the Muslim world and to effectively deal with their implications for its unity, peace, security and development.  In order to emphasize the significant demographic strength and resource potential of the OIC Member States, the Secretariat is devising programmes to increase its capacity in diverse areas within the political, socio-economic, cultural, educational and scientific fields.

More specifically, as part of its activities in the field of socio-economic development, the PoA focuses on poverty alleviation and supporting development in the Least Developed Countries in Africa.  It focuses on ways to utilize the abundant economic resources and capacities of the OIC Member States that could be channeled to alleviate poverty, especially in Africa.  It urges donor Member States to cancel bilateral and multilateral debts to low-income Member States.

With this goal in mind, the Heads of States of Member States of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) decided to set up a Poverty Alleviation Fund within the IDB to tackle poverty in OIC Member States, particularly in Africa.  The Fund is expected to start its operations in mid-2007 and it will operate within the framework of the MDGs, with a special focus on primary education, girls’ education in particular; health with a focus on malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other major communicable diseases; infrastructure development particularly in rural areas; agriculture; micro-finance; emergency assistance; recovery and reconstruction.  In his statement at the UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Development, Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, stated that the Board of Directors of the IDB has proposed to set up the Fund with an initial capital of US$10 billion.  In that regard, major Donors like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait announced contribution of US$ 1 billion and US$ 300 million, respectively. Dr. Ali also emphasized that other pledges have been received from a further fifteen IDB Member Countries so far and that the capital is expected to come from other Member Countries in the coming months.

The Need to Form a Working Group of the OIC Group at the UN

Taking all these above into consideration, a Working Group will be formed in the framework of the values and principles of the OIC, with the Chairmanship of the OIC Group at the UN, on the promotion of finding ways and strategies to support development in the Least Developed Countries, especially in Africa.          

Objectives

Within the implementation of the 10-year Programme of Action which calls for supporting development and poverty alleviation in Africa, the overall objective of the Working Group is to provide a forum for the OIC Member States to prepare joint activities, standards, programmes and goals to promote activities aimed at achieving economic and social development in Africa.

The Working Group will act as an Advisory Group to the OIC General Secretariat.  It will advise the General Secretariat on ways and means to ensure speedy and effective implementation of the 10-year Programme of Action.  To this end, it will focus primarily on the following:

1. Identifying priority areas where progress is slow and urgent action is needed to coordinate and interact with the concerned departments at the UN.

2. Finding ways to mobilize cooperation among OIC Member States to support industrialization and energize trade and investment,

3. Focusing on areas where there are opportunities for technology transfer,

4. Finding ways to alleviate the debt burden through cancellation of bilateral and multilateral debts to low-income Member States in consultation with donor Member States,

5. Exerting greater efforts to find effective strategies for the refugees and displaced in the OIC Member States, Muslim Minorities and Communities in non-OIC Member States, in coordination with the concerned departments at the UN.

 Participants and the Proposed Format

Participation from all interested experts of the OIC Group at the UN, especially delegates from Member States in Africa, is highly appreciated.  A round table dialogue among all participants will be facilitated by the Chairman of the OIC Group at the UN to generate a substantive discussion to identify ideas and strategies to achieve the above-stated suggested objectives.  Experts will meet on a regular basis as decided among them after each meeting. Communication between the concerned departments of the OIC General Secretariat and the UN will be coordinated according to the outcomes of the meetings.

Outcomes

It is certain that the OIC Member States are committed to supporting development and alleviating poverty in the Least Developed Countries, especially in Africa.  However, it is also certain that there are areas that need to be addressed in an urgent and more thorough manner.  In that regard, coordination between the OIC Member States as well as cooperation and capacity-building efforts with the concerned departments of the UN are essential to reach solutions and make an actual impact on the ground.

The 10-year Programme of Action provides an important opportunity and a window to guide the workings of the Working Group.  It offers guidelines and priority areas where the demographic strength and resource potential of the OIC Member States could work together for the socio-economic development in Africa.  With this Group acting as an advisory body, concrete strategies, ideas and suggestions could be agreed on and submitted to the OIC General Secretariat to help ensure the speedy and effective implementation of the PoA in the Least Developed Countries, especially in Africa.