JEDDAH, 9 November 2006 — The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) have agreed to set up a mechanism for exchanging information and the possibility of sending joint field missions. The decision was taken at the first meeting between the two organizations held at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah on Monday.
The OCHA offered assistance in capacity building, mainly in fund raising, financial tracking systems and product evaluation and reporting systems. It also offered assistance in the creation of OIC forum for NGOs.
There was also agreement on joint action in preparing for the OIC-sponsored donor conference for Niger. The OIC will promote OCHA’s image and mobilize resources for its programs in Islamic countries.
This meeting follows the July 11-13 general meeting on cooperation between representatives of the secretariats of the UN and OIC in Rabat, Morocco. “OCHA is a very important UN organization concerned with humanitarian efforts and protecting civilians in conflict areas. This meeting will open the door to other cooperation with such UN organizations as UNDP and World Food Program,” OIC Assistant Secretary-General Atta El-Mannan Bakheet said to Arab News.
The OCHA delegation headed by the director of the OCHA office in New York, Rashid Khalikov, met with the OIC delegation headed by Bakheet, and discussed their humanitarian efforts. For OIC that included the activities of the Islamic Solidarity Fund, relief efforts in Indonesia in the aftermath of tsunami as well as rehabilitation efforts in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Bosnia. They discussed fields of interest and agreed on a set of issues that will reflect a new stage of cooperation between the two organizations.
The next meeting between the two organizations is scheduled for March next year. “This first meeting was very important for setting the mechanisms for cooperation and identifying areas of cooperation. In the next meeting, discussions will be on the practical steps to begin cooperation and identify the specific countries and programs for joint humanitarian efforts,” said Bakheet.
They have decided to meet every six months to evaluate the level of cooperation and look into new projects of common interest.
