The 5^th Session of the Islamic Conference of Youth and Sports Ministers (ICYSM) was held under the theme of “Development of Youth and Sports for a Solidarity-Based Ummah” on 07-09 September 2022 in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Conference was attended by the Ministers of Youth and Sports, high-level policy makers and experts from the OIC Member States, OIC institutions as well as relevant international and regional organizations. SESRIC was represented by H.E. Mr. Nebil DABUR, Director General, thereat.

The Conference provided the OIC Member States and institutions with an important opportunity to discuss the state of youth in the OIC Member States; review the progress made towards the implementation of the “OIC Youth Strategy”; and exchange ideas on how to enhance the intra-OIC cooperation to advance the socio-economic wellbeing of the youth.

H.E. Mr. Nebil DABUR addressed the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of the Conference on 07 September 2022 and apprised the participants of the activities and programmes of the Centre in the domain of youth under its three mandated areas of statistics, research and training. In his statement, Mr. DABUR particularly highlighted the activities undertaken by the Centre towards the implementation of the “OIC Youth Strategy” and the relevant resolutions of the 4^th ICYSM held in 2018.

During the SOM, H.E. Mr. Nebil DABUR also launched and presented the main findings of SESRIC’s regular report on ‘State of Youth in the OIC Member States 2022’, which has been prepared jointly with the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF). The report serves as the main technical background document for the Ministerial Session and provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of youth in the OIC Member States with a view to identify key challenges faced by them, understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the development of youth, highlight best practices, and present a set of policy recommendations to improve the wellbeing of the youth in the post-pandemic period.

During his presentation, Mr. DABUR highlighted that many OIC Member States have made noteworthy progress in improving the state of their youth in key areas of development like improving literacy rates and reducing adolescent fertility rates. However, he added, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed decades of human development around the world, particularly amongst vulnerable and disadvantaged populations including youth as many of them experienced increased difficulties in access to basic services from education to health and developed high-level of stress and anxiety due to uncertainties the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. DABUR further stressed the importance of spearheading intra-OIC cooperation that has the potential to support the post-pandemic recovery efforts through the exchange of knowledge and best practices among the Member States.

The 5^th ICYSM was concluded with the adoption of the Resolutions and a Declaration on youth development with a view to spearheading the intra-OIC cooperation towards the implementation of the OIC Youth Strategy.

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