SESRIC, in its capacity as the Secretariat of the OIC Public Employment Services Network (OIC-PESNET), in collaboration with the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), in its capacity as the Chair of the Network, organized the Annual Meeting of the National Focal Points (NFPs) of the OIC-PESNET on 17 November 2022 through a video conferencing platform.

The Meeting brought together 61 senior-level representatives from the national public employment services (PES) agencies/ institutions of 27 OIC Member Countries to discuss the progress achieved in the OIC-PESNET Work Plan 2021-2022, which was adopted during the 3rd Meeting of the Network in June 2021, as well as to evaluate the realized activities and their outcomes towards the implementation of the objectives and targets of the Work Plan. The Meeting also reviewed the planned activities under the Work Plan to be implemented until the 4^th Meeting of the Network.

The Meeting commenced with the opening remarks of Mr. Fadi Abdullah FARASIN, Assistant Director General of SESRIC, who highlighted that reducing unemployment is one of the five cooperation areas of the OIC Labour Market Strategy 2025 as it remains one of the most challenging issues across the globe, especially for the OIC countries, which continue to have higher average unemployment rates compared to the world. He, therefore, underscored the importance of strengthening Intra-OIC cooperation in the domain of labour and the role of the OIC Public Employment Services Network (OIC-PESNET) in fostering cooperation and enhancing human and institutional capacities of the PES national agencies/ institutions in the OIC region. He also stressed the significant success of realizing planned activities under three different thematic areas and appreciated the efforts of the provider PES national agencies/ institutions who contributed to these activities. Before concluding his remarks, he thanked the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) of the Republic of Türkiye for successfully assuming the role of the Chair of the Network and organizing training activities within the framework of the OIC-PESNET Work Plan 2021-2022.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Varol DUR, Assistant Director General of Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), began by thanking SESRIC for jointly organizing the Annual Meeting of the NFPs of the OIC-PESNET and reaffirmed İŞKUR’s commitment to the Network and achieving its objectives. He also informed the participants about the progress made by the Network since its 3^rd Meeting in June 2021 and underlined the significance of completing the remaining activities by the 4^th Meeting of the Network in 2023. Before concluding his remarks, he stressed the importance of adapting to the changes in the structure of working life due to the new megatrends such as technological developments, Industry 4.0 and globalization and emphasized that OIC Member Countries must maintain a competitive structure in this regards.

The OIC-PESNET was launched in 2014 to establish closer cooperation among the public employment services institutions of the OIC Member Countries by sharing knowledge, experience, and best practices. SESRIC assumes the role of the Secretariat of the OIC-PESNET and carries out a specific capacity building programme, namely; Public Employment Services Capacity Building Programme (PES-CaB), to support the efforts of the OIC Member Countries in developing the capacities of the institutional and human resources in the field of public employment services. For more details about the Network and its activities, please visit: https://www.sesric.org/network-pesnet.php

Documents

• Programme: (English) (Arabic) (French)
• Report of the Meeting: (English) (Arabic) (French)

Photos