SESRIC participated in the 42^nd Meeting of the Follow-up Committee of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the OIC (COMCEC), which convened to review recent developments under the COMCEC framework, including progress in the implementation of the COMCEC Strategy. The deliberations focused on the outcomes of the COMCEC Working Group Meetings and the status of projects planned for implementation in 2026 under the COMCEC Project Funding mechanism. Discussions covered key cooperation areas, namely intra-OIC trade, private sector development, financial cooperation, transport and communications, tourism, agriculture, poverty alleviation and digital transformation. Relevant OIC institutions also briefed the Committee on their ongoing activities in support of these cooperation areas.

The Meeting was chaired by the COMCEC Coordination Office and brought together representatives of ten OIC Member Countries, namely Türkiye (Permanent Chairman), Saudi Arabia (Permanent Vice-Chairman), Palestine (Permanent Vice-Chairman), Pakistan (Rapporteur), Kuwait (Vice-Chairman representing the Arab Region), Azerbaijan (Vice-Chairman representing the Asian Region), and Gambia (Vice-Chairman representing the African Region), as well as Qatar, Brunei Darussalam and Senegal as Members of the Previous Bureau, alongside representatives of relevant OIC institutions. SESRIC was represented by directors from its Statistics and Information, Economic and Social Research, and Training and Technical Cooperation Departments.

Under the relevant agenda items, SESRIC briefed the Committee on its contributions to poverty alleviation, with particular emphasis on the implementation of the OIC Vocational Education and Training Programme (OIC-VET) and its activities in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SESRIC also informed the Committee about two forthcoming strategic outputs: the Report on Progress Towards the Achievement of Prioritised SDGs and the OIC-TVET Strategic Roadmap 2035.

Planned for submission to the 42^nd Ministerial Session of the COMCEC scheduled for late October 2026, the SDG progress report will provide an analytical overview of the collective performance of OIC Member Countries with regard to the eight prioritised SDGs (SDGs 1–5, 8–9 and 13), while also covering the remaining nine SDGs (SDGs 6–7, 10–12 and 14–17). The OIC-TVET Strategic Roadmap 2035 is intended to succeed the current roadmap and provide a renewed long-term framework for strengthening cooperation among OIC Member Countries in the development of resilient and sustainable TVET systems.

At the conclusion of the deliberations, the Follow-up Committee expressed its appreciation for SESRIC’s continued and substantive contributions, particularly through its capacity-building programmes, thematic networks and analytical reports submitted to various OIC fora.

Further information on the meeting is available at:

https://www.comcec.org/follow-up-committee/follow-up-committee-meetings/

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