Dr. Abubaker Ahmed Bagader, Director General of Cultural, Social and Family Affairs of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), visited SESRIC on 22 March 2014, together with a delegation comprising Mr. Hasan Basri Arslan, Professional Officer, and Mr. Abdula Manafi Mutualo, Cultural and Social Affairs Officer at the OIC.

At the outset, Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, welcomed the delegation and expressed his thanks for their visit, noting that this would be an opportunity for closer cooperation and collaboration between the General Directorate of Cultural, Social & Family Affairs of the OIC and SESRIC.

Following a corporate presentation on the activities and programmes of SESRIC by the heads of three technical departments, namely statistics, research and training and technical cooperation, Dr. Bagader expressed his thanks for the hospitality during their visit and his satisfaction on the wide range of activities in the field of socio-economic affairs undertaken by the Centre. In this connection, he proposed to collaborate and share knowledge and experience with the Centre. He indicated that Islamophobia constitutes a contemporary manifestation of intolerance and xenophobia that forms a major concern particularly to Muslim minorities and that there is need for statistical research in this field.

The meeting was followed by the three SESRIC presentations on ‘The State of Civil Society in OIC Member Countries’ by Dr. Cem Tintin, Senior Researcher, and ‘The State of Gender in OIC Member Countries’ and ‘Early Childhood Care and Education’ by Mrs. Zehra Zümrüt Koç, Senior Researcher.

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