SESRIC organised a Special Session on “Strengthening Technical Cooperation among OIC Member Countries: The Role of SESRIC” on the sideline of the 37^th Meeting of the Board of Directors, on 8 October 2015 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The session was moderated by Prof. Murat Yülek, Professor of Economics at Istanbul Commerce University, and was attended by the representatives of relevant national, international, regional and NGOs institutions, including the OIC General Secretariat, UNDP, WHO, UNESCO, IDB, COMCEC, SMIIC, D-8, World Bank Global Islamic Finance Development Center, YEŞİLAY, TİKA, İHH, Doctors Worldwide, Turkish Water Institute, Agriculture and Rural Development Institution. Members of the Board of Directors of SESRIC have also attended the Special Session.

At the outset, Director General of the Centre, H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, welcomed and thanked to the participants for accepting the invitation to participate to the special brainstorming session. He emphasized that the role of SESRIC in strengthening cooperation among OIC member countries could be further enhanced through dynamic partnership and cooperation with the most relevant national, international, regional and NGOs institutions. This explains why the official meeting of the Board of Directors was preceded for the first time by a special brainstorming session in order to deliberate and exchange views on new innovative ways and means of strengthening cooperation among OIC member countries and enhancing the role of SESRIC. At the end of his speech, he stated the importance of developing and exploring new specific modalities and approaches for enhancing the role of SESRIC in its mandated area together with the contributions of all participants.

Before having the deliberations and discussions by the participants, Mr. Nabil Dabour, Assistant Director General of SESRIC, made an institutional presentation, where he summarized the evolution of OIC over time, the prospects and challenges that OIC Member Countries face, SESRIC cooperation modalities and partners, and new trends and dimensions of the international development cooperation for post-2015 agenda.

Following the presentation, the session continued with deliberations and recommendations by the participants in various fields and areas with a view to improve the work of the Centre for more benefit to the member countries.

The session was closed by the statements of H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, where he indicated that the session was held for the first time and planned to continue every year before the Board of Directors Meeting. He indicated the importance of evaluating and criticizing of the activities of SESRIC in order to enhance the way of serving to the benefit of MCs more efficiently. He kindly thanked to the participants for their presence and underlined that the recommendations and suggestions raised by them will be evaluated carefully and the necessary steps will be taken.

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