The 39^th Session of the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs (ICECS) was held at the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 23-25 July 2016. The Session has been attended by the representatives of the OIC member countries and those of the OIC and its subsidiary, specialised and affiliated institutions.

The Commission met in the first day in its capacity as the Joint General Assembly of the subsidiary organs of the OIC (i.e. SESRIC, ICDT, IUT and IRCICA). In this connection, the Commission considered and approved the activity reports submitted by these institutions. SESRIC was represented at the Session by H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklikaya, Director General, Mr. Nabil Dabour, Director of Research Department, Mr. M. Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department and Mr. Ömer Faruk Duman, Director of Administration and Finance Department. Following the presentations and the deliberations by the Member States on the activities of these institutions, the Commission commended the efforts made by the General Secretariat and the subsidiary organs in promoting cooperation among the Member States in their various fields of activities.

The Commission then resumed its proceedings as the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs through reviewing and discussing a long list of agenda items on various economic, culture and social issues of cooperation among the member countries. In the area of economic affairs, the Commission reviewed cooperation activities and discussed issues on the implementation of the ministerial conferences in economic sectors, regional economic programmes, economic assistance to OIC Member States, and others. In the area of science and technology, the Commission tackled issues such as higher educations, health and environment matters, OIC water vision, and others. In the area of culture, social and family affairs, the Commission examined issues such as dialogue among civilizations, Palestinian cultural affairs, protection of Islamic holy places, and promoting women’s status, child-care and the position of youth in the member countries. Following a general debate and discussion, the Commission adopted the relevant resolutions on the on all these issues under three main categories: Resolutions on Economic Issues, Resolutions on Higher Education, Science and Technology, Health and Environment Sectors, and Resolutions on Cultural, Social and Family Affairs.

In this context, the Commission took note of and appreciated the instructive technical reports and studies prepared and presented by SESRIC on the most salient items of the economic agenda of the relevant OIC fora. The Commission also underscored the importance of SESRIC's database on socio-economic indicators of the OIC Member States and the various statistical publications and capacity building programmes of the Centre. It commended SESRIC for the quality and relevance of the capacity building programmes, courses and workshops it organizes on various subjects and fields of interest to the Member States with a view to enhancing and improving the level of technical cooperation among them; in particular, for its leadership in implementing long-term projects and launching new sub-programmes under the OIC-VET Programme and for its active role in organizing the annual meetings of the Central Banks and Monetary Authorities of the OIC Member States as well as the annual sessions of the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-SC).

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