The 1^st Session of OIC Ministerial Conference on Social Development was held on 7-9 December 2019 in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey. The Conference was organized by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services of the Republic of Turkey in coordination with the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The Conference brought together Ministers responsible for Social Affairs and Development from OIC member countries alongside representatives of several OIC institutions and international organizations. SESRIC was represented by H.E. Mr. Nebil DABUR, Director General thereat.

During the Senior Official Meetings of the Conference, the draft strategy documents and reports submitted to the Conference as well as draft resolutions were considered and discussed on 7-8 December 2019.

The Ministerial Session of the Conference was inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Turkey, H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 9 December 2019. H.E. the President Erdoğan highlighted the importance of Islamic solidarity and cooperation to achieve social development and improve the situation of vulnerable groups in the Islamic world.

Following the opening ceremony, the Ministerial Working Sessions started, where the Ministers and Head of Delegations reviewed and discussed a number of reference documents aimed at developing joint Islamic action in the field of the social development at the level of OIC member countries. These documents included the draft OIC Strategy on the Elderly, the framework on the draft OIC Plan of Action on People with Disabilities, the draft OIC Strategy for Empowering the Marriage and Family Institution, and Preserving its Values in the Muslim World, and, the draft OIC Strategy for the Well-being of Children in the Islamic World.

During the Ministerial Working Session, statements were made by the Ministers and Heads of Delegations of OIC and international institutions. In this session, H.E. Mr. Nebil DABUR, Director General of SESRIC, addressed the Conference. In his speech Mr. DABUR briefed the participants about statistical, research and training activities undertaken by SESRIC in the field of social development specially in the areas of children, elderly people, family institution and people with disabilities.

In the domain of research, he mentioned about the technical background reports prepared, translated, and submitted to the Conference in three official languages of the OIC for consideration including the report on the State of Elderly in OIC Member Countries and People with Disabilities and Special Needs in OIC Countries as well as the Common Paper on the Institution of Family and SDGs. He underlined that these three reports provided important inputs to constructive discussions of the Senior Officials Meeting of the Conference. Furthermore, he stressed out that SESRIC made extensive efforts to prepare, translate and finalize the abovementioned draft strategy documents that were submitted to the Conference.

Later on, he informed the participants about SESRIC’s OIC Statistics (OICStat) Database - the first and only international statistics repository on the OIC Countries- which includes more than 750 indicators under 24 categories including 59 indicators related to social development. Finally, in the area of training and capacity building, he mentioned about capacity building programmes and training activities organized by SESRIC such as in the areas of elderly and people with disabilities.

The 1^st Session of OIC Ministerial Conference on Social Development was concluded with the adoption of resolutions and the Istanbul Declaration. The 2^nd Session of OIC Ministerial Conference on Social Development will take place in 2021.

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