Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 20/09/2010
New York– 20 September 2010 Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very honoured and pleased to address this Roundtable Session of the High Level Plenary meeting on Poverty, Hunger and Gender Equality. I would like to commend the initiative of the President of the General Assembly for organizing this thematic interactive roundtable session. Poverty is a complex issue and needs to be tackled on a range of fronts including, but not limited to, improving economic growth. Poverty remains one of the big challenges to socio-economic development of majority of developing countries, especially in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia. Besides, this phenomenon has brought about problems such as illiteracy, malnutrition, disease and even crime. Global food crisis further worsened the already precarious conditions of poor people in these countries. To cope with the bane of poverty, the OIC has to reinvigorate its machinery for economic growth and cooperation among member countries through comprehensive mobilization of the resources, within and outside the OIC community. A new approach to economic cooperation was, therefore fashioned out to ensure that all stakeholders are sensitized on the need for the accelerated transformation of the economies of OIC Member-States and the welfare of their peoples. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Since almost all OIC countries are classified as developing countries, their respective economies are still plagued by many constraints. These constraints vary from low and unsustainable agricultural productivity, subsistence farming, population pressure, unemployment, to technological problems and closed food markets. The major thrust of OIC action for combating wide-spread poverty in its member-states is the development of the human productive capacity through such projects as vocational training and agro-food industrial capacity-building; wealth creation through intra-OIC trade and Development of strategic commodities; as well as investment promotion and micro-finance. Among Major Programs to arrest poverty, within the OIC Member States we can cite the following: (a) Establishment of Poverty Alleviation Funds The establishment of special funds to combat poverty has galvanized action in support of rapid socio-economic transformation in OIC countries, as well as the objectives of closer economic cooperation between these countries. The Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) is a US $ 10 billion financing window, established in the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to engage in targeted interventions. The goals of the bank are to foster sustainable economic growth and job creation, reduce illiteracy, eradicate contagious diseases and epidemics such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. These objectives are linked directly to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Since its launching in May 2007, the Fund has extended financing amounting to US $ 590 million for 56 projects in different sectors in 28 Member States. The total cost of these projects is estimated at US $ 2.1 billion. Current operations of the Fund focus largely on Human Development, Agriculture and Food Security as compared to infrastructure projects which were the focus of the Fund’s first year of operations. (b) OIC Special Programme for the Development of Africa is a US $ 12 billion facility aimed at catering for pro-poor activities. The sectoral priorities under this programme are geared towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals and promoting economic growth and regional integration. The programme focuses on agriculture for food security; water and sanitation; power generation and distribution; transport infrastructure; education; and eliminating major communicable diseases. The implementation of the programme since its inception has been very satisfactory. A total of 191 operations have been financed in Sub-Sahara African countries with a total value of US $ 1.848 billion. ( c ) Food Security and Agricultural Development OIC strategy on multi-stakeholder’s partnership for addressing the issue of poverty alleviation is well pronounced in the domain of agriculture and food security. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) had launched, in 2008, a landmark $ 1.5 billion Jeddah Food Initiative. This initiative aims at assisting the Least Developed Countries of the OIC to increase their agricultural production and create adequate stock of food grains. Under this initiative 27 projects have been approved. 20 of which are already disbursing, in the domain of food security and the agricultural development. (d) Cotton Action Plan (2007-2011) An example of a dedicated programme to improve industrial capacity and value-addition in OIC countries is the Cotton Action Plan. Under this Programme, Small and Medium Enterprises in OIC countries are encouraged to source concessional funds from the Islamic Development Bank and other regional Multilateral Development Banks to rehabilitate their respective cotton industries. Most of these countries have become idle due to collapse of commodity markets in OIC countries, most of which are agriculture-dependent. The priority areas of the Cotton Action Plan are: enhancing productivity and production techniques; strengthening member countries structural capacities and organizations; developing the field of processing and marketing; trade and international competitiveness; and arranging finances for the activities. In conclusion, I would like to say that the OIC objective of enhancing multi-stakeholder partnership for economic development in OIC countries has added a new impetus to the existing and long-standing relations between OIC and the United Nations. Pointedly, the elaboration of the Millennium Development Goals and the establishment of the OIC Ten Year Programme and Action have provided the basis for policy consultation and coordination among these two important global institutions. This would assist greatly in promoting the global agenda on pro-poor activities and human capital development. Thank you.
