3rd Meeting of the COMCEC Poverty Working Group
Date: 10 April 2014
Venue: Ankara - Türkiye

The 3rd Meeting of the COMCEC Poverty Alleviation Working Group was held on April 10th, 2014 with the theme of “Monitoring Mechanisms of the Social Safety Net Programmes in the COMCEC Region.” The Meeting was attended by the representatives of 19 Member States, which have notified their focal points for the Poverty Alleviation Working Group namely: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Suriname, Tunisia, Turkey and Uganda. The Centre was represented thereat by Mr. Mazhar Hussain, Senior Researcher. Representatives of COMCEC Coordination Office, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Deniz Feneri Association and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality have also attended the Meeting.

During the meeting, the delegates were briefed about the major findings of the studies on “Monitoring Mechanisms of the Social Safety Net Programmes in the COMCEC Region” and the “COMCEC Poverty Alleviation Outlook 2014” prepared by the COMCEC Coordination Office. Delegates from several Member States also made presentations to share their experiences, achievements and challenges regarding monitoring mechanisms of the Social Safety Net (SSN) Programmes in their respective countries. Whereas, the representatives of UNDP, Deniz Feneri Association and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality presented the experiences of international organizations, NGOs and local authorities in monitoring the Social Safety Net (SSN) Programmes in COMCEC region.

The 4th Meeting of the Working Group will be held on September 18th, 2014 in Ankara with the theme of “Institutional Structure of the Social Safety Net Systems in the COMCEC Region”