The OIC Secretary General H.E. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and the UN Assistant Secretary General H.E. Mr. Lynn Pascoe have officially opened the 3-days UN-OIC General Meeting on Cooperation, on Tuesday, 29 June 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey. SESRIC has been represented thereat by Mr. Mehmet Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department, and Mr. Murat İlkin, Researcher.

The Meeting evaluated the joint cooperation activities carried out by the two major international organisations in the political and economic fronts as well as in science and technology during the period July 2008-July 2010 and explored new areas of cooperation for the next two years based on mutual areas of interest, including partnership projects and programmes.

During the meeting SESRIC representatives discussed and exchanged views with several participating UN Agencies, such as UN-ESCWA, FAO, IFAD, ILO, UN-HABITAT and UNDP, on the possibilities of cooperation, and agreed to cooperate on developing and implementing capacity building and training programmes, as well as sharing and exchanging information, including data, between the concerned institutions in the areas of food security and agriculture, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), science and technology, alternative energy sources, occupational health and safety, poverty alleviation and tourism and environment, water and sanitation.

The Biennial OIC-UN General Coordination Meeting is the institutional framework of exchange of views, discussions and coordination between the two major international organizations and it is attended by high level delegations from both the OIC General Secretariat and specialized agencies of OIC and the UN.