Food Security to be Included in Newly Stablished Social Peace Building Center of the Islamic Committee of the International Crescent (ICIC)

Upon instructions of His Excellency Mr. Yerlan A. Baidaulet, the Director General of the Islamic Organization of Food Security (IOFS), Ambassador Daulet Yemberdiyev, Director of the Country Operation Department is leading the Organization’s delegation to attend the 36^th Session of the Islamic Committee of the International Crescent (ICIC) and the 1^st Promotional Forum of Social Peace Building Center (SPBC), which opened on 28 February and will continue until 02^nd March 2023 in Baghdad, Republic of Iraq.

The Opening Ceremony was addressed by His Excellency Ambassador Ali Buhedma, ICIC President, and other dignataries representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq, the Iraq Red Crescent Society, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to OIC, His Excellency Ambassador Saleh Hamad Alsuhabani Saudi.

The IOFS delegation’s intervention at the meeting aimed at raising awareness about the Organization, while showing the interrelation between conflicts, insecurity and food insecurity, and, in this context, proposing that matters related to food security be added in the relevant initiatives geared towards peacebuilding and peacekeeping to be implemented by the newly established SPBC in the OIC Member States. Within such proposal that was widely welcomed, the Delegation also showed readiness of the IOFS to partner with the SPBC in that regard.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the Delegation had consultations with different participating delegates, particularly Ambassador Abbas Kadhem Obaid, Head of the International Organizations and Conferences Department at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with whom discussions were conducted on ways and means to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially the standing invitation for the Republic of Iraq to kindly consider joining the IOFS as a full fledge Member State.

It should be mentioned here that different brochures highlighting the IOFS Strategic Framework and 2031 Vision, as well as the Afghanistan Food Security Program (AFSP), African Food Security Initiative (AFSI), etc, were made available for the participants to make them aware of the important work being implemented by the IOFS.