IOFS Calls on DIHAD Participants to Compete with One Another in Doing Good

The Director General of IOFS H.E. Prof. Yerlan Baidaulet launched the second day of DIHAD with a keynote statement on the Sustainability of the IOFS Afghanistan Food Security Program.

Prof. Baidaulet began by reporting on the activities of the IOFS in ensuring food security to Member States, including through the development of knowledge, the exchange of various technological solutions and sustainable agricultural practices. It was also noted, that one of the core missions of IOFS is to work on acute, urgent humanitarian issues our Umma faces in different regions.

Against this backdrop, Director General conveyed the important message that, the IOFS has been entrusted to become the key link in the collection and supply of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, through the implementation of the Afghanistan Food Security Program (AFSP), as mandated by the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC on the situation in Afghanistan, held in December 2021.

The statement emphasized that the IOFS AFSP has been developed on the principle that food aid is just one of many tools to ensure food security. The goal of humanitarian food aid should be to reduce people's reliance on short-term based assistance. Hence, the idea behind the AFSP is to support those in need and enable them to produce the necessary quantity of food in the long run.

The participants of DIHAD were informed of the IOFS Humanitarian Convoy to Afghanistan, to be delivered by the Holy Days of Ramadan. At the end of his speech the Director General called on all Member States, international organizations and donor institutions to join IOFS in Sadaqah Actions, and to collaborate in order to provide assistance to those in need. He also invited all interested stakeholders to cooperate with the IOFS in the preparation of the upcoming 2nd High Level Forum to be launched in Astana , Kazakhstan on June 7, 2023. The Forum will create a unique and dynamic platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue. It will focus, among other things, on advanced agricultural technologies, scientific research and developmental projects under marginal conditions, as well as on food value chains.

H.E. Prof. Baidaulet also held several bilateral meeting in the exhibition booth of the IOFS, and welcomed participants to build strategic partnerships with the IOFS to ensure food security in the OIC geography. The Director General also held a meeting with Amb. Gerhard, DIHAD CEO, which served for the two sides to review the productive bilateral relationship with the understanding of further involvement of DIHAD on IOFS activities.