IOFS to start its 1st session in Kazakhstan next week

The OIC said in a statement that the General Assembly will be held parallel to the 7th Islamic Ministerial Conference on Food Security and Agricultural Development in OIC Member States, which would discuss and decide on the outcome of the works of the General Assembly.

Kazakhstan Prime Minister, Karim Massimov is scheduled to open the Assembly, while OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani and Islamic Development Bank Group President Dr Ahmad Mohammad Ali will address the opening ceremony.

The agenda includes the election of the president and vice-presidents of the IOFS General Assembly, presidents and members of the Executive Board, Director General of IOFS Secretariat; and the signing ceremony of IOFS Statute and the Headquarters Agreement between Kazakhstan government and the IOFS.

The founding General Assembly will also consider IOFS's budget for the period 2016-2018, rules of procedure, financial regulations, personnel regulations and its five-year action plan.

IOFS was initiated following the call made by Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, at the opening of the 38th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) held in Astana on June 28-30, 2011.

The president had proposed a system for the exchange of food assistance within the framework of the OIC through a regional fund, similar to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

It includes the establishment of a joint food reserve by interested Member States.

The OIC had sought to establish an executive framework for food security, in addition to the projects being implemented by OIC's relevant institutions, particularly after the global food, energy and finance crisis, which reached its height in 2008.

Source: Bernama