Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 05/10/2013
Let me, first and foremost, thank the organisers of this Congress for inviting me to address the Panel discussing the very topical issue of intergenerational solidarity. For us in the OIC, the question of forging solidarity among the one billion peoples living in our 57 member states is at the core of the mandate of the Organisation. However, a new approach to the concept of solidarity has since emerged upon the adoption of the Ten Year Programme of Action, which was adopted at the 3rd Extra-ordinary Summit held Makkah, Saudi Arabia in 2005. Solidarity is given an all-embracing connotation to describe the existing cultural affinities among the peoples of the OIC and the need to translate this cultural solidarity into a more pragmatic interaction at the socio-economic and political levels. Consequently, the slogan of “Solidarity in Action” has become a common phrase within the OIC. This is in view of the need to mobilise and direct the enormous developmental potentials in OIC member states towards ensuring the development of active socio-economic relations among OIC member states; and the promotion of well-being of its populations, with special focus on the many vulnerable segments, including the elderly, youth and children as groups with specific problems. A number of special issues have to be addressed with respect to these groups. In addition to the need to increase their economic well-being, an important concern is to protect their status in society. The elderly should not be subject to neglect or negative discrimination because they are no more economically active. Furthermore, ideally, the strength of this sincere concern of ours for the elderly must lead us to consider developing social policies specially geared to providing employment for the elderly in our countries. Such policies can enable us to benefit from the knowledge and experience of the elderly having worked in different sectors and thus also avoid duplications wherever applicable. Indeed a constant effort must be made to develop inclusive social policies. The OIC Member States have generally achieved steady progress in improving their social security systems over the past decades, taking into account internationally set norms. Health care after retirement is covered in most national systems. However issues needing to be dealt with as regards the elderly reach far beyond this. Issues concerning this group must be dealt with within the framework of a separate, composite and inter-sectorial policy. The tradition of permanent family ties and emphasis given to intergenerational solidarity characteristic to Muslim society can be of support in concretising this policy. Efforts must be made to preserve these values so that they remain effective among coming generations as well. The values of family attachment and respect for the elderly are shared by all faiths of the world; they show humankind the right behaviour towards parents and the elderly. I will quote from the Holy Quran: “And your Lord has commanded that you shall not worship (any) but Him, and that you be kind to your parents. If either or both of them reach old age with you, say not to them (so much as) Uff! Nor repel them, and speak to them a generous word. And make yourself submissively gentle to them with compassion, and say: O my Lord! Have mercy on them, as they did cherish and rear me (when I was) little. (Qur’an:17/23-24). Various international and regional organisations are addressing issues relating to the elderly in the context of their programs aiming to contribute to raising the well-being of populations in their member countries. As to the OIC, development of the well-being of our populations on all scores being the raison d’être of this inter-governmental organisation, a paradigm shift has been established to ensure that issues of poverty alleviation, human capital development and social protection remain prominent in the realm of the OIC contemporary agenda. I intend to rapidly capture the various flagship programmes embarked upon by the OIC in recent times, which dwell on poverty eradication, including food and nutrition security, as well as the creation of social safety nets in the domain of health, education, youth and women empowerment, entrepreneurship, employment generation and social protection, among others. The objectives of these programmes are to reverse the current spate of poverty, hunger and social dislocation arising from multiplicity of political and man-made crises within the OIC. Socio-Economic Outlook Considering the fact that more than one-third of OIC member states belong to the Least Developed Countries, the average human poverty index in OIC countries, which slightly increased from 25% in 2005 to 27% in 2007, has now reached an alarming rate of 38% in 2011. This is occurring at the same time when the food security situation in these countries has deteriorated sharply due to reduced agricultural productivity, weak rural infrastructure, dwindling foreign direct investment, and pervasive social exclusion. Consequently, the average food deficit in the entire OIC countries reached US$ 40 billion in recent times, while the number of Food Deficit Countries within the OIC is as large as thirty-three. Similarly, the number of children under five years with stunted growth has also soared far above the 2005 figure of 6 million persons. Consequently, the increasing rate of unemployment due to declining economic growth and inadequate social safety nets has been traced as the causes of the current social and political crises in our region, especially, the Middle East and North Africa region. It has also created such social insecurity and communal dislocation as evident in the increasing flow of refugees, which affect mainly women and children. Poverty Alleviation Strategies Given the above-stated conditions, the major thrust of the OIC poverty alleviation programmes became the development of the human productive capacity through expansion of intra-OIC trade, scaling up vocational training and agro-food industrial capacity-building. This approach also aims at creating wealth and increasing productivity and value addition in OIC countries, promoting knowledge economy and the polio eradication programmes, so as to generate the required employment and income among the poor and vulnerable segments of the OIC population, especially women and youth. Considering the identified constraints of resource mobilization in the implementation of various OIC economic programmes and projects, the Ten Year Programme of Action recommended the establishment of poverty alleviation funds. Consequently, the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development and Special Programme for Development of Africa have since galvanized intra-OIC action in the area of micro-finance, agro-industrial capacity building and rural development. The Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) is a US$10 billion financing window for targeted interventions to foster sustainable economic growth and job creation, reduce illiteracy, and eradicate contagious diseases and pandemics such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. It is gladdening to note that the ISFD has, since its inception in 2008, extended financing amounting to US$ 1.64 billion for 43 projects in different sectors in 28 OIC member states. On its part, the Special programme for the Development of Africa (SPDA) is a US$12 billion facility aimed at advancing for pro-poor activities. The sectoral priorities under the SPDA are specifically geared towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and promoting economic growth and regional integration. This programme focuses on (i) agriculture for food security; (ii) water and sanitation; (iii) power generation and distribution; (iv) transport infrastructure; (v) education; and (vi) eliminating major communicable diseases. So far, a total of 480 projects have been approved for financing under the SPDA in 22 OIC African member states and efforts are underway to complete the execution of the various infrastructure projects during the current post-approval phase. The major projects approved under this phase feature, among others: Creation of Effective Social Safety Nets While the investment and food security strategies are aimed at fostering youth and women empowerment, the provision of effective social safety nets is aimed at promoting access to health and sanitation, job creation, entrepreneurship and social protection. This comes in answer to the alarming reality that in a number of Muslim countries generalisation of health care for all segments of population, fighting epidemics and advancing medical science and technology remain as objectives yet to be attended to. Health tourism, including displacement of patients and the elderly, is one of the consequences of local insufficiency on this score. The OIC Framework on Tourism has given due prominence to mobilising the various national policies in favour of health tourism. The three conferences on health tourism in OIC member states, has mobilised necessary joint action towards expanding health services in OIC countries. The said action includes support for the construction of hospitals, funding of health research projects and facilitation of entry visa procedures among OIC member states. This is in addition to the various interventions on health, including maternal and childcare made by relevant OIC institutions. On the issue of entrepreneurship and employment generation, the recent adoption of OIC Framework for Cooperation on Labour, Employment and Social Protection is the culmination of on-going intra-OIC efforts to address growing youth unemployment, which has reached 73.8 million globally in 2011 and expected to increase by 12.6% in 2012, and by another 12.9% in 2017. The result of this is steady contraction of the middle class, particularly in developing countries, thereby leading to increasing social dislocation. The hallmark of OIC’s demarches in this regard is to energize the existing network among occupational safety and health institutions in OIC countries. It also includes developing integrated programmes to support growth of SMEs and Islamic microfinance institutions, with a view to improving self-employability and youth micro-entrepreneurs. This is in addition to the various programmes in the field of career counselling aimed at providing technical support and assistance to the youth. Furthermore, the OIC strategy on housing and sanitation is embedded in the Action Plan for the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, which is developing a Sustainable Villages Programme with an initial funding window of US$120 million. This is in addition to the strong partnerships, in this domain, between OIC and Earth Institute of Columbia University on the one hand, and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab on the other hand. Finally, I wish to reiterate my appreciation to the organizers of this event, IFA/Turyak Istanbul International Initiative on Ageing Congress, while expressing the readiness of OIC to continue to identify with their laudable initiatives towards ensuring that we bequeath to the coming generations a society that is socially cohesive, politically stable and economically prosperous. I thank you very much for your kind attention.
