A joint Committee headed by Ambassador Fuad Al-Maznaee, Advisor to the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Humanitarian Affairs, and Mr. Amin Awad, Director, Middle East and North Africa Bureau of the United Nations Refugee Agency, started its first meeting at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday, 19 November 2014. The discussions centred on ways and means on enhancing areas of cooperation, particularly the implementation of the Ashgabat Declaration, adopted by the OIC Ministerial Conference on Refugees in the Muslim World held in 2012. During the opening remarks, the two heads of delegations emphasized the importance of strengthening their partnership in areas of common interest, noting that refugees in OIC constitute 57% of the total refugees worldwide. Both sides reiterated the strong commitment of the two organizations to address the protracted refugee issue in the Muslim World. The main objective of the joint Committee's discussion is to identify main areas of cooperation,and to work out a Plan of Action to implement the Ashgabat Declaration under the framework of the OIC-UNHCR Cooperation Agreement signed between the two organisations in 1988. This two days' meeting comes as follow-up of the High-level meeting held between the OIC Secretary General H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani and the High Commissioner for refugees, Mr. Antonio Guterres, on 9 September 2014 at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah.
