The Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and Bank Indonesia in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) jointly organized a virtual International Forum on ‘Islamic Economic Digitalization and Inclusion: Policy Development and Implementation in the OIC Countries’ on 29 October 2020.

SESRIC attended the Virtual Training Workshop on WTO Agricultural Negotiations and Their Impact on Trade of Agricultural Products among the OIC Member States which was organized by the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) and Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on 26-28 October 2020.

Within the framework of its Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme, SESRIC organised an Online Training Course on ‘SDG 13 (Climate Action) Indicators’ on 19-22 October 2020 for the benefit of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) of Egypt. Besides Egypt, experts from the NSOs of 6 OIC countries including Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Oman, Palestine and UAE took part in the online training course.

Within the framework of SESRIC’s Water Resources Management Capacity Building Programme (Water-CaB) and the Resolution No. 3/46-E (Part B) on Replenishing of Lake Chad adopted by the 46^th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC, SESRIC and the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) jointly organized a Training Workshop on “Water Governance and Integrated Water Management” on 19-22 October 2020 for the benefit of the national water resource institutions of the Lake Chad Basin countries through an online video conference platform.

SESRIC participated in the 21^st ASEAN-Occupational Safety and Health Network (ASEAN-OSHNET) Coordinating Board Meeting (CBM), which was hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare of Lao People's Democratic Republic on 15 October 2020.

Within the framework of SESRIC’s Water Resources Management Capacity Building Programme (Water-CaB), SESRIC organized a training course on “Integrated Water Resources Management” on 12-16 October 2020 for the benefit of participants from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan.

The virtual meeting of the OIC-COMCEC Central Banks Forum was organized by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey on 07 October 2020 under the theme of ‘Recovering Our Economies in Times of Covid-19’. The meeting brought together Governors of the Central Banks and high level policy makers from OIC member countries to discuss the current global and OIC economic outlook and policy measures that were taken to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; and also to evaluate the post-pandemic challenges and opportunities for the OIC member countries.

The 4^th Meeting of the OIC Occupational Safety and Health Network (OIC-OSHNET) was jointly organized by SESRIC, in its capacity as the OIC Technical Coordinator of OIC-OSHNET, and the Directorate General of Occupational Safety and Health (DGOSH) of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services of the Republic of Turkey, in its capacity as the Secretariat of the OIC-OSHNET. The Meeting was conducted through a video conferencing platform on 07-08 October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

SESRIC attended the 11^th Meeting of the International Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) Task Force which was organized online by the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on 6-9 October 2020.

Within the framework of SESRIC’s Competition Authorities Capacity Building Programme (CA-CaB), the Centre organized a training course on “Competition Law and Policy” on 05-09 October 2020 for the benefit of participants from the Tunisian Competition Council.

SESRIC, in its capacity as the Secretariat of the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-StatCom), organised the 9th Session of the OIC-StatCom on 28 September – 1 October 2020 in collaboration with Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group through a video-conferencing platform due to the current COVID-19 outbreak. 95 participants from NSOs of 39 OIC countries joined the 9^th Session of OIC-StatCom. 

SESRIC participated in the Virtual Meeting of the Subgroup on Gender Statistics Training (SGGST) organised by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific on 22 September 2020. Representatives from BPS-Statistics Indonesia, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), School of Data Kyrgyzstan, Hongkong Baptist University, Philipine Statistical Research and Training Institute (PSRTI), UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) also took part in the said virtual meeting.

Considering the importance of “Public Audit” to OIC member countries, SESRIC has initiated and launched last year a new capacity building programme in this important domain called “SESRIC Public Audit Capacity Building Programme (PAU-CaB)”. The Programme aims at providing a framework of cooperation and strengthening collaboration between relevant national institutions of the OIC member countries responsible for public audit with a view to enhancing their technical capacities.

SESRIC and UNOSSC launched the joint report on ‘South-South in Action: Transforming Potentials into Shared Prosperity’ during a side event of the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation, on 15 September 2020 at 04:00 pm-5:30 pm Istanbul time (GMT +3).

SESRIC participated in the capacity building programme on ‘Young Women Entrepreneurs as Drivers of SDGs’, which was jointly organized by the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) and the Investment and Technology Promotion Office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain on 14-17 September 2020. The program was attended by experts from OIC member countries, OIC institutions and international organizations. The Centre was represented thereat by Dr. Cem Tintin, Senior Researcher and Ms. Tazeen Qureshi, Assistant Researcher.

SESRIC organized in partnership with the Diplomacy Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey a Training Course on “Digital Diplomacy for the OIC Junior Diplomats” on 14-17 September 2020 through a video conferencing platform. The training course was attended by 81 young diplomats from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of 29 OIC member countries.

SESRIC participated in the 36^th Session of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) held virtually on 10-11 September 2020. Dr. Atilla Karaman, Director of Statistics and Information of SESRIC, and Ms. Nenden Octavarulia Shanty, Researcher, represented SESRIC in the session.

SESRIC attended the Inaugural Meeting of the Inter Secretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA) / Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPCOM) Joint Task Team on Islamic Finance (IFTT) held on 10 September 2020.

Within the framework of SESRIC’s Water Resources Management Capacity Building Programme (Water-CaB), SESRIC organized a training course on “Water Saving and Management in Agriculture Sector” on 24-28 August 2020, for the benefit of 40 experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Republic of Benin. The course was conducted through a video conferencing platform by following synchronous learning and instruction approaches.

Within the framework of the SESRIC’s OIC Tourism Capacity Building Programme (Tr-CaB) and in line with COMCEC Ministerial Policy Recommendations, SESRIC organized a training course on “Developing Multi Destination Tourism Corridors” on 23-27 August 2020 for the benefit of 20 experts and executives from the National Tourism Council of the State of Qatar, Discover Qatar and Doha Bus. The course was conducted through a video conferencing platform by following synchronous learning and instruction approaches.