OIC mobilises resources to tackle impact of coronavirus

JEDDAH: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has pledged to mobilize all their resources to tackle the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In a press release, the OIC General Secretariat emphasized that it would pursue its response campaign until the coronavirus was contained, and would continue to support the overall efforts to cushion the impact of the pandemic on the member states.

The aim of the campaign is to showcase the efforts led by the OIC member states, the General Secretariat and OIC institutions in response to the pandemic. OIC has emphasised to pursue the response campaign until the coronavirus was contained and would continue to support the overall efforts to cushion the impact of the pandemic on member states.

As well as shifting to a remote work model since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early March, OIC has launched a campaign through social networks with the aim of raising awareness on the coronavirus.

The campaign under the hashtag #OICCountriesCombatCOVID19 has published an array of content including videos, graphics and other media materials on the OIC website and social media platforms.

The OIC Sawt al-Hikma (Voice of Wisdom) Centre launched a short-film contest, attracting outstanding works with minimum resources despite the quarantine, while interactive submissions had been collected focusing on the coronavirus outbreak.

On the political side, the OIC held an extraordinary foreign ministerial meeting of the OIC Executive Committee, via video conference on April 22. The Secretary-General chaired several other meetings to follow up on the implementation of the concluding resolutions of the Executive Committee’s meeting.

More recently, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) held an virtual meeting of the ministers of education on May 14. The meeting was held in coordination with Saudi Arabia’s education ministry to explore the coronavirus-induced challenges to the education system as students are one of the most impacted as the virus has shut down classrooms.

On April 4, the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB), a specialized organ of the OIC, launched a Strategic Preparedness and Response Programme for the COVID-19 pandemic. With a package of as much as $2.3 billion, the programme aims to support the member states’ efforts to prevent, contain, mitigate and recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The OIC Secretary-General approved an initiative launched by the Islamic Solidarity Fund (ISF) to defeat the pandemic. The ISF is dedicated a fund to help the member states particularly the least developed battle the coronavirus.

Regarding the health impacts of the coronavirus, the OIC in coordination with the UAE, which assumes the chairmanship of the Seventh Islamic Conference of Health Ministers, held a virtual ministerial meeting of the OIC Steering Health Committee. A key recommendation of the joint statement issued was the need to increase and accelerate the transparent exchange of information on the pandemic.