GA-IOFS/2018/REP-DG REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL TO THE SECOND SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION FOR FOOD SECURITY (IOFS)

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1 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL TO THE SECOND SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION FOR FOOD SECURITY (IOFS) ASTANA, REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN 10 DECEMBER RABI AL-AKHAR 1440H

2 Report of the Director General to the Second session of the General Assembly of the Islamic Organization for Food Security Astana, Kazakhstan, 10 December 2018 Excellencies, Dear Chairman, Esteemed Members of the General Assembly, Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh, First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for graciously accepting our invitation to convene the Second Session of the General Assembly of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) and the demonstrated willingness to strengthen the Organization through diligent and effective fulfillment of the responsibilities assigned by the Statute of the IOFS to this Ministerial level working body of the IOFS. I would like to express my sincere hopes that today we will have a very productive session and take necessary and effective decisions that will help further operationalize and establish this important Organization for the benefit of the Muslim Ummah. Information on activities of the Director General during As you are aware, the inaugural session of the General Assembly of the IOFS was first held on April 2016 in Astana, Kazakhstan. That remarkable event had demonstrated the adherence of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the embodiment of the initiative of H.E. Mr. N. Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the establishment of a viable Food Security Mechanism within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that had led to the establishment of the IOFS. That historic event has enabled us to take practical steps toward launching the IOFS activities through the appointment of the Statute defined working bodies, adoption of internal rules and regulations as well as formulation of the 5-year Action Plan. I am grateful to note that currently, owing to the commendable perseverance and collaboration with the OIC General Secretariat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the IOFS Secretariat, eleven (11) out of thirty-two (32) IOFS Member States have successfully ratified the IOFS Statute. Those are Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina-Faso, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Gambia, Palestine, Bangladesh, Qatar, the UAE and Egypt. Accordingly, as per its Clause 1 of 2

3 Article 21, the IOFS Statute has entered into full legal force after reaching the tenth instrument of ratification. Excellencies, I am equally delighted to note that the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan has successfully accomplished ratification procedures of the IOFS Headquarters Agreement and H.E. N. Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, has signed the appropriate Law, thus enabling the IOFS Secretariat to commence its work. Likewise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of the Republic of Kazakhstan has successfully accredited the IOFS as an international organization under the country s jurisdiction. Accordingly, the IOFS has legislatively obtained the status and the capacity of an international legal entity and has fulfilled all the requirements related to opening of a bank account and acquiring a registration number in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The IOFS Secretariat was accredited and registered at the MoFA by end of It is worth noting that prior to the above; the IOFS had no legal capacity and no accreditation under Kazakhstan jurisdiction, making it impossible to carry out any organizational and financial activities during that period. To date, the IOFS has successfully received two installments of the pledged three-year financial support from the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Organization in the form of a voluntary contribution. According to the recently ratified Headquarters Agreement, the Republic of Kazakhstan has allocated the office premises for the IOFS Secretariat. In this regard, having successfully completed the above-mentioned foundational milestones, the Secretariat of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security started its activities since 1 March In this short period of its existence, the following preparatory measures have already been undertaken by the Secretariat of the IOFS: Adopted the Personnel Regulations of the Organization Adopted the Financial Rules Adopted the Rules of Procedure Activated the proceedings of the Board of the Executive Directors Developed assessed Scale of Contributions by the OIC Member States into the IOFS Developed and adopted the 5 -Year Action Plan of the Organization 3

4 Concluded framework agreements and partnership agreements with the leading regional and international institutions in the area of food security and sustainable agriculture and rural development (FAO, IFAD, IDB, ADB, AAAOD, AOAD, ICBA, CFF, ICRAF, ICD, MARDI, KAZAGRO, ITFC, ISFD, AL HILAL, FOOD CONTRACT CORP, etc.) Commenced implementation of a Technical Assistance Grant from the Islamic Development Bank for institutional capacity building of the Organization Developed organizational structure of the Organization that will be fine-tuned with the help of the above international Consultant and presented for consideration and approval by the General Assembly at the end of this year Organized exchange of research and technological know-how and knowledge among member states through Reverse Linkage Mechanism Embarked on exploring the issues and solutions related to the food shortage, desertification, deforestation, salinity and underutilization of existing crops in collaboration with the leading research centers. Embarked on the establishment of an Agriculture Modernization Investment Fund with the National Agri Holding MARDI (Malaysia), the Islamic Corporation for Private Sector Development of the IDB Group and the Arab Authority for Agriculture Investment and Development to the tune of potential capitalization of USD half a billion Embarked on partnership with the Islamic Fund for Solidarity and Development for development and reclamation of arable and barren lands in the OIC MCs Embarked on conceptualization of the creation of Crops Genetic Bank for OIC Members States Participating, jointly with the IsDB, SMIIC and Malaysian JAKIM Halal Authority in introduction of HALAL standardization and certification Embarked on exploring the potential of creation of a digital/ geo-map on the Food Security situation in OIC Member States Embarked on exploring the potential of developing a map of strategic and emergency food reserves in the OIC Member States 4

5 Involved in conceptualization of a flagship Inclusive Economic Empowerment of the Poor Program through participatory microfinance line of finance and value chain development, jointly with the Islamic Development Bank. Excellencies, Taking the above into account, allow me to draw your kind attention to the current, acutely experienced lack of adequate budget resources, which is considerably linked to the existing need to expeditiously adopt a Scale of Mandatory Contributions by the General Assembly. Without it, the IOFS will not able to launch operations and activities as mandated by the Organization s Statute. In this regard, I would like to note the paramount importance of this Second Session of the General Assembly of the IOFS. According to Clause 1 of Article 10 of the IOFS Statute, the General Assembly shall comprise Ministers responsible for matters within the mandate of the IOFS or their representatives, nominated by their respective Member States. The General Assembly shall hold ordinary sessions once a year. Based on the stated, I would like to highlight several important issues, reflected in today s agenda that will require your consideration, adequate support and subsequent adoption. 1. Vision and elaboration of the IOFS Budget: Article 18 of the IOFS Statute describes the IOFS sources of funding as follows: The financial resources shall include annual assessed contributions from Member States; donations and voluntary contributions from the Member States, non-member States, institutions and partners; fund raising from Member States and international organizations for special projects; and proceeds of the sales of publications, products, services. According to Clause 1 Article 17 of the IOFS Statute, the draft Administrative Budget for has been developed for your consideration in this session of the General Assembly. The proposed Budget stipulates administrative expenses to be financed through Mandatory Contributions by the Member States. Here, I note that the Budget will be utilized for the day-to-day activities of all the working Bodies of the Organization and to maintain overall institutional development. It should however be stressed that the Budget covers only assessed Annual Mandatory Contributions and does not cover other sources of funding, stipulated by the IOFS Statute, 5

6 including the fund-raising from the IOFS Member States and international organizations for specific projects. To this end, we hope to get the full support of the General Assembly on the Budget proposal. We would like to take this opportunity to note that currently only the Republic of Kazakhstan has allocated voluntary contributions to support activities of the IOFS. At the same time, we realize that allocation of Mandatory Contributions in the respective State Budgets of the Member States may be time consuming and subject to lengthy internal State budgetary procedures. In this regard, aiming at the execution of the IOFS General Assembly Resolution No.GA/ and referring to Clause 6 of the IOFS General Assembly Resolution No.GA/4-2016, the Islamic Organisation for Food Security calls on Member States to make Voluntary Contributions and Donations in accordance with Article 18 of the IOFS Statute. This measure is necessary to enable an expeditious and effective take-off of the Organization, in the capacity of a specialized agency of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for ensuring food sufficiency and sustainable agricultural development of the Member States. 2. Elaborations on implementation of the 5-year Action Plan: The IOFS 5-year Action Plan was shared with strategic development partners to gather their critical and practical suggestions, recommendations and observations. Accordingly, the Plan has been fine-tuned and is proposed for your consideration with several amendments. We appreciate the valuable contributions of the SESRIC, AOAD and others extended to us in the process of improvement of this 5-year Action Plan. In this context, it should be noted that due to the lack of institutional mechanisms to support the initial phase of the IOFS establishment, all required measures related to financial planning and budgeting and implementation schedule could only be carried out after this Session, and with a condition that the IOFS Secretariat receives adequate funding through the proposed 2019 Budget to be able to recruit competent staff/personnel. Excellencies, you would strongly agree with me that the future success of this Organization would enormously depend on the quality of the human resource as the most precious asset that the IOFS will have on the path of institutional building and becoming an excellent and world-class Organization. 3. Elaboration on the Scale of Mandatory Contributions: According to Clause (e) Article 18 of the IOFS Statute, the Member States are expected to contribute to the Budget in accordance with the Scale of Assessed Mandatory Contributions presently used by the OIC, or any other formula as may be approved by the General Assembly. 6

7 Currently, the Scale of Assessed Mandatory Contributions used by the OIC is not fully applicable by the IOFS due to different composition (number) of its Members. Therefore, it seems appropriate to develop a new formula that would reflect the real situation and the number of the Member States that have ratified the Statute of the IOFS. In this regard, the SESRIC has been requested to assist in the development of an assessment methodology. In this session, we are proposing for your consideration the Scale of Assessment of Mandatory Contributions to the IOFS, based on the calculation methodology proposed by the SESRIC. I really hope to receive your visionary guidance and support in approving this Scale of Assessed Mandatory Contributions as one of the most crucial issues for the Organization s financial stability and resilience. 4. Proposal and rationale on the Staff positions/vacancies and the initial organizational structure of the IOFS Secretariat: According to Clause 10-1 Article 10 of the IOFS Personnel Regulations, the Director General may create posts in accordance with provisions of the IOFS Personnel Regulations and upon approval of the General Assembly. Following this provision, the submitted staff list and tentative organizational structure of the IOFS Secretariat is proposed for your consideration and comments. I am looking forward to receiving your wise guidance and support in approving these agenda items as vital for ensuring the success of the Organization. 5. Presentation of the Logo of the IOFS; We have developed several options of the logo, considering the importance of the visual identity and visibility of the Organization in the international arena. The preferred option as chosen and recommended by this meeting would be submitted for subsequent consideration and adoption of the General Assembly in October I would like to present to you the proposed options as depicted on the distributed print-outs and projected on the screen. 6. Proposal and rationale on amendments to the Personnel Regulations of the IOFS: Regarding this issue, first of all, I would like to sincerely thank all Members of the Executive Board for extended support during the extraordinary session held in the period of 29 December January 2018/11-18 Rabi Al-Akhar, 1439H in correspondence. At that extraordinary session the revised Annex I Monthly salary scale of the staff members of the IOFS Secretariat 7

8 of the Personnel Regulation of the IOFS has been approved. We have received official supportive decisions of Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on this issue. Following provisions of the approved /adopted Resolution of the mentioned session of the Executive Board, hereby the Secretariat is submitting the draft of appropriate Resolution of the IOFS General Assembly. Pursuing the effective and timely implementation of this crucial initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the establishment of the IOFS that has fully been supported by the leadership and highest authorities of the OIC Member States and: Considering the importance of a successful takeoff of the IOFS Secretariat with the most efficient use of mechanisms, stipulated by the IOFS Statute and the principles constituting the core of the IOFS establishment as stated in the preamble of its Statute; Taking into account the prevailing global competition for highly experienced experts and specialists in the food security, agriculture and rural development domain, and the increased necessity for offering competitive employment packages (salaries, allowances and benefits) to the future staff/personnel of the IOFS; Taking note of the Recommendation of the OIC Secretariat General OIC/ECO-04/C- 04/ on 11 December 2017; We are proposing the following amendments for your kind consideration: 1. The text 18 should be replaced by the text 25 in the clause 41-2 of the Article 41 of the IOFS Personnel Regulations. The amendment on change of text 18 by the text 25 relates to change the range of the age of children to be entitled to an education allowance for a maximum of five children regularly attending an educational establishment. This is the one of conditions of providing of the mentioned allowance to a staff member of the Secretariat. 2. As stated above, the new edition of the Annex I to the IOFS Personnel Regulations, already approved by the Executive Board, is proposed to be adopted by the General Assembly. It is supposed, that these amendments to the IOFS Personnel Regulations would facilitate competitive, reliable and efficient labor and working conditions for high profile experts at the IOFS. 8

9 Vote of Thanks Excellencies, Dear Chairman, Esteemed Members of the General Assembly, I firmly believe that the proposed issues and matters submitted for your kind consideration and discussion will help the Organization to achieve new milestone of its establishment and institutional formation, with the ultimate objective of providing responsible, responsive and innovative services and products to the OIC Member States. I would like to take this opportunity to call on your collective and unambiguous support of this very challenging yet noble process of operationalization of the IOFS for the sake of the entire Muslim Ummah and the achievement of the visualized advancement of the OIC Member States social and economic welfare in the medium to long-term perspective. Thank you for your attention! Astana, 10 December