SESRIC was represented during the “Second High-Level Meeting on Country-led Knowledge Hubs”, which was jointly organised by the World Bank Group and Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of South Korea 23 and 26 June in Seoul, South Korea in collaboration with Islamic Development Bank, Korea Development Institute, Korea Eximbank and Japan International Cooperation Agency. The second high-level meeting aimed to share and discuss lessons learned on how to develop systematic capacity of country institutions to capture and share development experiences and to review what has been achieved so far since the First High-Level Meeting on Knowledge Hubs, which took place in Bali (Indonesia) in 2012.

The event hosted more than 500 senior representatives from 76 countries that came from government agencies and ministries, NGOs, CSOs, academia, think thanks and the private sector. Mr. Mehmet Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department and Dr. Cem Tintin, Researcher at Department of Economic and Social Research represented SESRIC thereat.

The first day of the high-level meeting hosted the opening ceremony and high-level plenary panel discussions. The second day of the meeting offered 10 roundtable discussions in which speakers elaborated different aspects of the challenges and experiences on knowledge sharing activities. On the second day of the meeting, Mr. Mehmet Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department of SESRIC, delivered a speech in Roundtable 8 titled “the art of knowledge exchange” on SESRIC’s experience on knowledge sharing activities, challenges faced and solutions offered in disseminating knowledge across OIC member countries. During all these roundtable sessions, participants benefited from the experience of different institutions and had a chance to hear their success stories. Participants also found opportunity to discuss and share their views on the possible relevant policy recommendations in order to promote and enhance knowledge sharing practices.

The third day of the meeting was devoted to the case of Korea on knowledge sharing activities. Speakers from different Korean institutions shared their experience with the “Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) of Korea”, which is the world’s first fully-fledged knowledge sharing modular program. In the final day of the meeting, six different workshops took place in order to upgrade the knowledge of participants on several aspects of knowledge sharing capacity development such as ‘assessing institutional capacity’ and ‘organizing change management process’.

The Third High-Level Meeting on Knowledge Hubs is planned to take place in 2016.