During 3-4 November 2015 at the OIC’s General Secretariat in Jeddah an “Intergovernmental Expert Group” meeting convened with an aim to assess the OIC Action Plan for the Advancement of Women (OPAAW) and to review its implementation.

More than 40 participants from 15 OIC Member States and OIC Institutions including ICDT, IDB Group, ISESCO, and SESRIC attended the meeting. Dr. Cem Tintin, Researcher, represented SESRIC thereat and presented the report of SESRIC titled “State of Gender and Family Well-Being in OIC Member Countries”.

The meeting hosted three sessions after the opening. In session I, two presentations were made namely the “State of Gender and Family Well-Being in OIC Member Countries” and “Comparison Study between OPAAW and CEDAW”. Session II was devoted to the reviewing of the OPAAW document article by article with the active participation of delegates. Finally, during session III, the implementation mechanisms for the OPAAW document were discussed and the Report of the Meeting was finalized.

At the end of the meeting, it is agreed by the house to have a follow-up technical meeting to review the “Mechanisms Document for the Implementation of OPAAW” and to work on its terminology before submitting the final version to the Sixth Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of OIC Member States, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2016.