The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) delegation comprising of Mr. Parviz Koohafkan, Director of Land and Water Division (NRL) at the FAO, and Mr. Moustafa Sinaceur, the FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for Central Asia visited SESRIC on 13 July 2010. The visit took place subsequent to the sign of the one-year project titled “Support to policy consultation and actions to boost sustainable use of water and energy resources for agricultural production and livelihood improvement in the Near East Region in the context of climate change” by H.E. Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Mr. Jacques Diouf, the Director General of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) on 9 June 2010. Under this Project, SESRIC has been designated as the OIC implementing agency of the Project, and a member of the Project Task Force.

At the outset, Dr. Başçı expressed her thanks and welcome to the delegates for their kind visit, and briefed them on the activities of the Centre in three areas of mandate: research, statistics and training. On his part, Mr. Koohafkan informed about the background of the project referring to the High Level Conference on Water for Agriculture and Energy in Africa held in 2008 in Sirte, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and underlined the importance of the project in assisting NENA countries to build their capacity and to make policy makers and the public at large aware of the new evidence on the importance of linking water and energy sector in the planning of the region.

At the end of the meeting the two parties agreed to nominate Mr. Mehmet Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department, as the focal person from the Centre to undertake necessary managerial roles and to represent the Centre within the Project Task Force.

For more information about the OIC-FAO joint project, please visit: http://www.sesric.org/activities-oicfao.php