On the sidelines of the 2024 Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group Annual Meetings and the Commemoration of its 50^th Anniversary held in Riyadh, H.E. Zehra Zümrüt SELÇUK engaged in a bilateral meeting with Ms. Dima Al-Khatib, Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). The meeting aimed to explore additional areas of cooperation concerning South-South and Triangular Cooperation for sustainable development between the two institutions.

H.E. SELÇUK told that since their inception, SESRIC has organized over 1,100 activities with the participation of around 34,000 experts from OIC Member Countries, under its 21 capacity building programmes based on the pricnciples of the South-South Coopreation. SESRIC also actively designs and implements projects, collaborating with international organisations and other relevant stakeholders to facilitate the exchange knowledge and best practices among the member countries. She underlined that increasing the cooperation with UNOSSC has the potential to further bring about synergies in promoting South-South and Triangular Cooperation for the benefit of OIC member countries on the path towards achieving sustainable development.

On her part, Ms. Dima Al-Khatib, Director of UNOSSC, thanked H.E. SELÇUK for the meeting and referred to the already ongoing good cooperation with SESRIC, including the joint SESRIC-UNOSSC publication “South-South in Action: Transforming Potentials into Shared Prosperity” in 2020. She invited SESRIC to take part in the Data to Policy Network and Global Thinkers Community.

The meeting ended with both parties highlighting the potential of South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation to address common challenges and drive sustainable development across the OIC region and beyond.

The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) was established to promote, coordinate, and support South-South and triangular cooperation globally and within the United Nations system. UNOSSC, hosted by UNDP since 1974, was established by the UN General Assembly with a mandate to advocate for and coordinate South-South and triangular cooperation on a global and UN system-wide basis.