A high level delegation from SESRIC concluded a two-days mission to Palestine upon an invitation from the Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA).
During this first mission of its kind, the SESRIC delegation conducted a number of meetings aimed at increasing knowledge on Palestinian needs at national level pertaining to capacity building and research. A four-year cooperation program has been agreed upon between PICA and SESRIC that consists of two parts. The first is related to enhancing cooperation between PICA and SESRIC through a number of capacity building programs for PICA team members and to support building a database of Palestinian experts and centers and to promote this pool of experts in other countries of interest.
The second part is related to enhancing cooperation between SESRIC and other Palestinian national institutions through PICA in its capacity as main partner to SESRIC in addition to its importance as national coordinator for south-south cooperation. cooperation between both institutions will include OIC office in Palestine.
During the mission, PICA and SESRIC held a roundtable in the presence of a number of ministries and national institutions that are related to SESRIC scope of work.
Moreover, SESRIC held a number of bilateral meetings with various national partners, the most important of which is the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). SESRIC delegation met with PCBS Director General, H.E. Dr, Ola Awad, where both parties discussed future cooperation.
SESRIC Director General, Amb. Nabil Dabour, met with Birzeit University president, Dr. Abdulatif Abu hijleh, who emphasized on the important role SESRIC plays in enhancing economic and social development and the importance of benefiting from academic capacities that BZU has in order to support SESRIC programs.
The delegation also visited OIC office in Palestine and met with Amb. Ahmad Rwaidi, OIC representative to Palestine, and reaffirmed the important role of OIC and its main bodies in Palestine.
This mission comes as implementation to H.E. President Mahmoud Abbas instructions and also the directions by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, H.E. Dr. Riad Malki, to develop and promote the level of cooperation between Palestine and other OIC development bodies and institutions, the fact that will lead to empower the development role of Palestine internationally as well as to contribute to OIC efforts in south-south cooperation to achieve 2030 international SDGs.