Jeddah
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold a workshop to promote the concept of the Family Bank in the five Sahel Group countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Mali. This is in implementation of the resolution of the 7th Session of the Ministerial Conference on women held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso adopted by the 47th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in March 2019. The venue of the said workshop, to be held on 19-20 January 2020 in cooperation with the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, will be the OIC General Secretariat headquarters in Jeddah.
This workshop is part of the OIC efforts to support the relevant authorities and stakeholders in the five countries of the Sahel and Sahara Group to enhance the role of women in entrepreneurship in a bid to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable groups in those societies.
The objectives are to promote and spread the concept of the Family Bank established by Sudan for microfinance, review the tools and policies necessary to promote the development of the microfinance sector, and provide practitioners in the field of small and medium-sized companies and local economic development with the skills needed to promote the development of the microfinance sector.
The workshop shall be also a platform to exchange knowledge through case studies and success stories on best practices, methodologies, policies and programs for development initiatives of microfinance sector in the OIC Member States.
The participants in the workshop include experts from the Family Bank in Sudan, OIC organs, such as the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic Solidarity Fund, the Center for Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training for Islamic Countries and the Islamic Center for Trade Development. International experts from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Bahrain) and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (Sudan) shall also take part.—PR
