The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) reaffirms its firm commitment to support the efforts of the international community and national initiatives to fight the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), and calls on the competent authorities of the Islamic World countries to adopt possible alternatives and available mechanisms that ICESCO is adopting, and calls the competent authorities in Member States to implement them:

•  Rotating shift pattern.
• Teleworking system.

In line with the Organization’s commitment to support and assist the competent authorities in Member States, ICESCO has decided implement a number of emergency response mechanisms to face the current emergency situations and ensure the continuity of education and training, namely:

• Providing urgent logistical support to the Member States in need, enabling them to provide the necessary digital equipment and creating technical units for recording educational digital materials and making them available to students of different levels of education;

• Creating a page on ICESCO website, open to institutions, teachers and students, that allows publicizing the efforts made by Member States and civil society associations and their initiatives in the field of distance education and training, and networking distinguished and diverse experiences in this field;

• Equipping specialized rooms at the Organization’s headquarters for holding meetings via videoconference, and broadcasting educational, scientific and cultural materials for the benefit of Member States;

• Launching an initiative targeting vulnerable social groups in rural and remote areas to boost local capacities and health systems on methods of prevention and response to emergencies and risks of epidemics, through distributing educational and health kits to prevent and raise awareness to fight the spread of the Coronavirus and other epidemics;

• Preparing a proactive and foresight plan for crisis management in its fields of competence in order to make it available to competent authorities in Member States;

• Preparing a plan aiming at adapting national legislations to exceptional and emergency situations to preserve, if possible, the functioning of public services in such a way as to  ensures the continuity of social and economic life.

In this context, ICESCO reaffirms the necessity of upholding the values of solidarity and unity among Member States, and with the rest of the countries and peoples of the world, and calls for the primacy of the public humanitarian interest in these difficult circumstances.

The Organization will continue to monitor closely the repercussions of the outbreak of the Covid-19 on the educational, scientific and cultural levels in Member States and provide them, accordingly, with the most effective ways to support their efforts according to new developments, renewing its confidence in the ability of the countries of the world to overcome this crisis and limit its social, economic and humanitarian repercussions.