The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), held yesterday, April 22, 2021, a videoconference meeting to explore the mechanism for promoting cooperation in laying the basic foundations of a unified forward-looking vision of the educational policies and identifying the priorities for supporting them in the Arab region, particularly in the fields of educational technologies and Artificial Intelligence.

The meeting brought together Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General (DG), Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, ALECSO DG, and Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Assimi, ABEGS DG, with the participation of some directors and advisors at ICESCO.

In his statement, Dr. AlMalik stressed the importance of cooperation between the three organizations to achieve the strategic objectives of their civilization mission. He also called for strengthening coordination, experience-sharing of future plans, and the development of their partnership mechanisms to promote joint action and implement field programmes and projects to support the sector of education in the Member States.

For his part, Dr. Ould Amar stressed the necessity of adapting the working mechanisms to the current situation and ensuring coordination between the three organizations to facilitate the implementation of projects, rationalize resources, develop programmes with a forward-looking vision, and share the findings of the studies and the recommendations of ICESCO Center for Strategic Foresight. He also called for joining the efforts of the three organizations at the meetings of UNESCO.

Dr. Al-Assimi pointed out “there is no competition between the three organizations. They rather complement each other. Besides, ABEGS is willing to cooperate with ICESCO and ALECSO in the field of strategic foresight and develop joint programmes that serve education in the Member States.”

Dr. Kais Hammami, Director of ICESCO Center for Strategic Foresight, reviewed the objectives of establishing the center as well as its major activities and initiatives since its inception in 2019.

At the close of the meeting, the participants agreed on developing a unified statistics form on the field of education, scientific research and innovation in Arab countries. The Technical Committee will determine the date of the meeting of the National Commissions at their earliest convenience.