Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), called for promoting the culture of peace and building constructive civilizational dialogue to achieve justice between human communities in the fields of education, health, culture, energy, and environment protection. He also called for overcoming the shortcomings that the crises revealed on managing world affairs, curbing certain impulses that some states exhibited during these crises such as self-indulgence and medicine and vaccine monopoly, stressing that we all share the same fate and are destined to live and work together.

Dr. AlMalik made the statement in the address he gave today, Saturday, November 13, 2021, at the 41st UNESCO General Conference, during which he congratulated Ms. Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, on her election for a second term and expressed his best wishes to UNESCO on its 75th anniversary. 

Dr. AlMalik stated that there is a need for renewing visions, working mechanisms, and mindsets and reaffirmed that international organizations are key stakeholders in this new human approach to managing world affairs as they are expected to anticipate the future and conduct studies that present effective solutions suitable for states’ contexts and situations, noting that ICESCO managed to develop its working mechanisms in service of its Member States. He added that the Organization proclaimed 2021 as the Year of Women, a year-long event full of major activities and programs, as part of ICESCO’s efforts to empower women as key agents in addressing Member States’ challenges, a role women proved capable of assuming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DG stressed the need to focus on novel fields, noting that ICESCO addressed new and future-oriented topics such as space science and AI and held ICESCO Global Space Science Forum. He stated that these new interests reflect the Organization’s firm belief in the premise that not investing in these fields will deprive many countries of benefitting from practical applications in agriculture, environment, climate change, energy, medicine, border control, etc. 

At the close of his address, Dr. AlMalik reaffirmed ICESCO’s willingness to partner with international organizations, reiterating the pride the Organization takes in its cooperation relations with UNESCO in areas of common interest.