In its bid to encourage medical and specialized scientific
research, thereby promoting humanitarian and social undertakings as its core
objective, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(ICESCO) announced setting up a US$200,000 prize award for individuals or group
who will find an effective cure or develop vaccine against Coronavirus (Corvid
19).
The ICESCO Director
General, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, reaffirmed this initiative, reflecting the
Organization’s awareness of the serious repercussions of this virus, threatening
to become a global pandemic with serious impact on the world socio-economic
situation.
Dr. AlMalik added that setting up this Prize goes in harmony with
ICESCO’s new vision which highlights the need to adopt applied scientific
research as a tool to find appropriate solutions to exigent and challenging
issues, calling on all governments, international organizations and civil
society institutions to assume their roles and intensify their efforts to
counter the spread of this dangerous virus.
In the same context, Dr. AlMalik reiterated his sympathy for the
families of the victims who lost their lives to this virus, and reasserts the
Organization’s absolute readiness to assume its humanitarian role to abate the continued
proliferation of the deadly contagion.
The
Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO)
headquarters in Rabat, hosted, Monday morning, the signing ceremony of an agreement
between ICESCO and the Mohammadia League of Religious Scholars in the Kingdom
of Morocco.
On
this occasion, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director General, held a meeting
with Dr. Ahmed Abbadi, Secretary General of the League, in the presence of delegation
of the League leaders, and ICESCO leaders and experts.
Dr.
AlMalik opened the meeting with a speech, in which he welcomed the Secretary
General of the League and the accompanying delegation, and praised the great attention
that King Mohammed VI accords to knowledge and scholars, in addition to the
special attention he gives to ICESCO, adding that this attention presents us
with the great challenge of achieving both His Majesty’s and the Islamic
peoples’ objectives.
The Director General added that the
cooperation agreement, which is being signed today with the Mohammadia League, is
founded on preparing guides for fortification against extremist discourse,
organizing qualifying programs and national training sessions in that area,
holding lectures and a guide for the monitoring and assessment of immunization
progress, preparing an encyclopedia on the deconstruction of extremist
discourse, and networking universities in terms of research in Islamic
sciences.
ICESCO
Director General concluded his speech by emphasizing the urgent necessity to
achieve the goals of this agreement in the shortest possible time, adding that
the entire Organization is putting this agreement at the center of its
attention, and will strive to implement the initiatives included therein.
Then, Dr. Ahmed Abbadi, Secretary General of
the Mohammadia League delivered a speech in which he thanked Dr. AlMalik and ICESCO
for the fruitful and continuous cooperation with the League, and said that the
agreement being signed today between the two sides aims to achieve two goals. The
first is to seek further functionality for scientific research in the fields of
humanities and social sciences, and the second is to develop the necessary
activities and applications to “immunize” youth against extremism and
terrorism.
Afterwards, Najib Rhiati, Director of Culture
at ICESCO, delivered a speech in which he praised the cooperation between the
two sides, and said that the agreement includes 6 projects, three of them aim
to rebuilding mechanisms to achieve the transition from fortifying youth in the
Islamic societies to immunizing them against extremism and terrorism, namely
preparing guides for persons active in combating extremist ideology and
terrorism, and implement training sessions to facilitate the interaction of
those individuals with the guides, and then evaluate training sessions and
guides to assess their effectiveness.
Then,
Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa, Cultural Advisor to the Director General of ICESCO, took
the floor and mentioned that the other three projects aim at bringing together
scholars and youth in the Islamic world, affirming that scholars must reach out
to youth and open dialogue channels with them, be aware of their hopes and
aspirations, and deal with them closely. He added that these projects include
networking universities and research centers, giving lectures in the field of
humanities research, and working on preparing an encyclopedia on the deconstruction
of the extremist discourse.
At the end, Dr. AlMalik and Dr. Abbadi signed the cooperation agreement between
the two sides.
The Islamic World
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) will take part at
the first Edition of Old Salé Prize for Handicraft and Traditional Creations,
in the Kingdom of Morocco, awarded by Bouregreg Association to excellent
creators of traditional handicraft products.
In this regard, ICESCO granted
a financial support to the Prize’s current edition, being held in cooperation
with the Chamber of Crafts of the Region of Rabat-Salé-Kenitra, Rabat Memory
Association in Salé, and the National Association for the Conservation of
Heritage and Handicrafts.
The Prize will be awarded on
28 February 2020 at Riwaq Bab Fez, Salé, to a number of skillful artisans in
recognition of their efforts to upgrade and promote the tangible heritage of
the old city of Salé.
ICESCO will be represented
in this ceremony by Mr. Mustapha Eid, Expert at the Directorate of Culture and
Communication.
Dr. Salim M. AlMalik,
Director General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (ICESCO), and Mr. Miguel Moratinos, High Representative for the
United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), explored ways to promote
cooperation between the two Organizations to strengthen coexistence and
dialogue between cultures, in light of the great changes and challenges facing
the world today.
At the outset of the
meeting, which took place today, Friday, at ICESCO headquarters in Rabat, Dr.
AlMalik welcomed Mr. Moratinos and his delegation, stressing that ICESCO’s new
vision adopts openness, cooperation and effective partnerships with all
entities in its areas of competence, namely education, science and culture, as
it seeks to serve Muslims in its 54 Member States and Muslim communities in
non-Member States as well.
Moreover, ICESCO
Director General explained that in order to widen the scope of cooperation with
non-Member States, the Organization is establishing contact with many of them
regarding becoming Observer States in the Organization. He added that one of
the manifestations of ICESCO’s openness was the “Forum Future”, which
it organized in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at its
headquarters on 17-18 February. The Forum brought together more than 30 experts
working at international organizations such as UNESCO and other eminent bodies,
specializing in strategic foresight and artificial intelligence and coming from
different countries, some of which are not ICESCO Member States.
For his part, Mr.
Moratinos thanked ICESCO Director General for his warm welcome, praising
ICESCO’s important role in its areas of competence, and stressing that it is
one of the organizations that the Alliance of Civilizations would cooperate and
work with in many fields, especially those related to the dialogue between
cultures, which is becoming ever more important and complex. He added that at a
time when there is ongoing talks about the need to protect the environment and
save the planet from global warming, there is also a need to preserve our
humanity, learn about coexistence and mutual respect, and understand the
existence of different religions, cultures and civilizations.
Mr. Moratinos called on
ICESCO to cooperate and participate in the Ninth Global Forum of the United
Nations Alliance of Civilizations, to be held on 29 November- 01 December 2020,
in Fez, Kingdom of Morocco, stating that it is the first the Forum is held in
Africa. He added that this session marks the 15th anniversary of the
UNAOC, which started as an initiative by the UN Secretary General, maintaining that
the session will assess the work of the UNAOC since its inception and devise a
plan of action to save humanity.
ICESCO Director General
reaffirmed the Organization’s readiness to cooperate and support this major
event, as it relates to its areas of competence, maintaining that the
Organization has a Division of Dialogue and Cultural Diversity affiliated with
the Cultural sector.
A number of ICESCO officials talked about key ICESCO activities scheduled for the upcoming period, including the First Meeting of the First Ladies of ICESCO African Member States, to be held end of next March, in Niamey, capital of Niger, in cooperation between ICESCO, the Nigerien Government and the First Lady of Niger, Dr. Lalla Malika Issoufou. This meeting will be dedicated to discussing issues of community development in Africa, empowering women, combating illiteracy, and facing violence against girls.
The delegation of the
Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO)
concluded its visit to the Republic of Uzbekistan with a series of meetings
with officials from the Uzbek Ministry of Culture, as part of the preparations
for the celebration of Bukhara as the Asian region’s Islamic World Capital of
Culture for 2020.
At the headquarters of
the Ministry of Culture in Tashkent, ICESCO delegation, composed of Mr. Najib
Rhiati, Director of Culture, Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa, Cultural Advisor to the
General Director, and Mr. Bilal Chebbi, Programme Specialist at the Directorate
of Culture, met with Mr. Ozodbek Nazarbekov, Minister of Culture of Uzbekistan,
and a number of the Ministry officials, and together they discussed the
outcomes of the meetings of ICESCO delegation and its visits to the cities of
Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand; and agreed upon the minutes of the
coordination meetings.
Afterwards, ICESCO
delegation met with Mr. Rustam Kasimov, Advisor to the President and President
of the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan. The delegation also met
with the Director of ICESCO Chair for Islamic Civilization, Dr. Doran Maksudov,
and the teaching staff (38 teachers), who are teaching 500 students within the
framework of the Chair. The two parties reviewed the activities of the Chair
and its contribution to the celebration of Bukhara; and the delegation took
stock of the Chair’s needs in terms of providing grants and hiring a professor
of Arabic language and a professor of Sharia sciences.
Following its meetings
at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and in the presence of officials
in the Ministry, ICESCO delegation along with the Deputy Minister held a press
conference wherein the delegation presented ICESCO’s conception of the
celebration as part of the Organization’s new vision.
The Director General of
the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), Dr.
Mohamed M. AlMalik, today, at ICESCO headquarters in Rabat, met with Dr.
Khalifa Al Suwaidi, , member of the Board of Trustees of Hamdan bin Rashid Al
Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance, and together they
explored ways to promote cooperation between ICESCO and the Foundation in the
sector of education, in light of ICESCO’s new vision, which adopts openness and
cooperation with the civil society institutions operating in the Organizations’
areas of competence.
The two parties also
reviewed the preparations for the awarding ceremony of “Hamdan– ICESCO Prize for
Voluntary Development of Education Facilities in the Islamic World Countries”,
to be held at ICESCO headquarters early April 2020, in the presence of His
Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chair of the Prize, Deputy Ruler
of Dubai and Minister of Finance of the United Arab Emirates. Likewise, the two
parties discussed arrangements for holding the second edition of the Prize.
The meeting was attended
by Dr. Ahmed Said Bah, Director of External Relations and Cooperation at
ICESCO.
Today’s meeting is the
second between Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Dr. AlMalik, after the
one held early February, in Zabeel Palace in Dubai, following the close of the
40th session of ICESCO Executive Council, held in Abu Dhabi, UAE,
which adopted the Organization’s new vision and a number of key decisions
contributing to ICESCO’s fresh start. During the first meeting, Dr. AlMalik
invited His Highness to award the winners of the Prize’s first edition.
Established in 2017 with
support from His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum and in
cooperation with ICESCO, the Prize aims to incentivize and pay tribute to authors
of voluntary initiatives and charity works in education, namely in the
development of educational institutions in Islamic world countries.
The Prize is awarded biennially
to three winners from among individuals or institutions having contributed to
developing education institutions in Islamic world countries. The value of the
Prize stands at US$ 300,000. Each winner receives a shield and a reward of
US$100,000 which will go to charity work, especially developing education
institutions.
As part of its new vision, the
Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO)
endeavors to support and empower the youth, build their capacities and ensure
access of all to quality education that keeps with present developments and secures
them a decent life. The Future Forum, held by ICESCO on 17-18 February 2020, in
cooperation with the German Konrad Adenaur Stiftung Foundation, recorded a
strong participation by the youth of the future.
Alongside attendance at workshops
throughout the two-day Forum, young inventors took part in the “Museum of the
Future”, held on the sidelines of the Foum and where virtual pictures and
models of inventions reflective of future sectoral challenges and
child-invented robots were on display.
The Museum received great attention
from both participants and the large public. It was also toured by Dr. Salim M.
AlMalik, ICESCO Director General, Mr. Said Amzazi, Minister of Education,
Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research of Morocco, and
Dr. Hatem ben Salem, Minister of Education and Acting Minister of Higher
Education and Scientific Research of Tunisia, where they exchanged with
participants and learnt about the ideas relevant to each exhibited model and
picture.
As part of
the arrangements for the celebration of Bukhara as the Asian region’s Islamic World
Capital of Culture for 2020, the delegation of the Islamic World Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) continued its visit to
Uzbekistan. Today, they toured Imam Bukhari International Scientific Research
Center (IBISRC) and the Madrasah (Sharia school) of Samarkand,
Uzbekistan’s second largest city.
The
delegation of Mr. Najib Rhiati, Director of Culture, Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa,
Cultural Advisor to the Director General, and Bilel Chebbi, Programme
Specialist at the Culture Directorate, discussed with the IBISRC Director the
establishment of “ICESCO Regional Center for Manuscripts” to operate under the
umbrella of IBISRC. Through training sessions, the future Center will allow IBISRC
to build capacities in the conservation of rare manuscripts in the region as it
is home to a large number of such heritage documents.
The
delegation also visited the mill of manuscript paper where the manual method is
still in use today. Officials at the mill said that the handmade paper is eye-friendly
and maintains a life-span of 2000 years against maximum 100 years for
industrial paper.
The officials of the Uzbek Ministry of Culture and the delegation agreed to inscribe the know-how and skills of the production of the Samarkand paper on the List of Intangible Heritage in the Islamic World.
Today, at
ICESCO headquarters in Rabat, in the wake of two days of sessions and exchange
about the future of the world in 2040, the Future Forum closed its proceedings
with a review of the outcomes and recommendations of the six strategic workshops
that culminated its second day.
In her
presentation of the closing session, Ms. Samia Djacta, Director of ICESCO
Office at UNESCO, lauded the strong international participation witnessed on
the first day and on the second day’s workshops, especially from among
university and higher institutes in Rabat. She also reaffirmed that the ICESCO
achieved the ambition of the Conference that was dedicated to the youth, while
pointing out that the discussions were useful as they tackled the future of the
world by 2030 and even how it would look like by 2060.
The
coordinators of the workshops gave summaries of the ideas, proposals, outcomes
and recommendations of each workshop. The first workshop “Education: Major
Trends” dealt with the future of education and education for the future. The
coordinator thanked ICESCO for its efforts in the field of education, while
commanding the projects implemented in this regard, namely “Digital School
2030”, “Learning for Peace and Sustainable Development”, and “Teach me to be
free.. teach me to live in dignity”.
Dr. Ismaila
Diallo, Coordinator of the workshop “Sciences: the Challenges of the Future”
said that the workshop handled the four main challenges to the Islamic world,
namely the provision of energy resources, lack of food security, environment
and climate change issues, and ecological technology. He also added that it
touched on the issue of technology sharing between developed and developing
countries, low connection between
education and the labor market, lack of gender equality, a prerequisite for a
more productive and stable society.
For her
part, Mr. Mhand Amer Nassim, Coordinator of the Workshop “Culture: an
imperative for intercultural dialogue” pointed out that the work carried out at
the workshop was held based on the assumption that coexistence and intercultural
interaction are key to the achievement of peace as culture is a leverage of
peace. He added that the workshop focused on dedicating projects and programmes
for the youth to engage in them in the sustainable development process, namely
the projects “Cultural production”, “Youth’s cultural identity”, and “Fostering
youth’s ties with the green environment”.
With regards
the workshop “Laboratory of Future Literacy”, Dr. Riel Miller, Coordinator of
the Workshop raised many questions about how would look like our way of
thinking about the future of the world and whether it will be compatible with
the new ways of thinking about developments. He pointed out that there is a
need for an accurate, advanced, and unusual way of thinking and the
incorporation of futuristic thought in all the fields, while benefiting from
available ones to efficiently face the future.
As for
“Human and Social Sciences: Evolution and Foresight” Workshop, the workshop’s
coordinator, Dr. Jamal Eddine El Hani, underlined that social sciences are not
given due attention with regards to their essential role in our societies and
that the workshop dealt with the rehabilitation of social and human sciences.
In this regard, he added that the workshop yielded many ideas and proposals,
notably the necessary development of a modern Islamic civilization and the
activation of the role of human sciences in the face of current challenges.
At the
workshop of “Artificial intelligence: toward ethical technology in service of
societies” made a presentation on the proceedings of the workshop. They were
split into three groups to allow all participants to have their say about AI
and its future applications. The workshop issued three recommendations one for
the humanization of data science and data sharing to achieve security; the
second on personal data about humans and the important understanding of
AI-dominated age; and the third on the complexity of AI.
Having
reviewed the workshops’ reports, Dr. Steffen Krüger, Representative of Konrad
Adenauer Foundation in Morocco, thanked ICESCO and its Director General for
organizing the Forum, while reaffirming the constant cooperation between ICESCO
and the Foundation. He then expressed his hope that ideas generated at the
Forum would materialize on the ground.
At the close of the Forum, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director General, made an address wherein he announced the start of a comprehensive study for the future of the Islamic world by 2050 and the launch of “ICESCO Foresight Programme” under which foresight studies and training sessions will be organized and grants in foresight will be given to youth, in cooperation with international foresight centers.
** Scholarships and training sessions for youth from “Foresight ISESCO Program”
Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director General,
announced that ICESCO is starting a comprehensive study on the future of the
Islamic world by 2050, to be delivered by the end of this year, inviting
researchers from all over the world to contribute to implementing the new
vision of the Organization.
Dr. AlMalik also announced the launch of “ICESCO
Foresight Program”, which will conduct foresight studies, organize
training workshops, and provide scholarships for young people in the field of foresight,
in cooperation with international foresight centers.
This was part of the speech ICESCO Director General
delivered today, Tuesday, during the closing session of the Future Forum, which
was organized by ICESCO in cooperation with the German Konrad Adenauer
Foundation over two days, with the participation of more than 30 of most prominent
experts of strategic foresight and artificial intelligence in the world.
In his speech, Dr. AlMalik said that the history of
the Organization is changing, and its fresh start opens up multiple perspectives,
and the success of the Forum cleans realistic paths for the future of ICESCO.
He thanked the participants of the Forum for their proactive thought that accompanies
the new vision of the Organization, which makes of it a beacon of global
outreach in its fields of competence. Dr. AlMalik invited them to put forward
new ideas and submit suggestions to the Organization, which would be taken into
consideration, stressing that ICESCO would play a major role in generating
ideas and devising foresight and proactive strategies in its fields of
competence, and would be a hub of expertise for the Islamic world countries.
At the end of his speech, ICESCO Director General thanked the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and its representative in Morocco, Mr. Steffen Krueger, for supporting the idea of the Forum from the start and cooperating in its implementation. He also thanked all those who contributed to the success of ICESCO team, reaffirming the Organization’s intention to organize the Future Forum annually, in addition to other forums that keep up with changes, including the “Careers of Tomorrow Forum”, which will be organized by ICESCO, in June 2020.
