OIC participates at Riyadh Humanitarian Forum

As part of his activities at the Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum, Ambassador Tarig Ali Bakheet, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs of the OIC, participated as a speaker in the high-level discussion panel held on the topic “Addressing displacement in an era of increasing conflicts and humanitarian crises”.

In his intervention, Ambassador Tarig recalled the importance the OIC attaches to the protection and assistance to displaced persons in its Member States affected by humanitarian crises and conflicts.

Then, he advocated the need to recourse to the alternative methods and innovative ways of financing humanitarian aid, which generate substantial additional resources that can be used to implement crisis prevention and impact mitigation programs. According to him, those alternative mechanisms include the Islamic philanthropy tools such as zakat, sadaqah, and waqf.

Finally, he underscored the necessity to reinforce partnerships between the humanitarian donors and promote “localization” approach to build resilience and ensure an efficient delivery of humanitarian assistance to displaced persons.

It is worth mentioning that the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs was joined in the panel by Amy Pope, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Kelly T. Clements, UN Deputy High-Commissioner for Refugees,

Muhannad Hadi, UN Assistant Secretary-General, Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle-East Peace Process, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, and the Designated Official for the UN Security in Palestine, Pramila Patten, UN SG Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and Dr. Michael Kohler, Former DG of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), Moderator of the panel.