Abuja — Last week, the 11th Summit of the Heads of State of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Dakar, Senegal.

The meeting was attended by more than thirty heads of state and governments, including President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of Nigeria. Established in September 1969 in Rabat, Morocco as a reaction to the arson attack on the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which is Islam's second holy place, the OIC has 57 member states, making it the second largest organisation after the United Nations. The member countries represent 21% of the world's population. As the OIC leaders were meeting in Dakar, a parallel meeting of representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from various Muslim countries was also held in Thies, a serene town about an hour's drive from Dakar.

I was invited to the meeting by Mrs Nkoyo Toyo, the Executive Director of a Lagos-based NGO, Gender and Development Action (GADA) who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Montreal International Forum, the organisers of the Thies meeting. The Executive Director of Women's Rights and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) Hajiya Saudatu Mahdi also nominated me to represent her. The other participant from Nigeria, Aisha Umar, from the Abuja office of the regional initiative New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances. FIM informed me on arrival that my participation at the meeting was sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The other development partners that funded participants to the FIM meeting were Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), OXFAM while CONGAD Senegal which provided logistical support

The Montreal International Forum (FIM) is an international NGO think-tank established in 1998 to promote global governance. It believes that NGOs can speak for themselves. FIM therefore only serves as a neutral and impartial convening body that brings civil society together to dialogue, share ideas, network and promote active learning. FIM is committed to strengthening the capacity of civil society to the multilateral system. It believes that 'by strengthening the interaction between civil society and multilateral institutions, it will be possible to better address global problems such as poverty, war, human rights violations and environmental degradation. Multilateralism is about multiple countries working in concert on a given issue'. The Thies meeting was convened as a continuation of the FIM project known as Building Bridges: Engaging Civil Society from Muslim Communities and Countries with the Multilateral Sphere.

This project was initiated by FIM Board after its assessment showed that 'civil society from the Muslim world is all too often absent from or poorly represented within dialogues with multilateral bodies such as the OIC and the United Nations. The aim of the project is to ensure that civil society from OIC and other Muslim communities increase their influence on the OIC and the United Nations.' The participants were drawn from Pakistan, Bahrain, Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Gambia, Mauritania, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Canada and Egypt. Representatives of donor agencies based in Senegal also attended the opening ceremony.

The informal opening session of the meeting began with a welcome dinner on March 10 at the Restaurant Goree. The following day which was a full working day began with the introduction of participants and welcome remarks from the local NGO hosting the Thies meeting. In her welcome address, the hostess, Madam Vore Gana Seck, who is also the President of a Senegal-based NGO, CONGAD welcomed participants to the meeting and briefed them on what her organisation was doing to promote engagement of NGOs with the OIC. She said representatives of various NGOs had met with key officials of the OIC at an NGO forum in Saly, a city in Senegal before commencement of the Summit to review progress made on the pledge the organisation made to strengthen collaboration with NGOs in Muslim countries. She said the outcome of the Saly and Thies meeting of NGOs would be submitted to the OIC. The meeting was declared open by the Minister of Women Affairs who was ably represented by the Governor of Thies region. There were goodwill messages from key NGO leaders.

The technical session then began with a presentation by a participant from Pakistan; Mohammed Tahseen, titled "Overview of the Organisation of Islamic Conference." The paper traced the history of the organisation and stated that the establishment of the OIC in 1969 was followed by the First Islamic Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in 1970 and several summits of heads of states. The OIC's mandate is "to promote cooperation among its member states, to safeguard Islamic holy places and to work towards eradicating racial discrimination and colonialism".

However, the Mecca Declaration of 1981 which focused on promoting economic and commercial cooperation among member states marked a turning point for the organisation which has three main bodies. The Islamic Summit Conference of heads of state which meets once every three years. It establishes OIC policy and elects the chairman of the organisation. The Conference of Foreign Ministers meets once a year to examine progress on implementation of decisions taken by the Islamic Summit. The General Secretariat which is the executive organ of the organisation is managed by the Secretary General who is entrusted with the implementation of the decisions of the Summit and the Conference of Foreign Ministers.

The OIC also has specialised bodies such as the Standing Committees, Subsidiary Organs, Specialised Institutions and Affiliated Institutions including a youth forum. The paper identified the weakness of the organisation as lack of means to implement its resolutions, political allegiances which sometimes take precedence over OIC solidarity and lack of fulfilment of the mandatory budgetary contributions. The OIC therefore operates on a tight budget.

The Secretary General, His Excellency, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said there is the need to reform the organisation. According to him, "the OIC should be equipped to cope with the prevailing tendencies of the new world order, including sensitivity to the values of human rights, democracy and good governance". In June 2006, the organisation launched a 10-year action and reform programme which also reflected the organisation's determination to broaden its scope of activities and work with civil society organisations in member countries. The OIC ten-year programme of action focuses on the following:

• To uphold transparency and accountability in governance

• Protect rights of women, children and minorities

• Promote sustainable development

• Tackle AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis

• Work with NEPAD and UN/MDGs

• Take concrete steps on theological issues, confronting ideologies using Islamic rulings

• Strengthen relations with officially recognised NGOs in OIC member states

• Coordination and cooperation amongst relief efforts of Islamic states and Islamic CSOs and international CSOs

• Work with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA)

After Mohammed Tahseen's paper, participants discussed the OIC's ten-year programme of action and how CSOs can engage with it. They observed that the emergence of NGOs is one of the greatest changes that have occurred in the world in the past fifty years. Their role has dramatically increased and they have profoundly influenced the development process. They have been providing succour to the needy during disasters, undertaking advocacy for just causes, warning and assessing situations and have become first-rank observers even on battlefields. However, the sad reality is that few Islamic NGOs are visible in these areas. The participants felt challenged by the OIC's new orientation to work with CSOs and explored the various ways they could establish structures in their countries in order to contribute to the implementation of OIC's development programmes.

To be continued next week