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Introduction
The 14th Meeting of the COMCEC Agriculture Working Group (AWG) was held on October 9th-
10th, 2019 in Ankara, Turkey with the theme of “Increasing the Resilience of the Food Systems in
Islamic Countries in Face of Future Food Crises.”
The meeting was attended by the representatives of 20 Member States. The meeting was further
attended by the representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), IDB Group,
Pankobirlik, ICCIA, IOFS, SESRIC, SMIIC and COMCEC Coordination Office. 1
The 14th Meeting of the COMCEC AWG has also served as a preparatory meeting for the Ministerial
Exchange of Views session of the 35th COMCEC to be held on 27 November 2019 with the theme of
“Promoting Sustainable Food Systems in the OIC Member Countries.”
At the outset, the representative of the COMCEC Coordination Office (CCO) made a presentation
on “COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2019”. During the presentation, the participants were informed
about the general overview of the agriculture sector in the OIC Member Countries through
focusing on macro agricultural indicators.
Afterwards, the Meeting considered the research report titled “Increasing the Resilience of the
Food Systems in Islamic Countries in Face of Future Food Crises ” which was commissioned
specifically for the 14th Meeting with a view to enriching the discussions.
The representatives of the Member States have shared their experiences and achievements and
considered the current level of development of OIC food systems and the challenges as well as
possible policy options related to various aspects of sustainable food systems. After intensive
deliberations, the AWG has come up with a set of challenges and the policy options for
strengthening food systems in the member countries.
The efforts exerted by the private sector as well as international institutions on sustainable food
systems were also reflected in the discussions.
1 The list of participants is attached as Annex 1.