Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of the
COMCEC Poverty Alleviation Working Group
1
Introduction
The 13th Meeting of the COMCEC Poverty Alleviation Working Group was held on 4 April 2019 in
Ankara, Turkey with the theme of “Access to Health Services in the Islamic Countries”.
The Meeting was attended by the representatives of 15 Member States namely, Afghanistan,
Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey. Representatives of the COMCEC Coordination Office, WHO Office for
the Eastern Mediterranean, Islamic Development Bank, SESRIC and Doctors Worldwide have also
attended the Meeting.1
The Meeting began with a recitation from Holy Quran. Afterwards, Mr. Burak KARAGÖL, Director
at COMCEC Coordination Office (CCO), and Mr. Andi Zainal Abidin DULONG, Director at Ministry of
Social Affairs of Indonesia, as the chairman of theMeeting, made their opening remarks. Afterwards,
the representative of the CCOmade a presentation on “COMCEC Poverty Outlook”. The presentation
informed the participants about the state of poverty and human development as well as the overall
health situation in the world and in the OIC Member Countries.
The Meeting continued with the presentation of the research report titled “Access to Health
Services in the Islamic Countries” which was prepared specifically for the 13th Meeting to enrich the
discussions.
The afternoon session began with a policy debate session. The policy recommendations on
improving access to health services in the member countries were discussed by the participants.
The Room Document, which was prepared by the CCO in light of the findings of the aforementioned
research report as well as the answers of the Member Countries to the policy questions, was
considered.
Following the moderation session, representatives of Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar and Turkey
shared the experiences in access to health services in their respective countries.
Finally, the participants listened to the representatives of World Health Organization (WHO),
SESRIC and Doctors Worldwide to learn about their experiences in improvement of access to health
services.
1 The list of participants is attached as Annex 4.