“Arab Aid” Group hosted by AGFUND meets in Riyadh

Sponsored by Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, President of the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND), the “Arab Aid” group holds its 73rd periodical meeting in Riyadh. The “Coordination Group of the Arab Development Funds and Institutions, the Islamic Development Bank and the OPEC Fund” officials shall hold their meetings at Faisaliah Hotel during the period from Tuesday January 7th to Thursday January 9, 2014. The group includes nine institutions and funds, where besides to AGFUND, these are namely: The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Qatar Fund for Development and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). These funds formed a work group called the “Coordination Group” which mainly aims to unify and enhance the development efforts and joint work among these funding institutions. It also aims to harmonize the group approach towards any proposed developmental issues in order to take unified attitudes regarding them. The Riyadh meetings shall discuss the results of the third Arab African Summit which was held in Kuwait as well as the role played by the “Arab Aid Organizations” in actualizing those results through the awaited meeting of the group heads in Kuwait on January 19, 2014. Within the framework of this meeting, the group officials are scheduled to meet in Riyadh a number of international developmental institutions on head of which is the World Bank, the German Society for International Cooperation and “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” in order to discuss methods of enhancing the developmental relations. It’s expected that the meeting shall discuss the group strategy in relation to the recommendations of “Busan Partnership Meeting” – which is the fourth prestigious world forum about the effectiveness of developmental aids; the meeting was held in Busan, South Korea in November 2011 – and the preparations for the future meetings in Mexico which shall deal with increasing the effectiveness of developmental work conducted by the donning bodies. The agenda of the Arab Aid group during their meeting in Riyadh includes discussing the developments of the “Arab Development Gate” which is the group’s initiative to increase the accumulative Knowledge and to facilitate access to all data and information needed by researchers and investors about the Arab countries. The group is also scheduled to discuss the future of dual education in Africa, south desert.