The second meeting of the open-ended interim working group to prepare the draft internal regulations of the Women Development Organization (WDO) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will take place on 12-13 January 2020 at the headquarters of the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah in cooperation with the Ministry of Women, National Solidarity and Humanitarian Action in Burkina Faso, Chair of the current Session of the Ministerial Conference on Women, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, the WDO headquarters State. The convention of this meeting is in implementation of the Ministerial Resolution No. 17/7-W on forming the interim working group adopted by the 7th Session of the Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in Development in Member States held on 30 November-1 December 2018 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Experts from the OIC Member States participating in this meeting will review the WDO second draft internal regulations and the financial and administrative systems in preparation for submission thereof to the WDO Council when it starts its work. The Arab Republic of Egypt had previously hosted the first meeting of the interim working group in June 2019, which reviewed the first draft of the WDO internal regulations. The meeting will discuss ways to expedite the ratification of the WDO Statute to enter into force and allow WDO to start operating. It is noteworthy that the establishment of the WDO was according to a resolution adopted by the 36th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in 2009 as a specialized organization to advance women status and build their capabilities and skills in Member States. So far, only 14 Member States ratified its Statute while its entry into force requires ratification of 15 Member States. It is worth noting that the Arab Republic of Egypt announced it would host the 8th Islamic Ministerial Conference on Women in 2020.
