IDB Representative Calls Upon the President ECOSF
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H.E. Mr. Sameh Hussein from Capacity Building Department of the Islamic Development Bank Jeddah called upon the President ECOSF Dr. Manzoor H Soomro on March 10, 2015 in his office at Islamabad to discuss the IDB Reverse Linkages Program and to seek support of ECOSF. The President ECOSF welcomed the distinguished guest for his maiden visit to ECOSF and briefly introduced the Foundation to Mr. Hussein. He also upraised Mr. Sameh about the linkages of ECOSF with International Organizations; such as. European Union, UNESCO, ISTIC Malaysia, Ev-K2-CNR Foundation Italy and other organizations of ECO region.
During the meeting Mr. Sameh Hussein presented a deep insight in to IDB Reverse Linkages program meant to promote mutually beneficial partnerships among member countries such as transfer of technology, cross-border investments, trade exchanges and sharing of country experiences, etc. The Reverse Linkages is a specific cooperation activity whereby member countries themselves are primary, forefront, and direct agents in the provision of specific expertise, knowledge, know-how and other specialist services to address specific development constraints or exploit unique opportunities in other member countries in a mutually beneficial arrangement (win-win situation), facilitated through a strategic alignment enabled by the IDB Group.
The methodology of RL Program, particularly for Technology Transfer, the IDB Rep explained that it involves at least three parties: the provider (pivotal member country), the recipient (beneficiary country) and the enabler or intermediary (IDB Group). It is incumbent upon the participating parties to play some key roles in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Some of the major responsibilities for each party involved is that Pivotal Country shows willingness to contribute to some of the costs, desire to share its positive development experiences, technical know-how, etc. in a particular field with other IDB member country; while the recipient countries being proactive in discerning their developmental needs and vocal in articulating their commitment and ownership for long-term sustainability of RLOs and willingness to contribute to the cost and the IDB acts as Enabler.
Currently IDB has a RL technology transfer project titled "Breading of Genetic Base of Improved Cotton Varieties for Drought, Pest Resistance and high yielding." The technology is available in Pakistan with Ministry of Textile and others. The identified recipient country for the project is Uzbekistan. Since both the countries are ECO member states; he requested ECOSF for collaboration and funding (Pivotal Member Country) for the project.
In a subsequent meeting, the Cotton Commissioner from the Ministry of Textile Dr. Khalid Abdullah and Chairman of Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) Dr. Muhammad Ashraf were also invited to join the discussion.
After a lengthy discussion, President ECOSF in principle agreed to collaborate with IDB for the implementation of the said project. However the funding part of project is dependent on availability of funds with ECOSF; which would be discussed later on. It was mutually decided that the Cotton Commissioner from the Govt. of Pakistan will provide an estimated cost of the project. The PSF will then see as to what extent can they fund the local component of the project and write to IDB. Subsequently, the ECOSF would write a letter to IDB indicating willingness of Foundation for collaboration in the said project.
It is worth mentioning that IDB is supporting ECOSF for organizing "Capacity Building Workshop on Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE)" being organized from 23-25 June 2015 in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Purpose of the workshop is to build capacity of two most suitable persons from each ECO member state (one each belonging to Science and Education sectors), who can subsequently lead the programme as National Programme Coordinators.