Diaspora in the OIC context
Diaspora affairs have moved from consular routine to a field of multilateral cooperation among the OIC Member States. This page sets out how that shift happened and where it stands.
An institutional mandate
In July 2017, the 44th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, held in Abidjan, adopted a resolution on “Safeguarding the Rights of Muslim Communities and Minorities in Non-OIC Member States”. Following this initiative, SESRIC launched the Global Muslim Diaspora project to close a persistent knowledge gap: despite a growing literature, information on Muslims living in non-Muslim majority countries remained limited and fragmented.
From consular services to national development
Across the Member States, institutions responsible for citizens abroad have expanded their remit. Their focus is increasingly shifting from traditional consular services towards more strategic efforts that seek to integrate diaspora populations into national development priorities.
Progress is real: youth-focused programmes, legal safeguards and remittance mobilisation are all in place in one country or another. But the efforts remain fragmented, activities are largely isolated from one another, and cooperation among Member States still has considerable room to grow. Each country has developed initiatives around its own priority areas: some concentrate on youth engagement, others on cultural preservation, others still on policies aimed at mobilising remittances or providing legal protection against discrimination.
The case for a collaborative framework
The rationale for cooperation stems from the need to move beyond fragmented, often finance-centric approaches towards a collaborative framework that strengthens institutional capacities, shares best practices and fosters sustainable partnerships. Bringing the key stakeholders together turns isolated national experience into transferable knowledge.
This is the purpose behind the Forum convened by SESRIC together with the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye, and behind the research programme that supports it.
About SESRIC
The Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries was established following Resolution No. 2/8-EC adopted by the Eighth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, held in Tripoli in 1977, and started its activities in Ankara on 1 June 1978. It is a subsidiary organ of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Its threefold mandate is to collate, process and disseminate socio-economic statistics for the Member States; to study and evaluate economic and social developments among them in order to generate proposals that enhance cooperation; and to organise training programmes in selected fields.