On October 4, 2016, in Johannesburg city of the Republic of South Africa there was held opening ceremony of the branch of the International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (International Foundation) in Africa.
The event was attended by prominent public figures of the South Africa, members of the Board of Directors, the Secretary General and the staff of the Central Office of the International Fund.
The head of the branch of the International Fund in Johannesburg, Mr. Zolani Mkiva, spoke at the event and thanked all members of the Board of Directors for their support to his initiative on opening of the branch for the African region. He expressed confidence that activities of the branch would contribute to implementation of the goals of International Fund in Africa, i.e. strengthening of dialogue, promotion of mutual understanding, cooperation among peoples, peace, security, sustainable development and stability.
At the event representatives of the Central Office made a presentation on the International Fund. They gave comprehensive information to participants of the event about origins of establishment of the International Fund and results achieved so far by its activities. It was noted that within seven years of its existence, the number of countries represented in the International Fund has grown from 8 to 34, including 3 states from the African continent. This fact along with granting a consultative status to the International Fund in 2013 by the UN Economic and Social Council as well as establishment of partnerships with other well-known international think-tanks were assessed as increasing interest to the organization and a sign of its effective work.
Mr. Eldar Hasanov, the Secretary General of the International Fund during his speech conveyed greetings of members of the Board of Directors and the President of the organization Mr. Chingiz Abdullayev to the participants of the event. Assessing opening of the branch in South Africa as a significant event in the life of the organization he shared his ideas on the future activities of the branch in Africa. In this regards, the Secretary General underlined that experts of the International Fund together with their colleagues from South Africa could realize joint research projects related to settlement of conflicts, put forward joint initiatives on a number of important issues of the international agenda. He also mentioned that some of the countries of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea have rich traditions of multiculturalism, peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups and confessions and are initiators of processes on dialogue among civilizations and in this context spoke about positive experience of Azerbaijan. The Secretary-General proposed to study experience of the countries with established effective system of multiculturalism.
The proposals made were approved by participants of the event.
