From 8 to 10 June 2015, the 18^TH session of the Arab National Commissions meeting was held in Cairo, Egypt. The meeting was organized by the Arab League for Education, Culture and Science Organization (ALECSO), with the participation of UNESCO and ISESCO.

The meeting was attended by sixteen National Commissions: Bahrein, Comoros, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. Libya was represented by its Permanent Delegate to ALECSO. Algeria, Djibouti, Syria and Yemen were absent.

The opening ceremony of the 18^th meeting of the Arab National Commissions was chaired by Mr Abdullah Muhareb, Director-General of ALECSO, while the three following days were attended by his Deputy, Mr Mohamed Al Kadasi and the responsible of the Arab National Commissions, Mr Amine Dahmani. Further, Mr Mohammed Ghumari represented ISESCO as President of its General Conference, Executive Board and Responsible for the international organizations. UNESCO was represented by Mr Ghaith Fariz, Director of UNESCO Cairo Office, and Ms Vida Habash, Desk Officer at the Arab Desk in the Sector for External Relations and Public Information (ERI). Ms Habash delivered a speech on behalf of Mr Eric Falt, Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Public Information, highlighting the main efforts of UNESCO to strengthen its cooperation with the Arab National Commissions and to work closely with ALECSO and ISESCO in the Organization’s fields of competence.

The three-days meeting focused on eighteen crucial points on programmes and projects relative to the work of the Arab National Commissions such as: Follow-up to the recommendations of the 17^th meeting of the Secretaries-General of the Arab National Commissions; reinforcement of the National Commissions capacities; successful activities;  the role of the Arab National Commissions in the field of dialogue of civilizations in the framework of the Euro-Arab Dialogue initiative and International organizations and civil society: ways of collaboration and complementarity in work.

The meeting concluded with the approval of the meeting report and with the appreciation of ALECSO for having invited UNESCO and ISESCO, opening the path towards an extension of support in the Educational, Cultural and Scientific agenda of the Arab countries involved.  Special thanks were expressed to the effective role of the Egyptian National Commission in the realization of the meeting, as well as to the Minister of Higher Education and the President of the National Commission, Mr Ahmad Abdulkhalek. Further heartfelt thanks went to Mr Eric Falt, Assistant Secretary-General of UNESCO, for his continuous efforts to improve the collaboration between the Secretariat and the National Commissions. Finally all Commissions thanked the Director-General for the intense efforts done in the Arab region during the last months, and particularly in the framework of the cultural heritage campaign “United4heritage”, launched recently in Cairo, Baghdad and Beirut.