IICPSD participated in the IsDB’s Global Forum on Islamic Finance “Social Entrepreneurship for Shared Prosperity”

June 2, 2022

2 June 2022 – Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The United Nations Development Programme Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (UNDP IICPSD) participated in the “16th Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Global Forum on Islamic Finance: Social Entrepreneurship for Shared Prosperity,” held at the 2022 IsDB Group Annual Meetings. 

The IsDB Global Forum on Islamic finance provided a platform for countries and institutions to share experiences in order to drive the development of various segments of the Islamic finance sector. The annual forum also promoted cooperation and knowledge sharing and explored the key challenges to the sector’s development, including methods for enhancing its competitiveness and stability.

The Forum focused on the role of social innovation and entrepreneurship in facing socioeconomic challenges and poverty in IsDB Member Countries (MCs) and included two interrelated sessions. 

The first session was moderated by Dr. Areef Suleiman, Director Economic Research and Statistics at Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) and attended by Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, Acting Director General of the Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) and Chief Economist of the IsDB Group, Dr. Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Dr. Ahmed Kamaly, Deputy Minister at Ministry of Planning & Economic Development of Egypt and Mr. Mohamed Ashmawy.  The first session was dedicated to the partnership between IsDB Institute (IsDBI) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the Multidimensional Poverty Analysis developed by IsDBI and OPHI. During this session, the participants addressed poverty trends in Egypt and considered how COVID-19 will transform the fight against multidimensional poverty in IsDB MCs.

The second session was moderated by Dr. Rami Abdelkafi, Acting Manager at Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and attended by Mr. Sahba Sobhani, Director of UNDP IICPSD and Mr. Ayman Sabae,Co-founder and CEO of Shamseya. The second session focused on the role of social innovation and entrepreneurship in facing socioeconomic challenges and poverty. In this session, the participants addressed the growing need for innovative solutions to tackle the emerging socioeconomic challenges of IsDB MCs and discussed the role of Islamic finance in promoting social innovation and entrepreneurship. 

During the fruitful forum discussion, IICPSD and IsDB launched the “Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): Islamic Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals”. The MOOC was developed by IICPSD with the support of IsDB and IsDB Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Fund/Engage Fund, and in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) and Durham University Business School. 

Bringing together 27 internationally recognized subject matter experts from 11 countries and 3 continents as course instructors, the MOOC is the first of its kind specifically designed to engage development professionals and Islamic finance stakeholders under the single umbrella of sustainable development and leverage Islamic finance to finance the SDGs. 

The course will be free and publicly available on both the Islamic IsDBI’s edX channel and UNDP’s Learning for Nature Platform. In addition, SDG Academy Library will provide learning videos.

For more information, please visit giifip.org