Senior development practitioners and experts are scheduled to participate in the 15th IsDB Global Forum on Islamic Finance to discuss unleashing the potentials of Islamic finance to spur economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic.
The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Institute is organizing the forum as a virtual side event to be held on 28 August 2021, in conjunction with the 2021 Annual Meeting of the IsDB Group. The theme of the forum is “The Role of Islamic Finance in Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery of IsDB Member Countries.”
In the wake of the global economic upheaval triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, the forum will focus on tapping Islamic finance to mobilize resources to support IsDB member countries’ economic recovery efforts and tackle rising inequalities and extreme poverty.
IsDB President and Chairman of the IsDB Group, H.E. Dr. Mohammad Al Jasser, is expected to deliver the keynote opening speech.
Following this, the Acting Director General of the IsDB Institute, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, will present awards to the winners of the 2021 IsDB Prize for Impactful Achievement in Islamic Economics. Two crowdfunding platforms, LaunchGood and Seed Out, won the prize for their innovative and impactful roles in funding projects that advance the principles of Islamic economics.
Other keynote speeches will be delivered by Dr. Bambang Susantono, Vice President at the Asian Development Bank, and Mr. Imad Fakhoury, Global Director, Infrastructure Finance, PPP and Guarantees (IPG) Group, World Bank.
The forum will have two panel discussion sessions. The first will highlight the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the poverty trends in IsDB Member Countries and stimulate discussions on addressing multi-dimensional poverty. This panel will comprise Dr. Sabina Alkire, Director, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative; Ms. Matilda Dimovska, UNDP Resident Representative in Uzbekistan; and Mr. El Yass Ould Didi, Director of Demographic and Social Statistics, Office of National Statistics, Mauritania; and Mr. Khemais El-Gazzah, Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD).
The second panel will focus on Islamic finance public-private partnerships as a tool to mobilize resources to support IsDB member countries’ economic recovery efforts and to ensure that the recovery is inclusive, sustainable, and resilient.
The panel discussants are Ms. Fatouma Toure Ibrahima, Practice Manager, PPP Group Infrastructure Finance, PPPs and Guarantees (IPG) Group, World Bank; Mr. Sohail Kashif, Chief Financial Officer, Foundation Wind Energy Limited, Pakistan; Mr. Nadir Nuritdinov, Deputy Director of Uzbekistan PPP Development Agency; and Mr. Hassan Idris, Senior Legal Counsel, Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC).
