Bahrain backs $10bn poverty reduction initiative

from Trade Arabia

Bahrain is set to host a top level gathering on $10-billion poverty reduction initiative.

The meeting will discuss the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), which was established within the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) following a decision of the third extraordinary meeting of the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in December 2005.

Bahrain Finance Minister and IsDB Board of Governors’ Chairman Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa will patronize the meeting of the “High-Level Advisory Panel for the ISFD,” which will take place in Manama on February 5 at the Gulf Hotel.

The event will bring together eminent personalities who have an interest in joint action for development and poverty reduction across the Islamic world and who can help to further define the fund’s strategies and support efforts to raise its targeted $10 billion, the organisers said in a statement.

The fund, whose objectives are linked directly to supporting the achievement of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, will focus on combating poverty, reducing illiteracy and fighting communicable diseases in IsDB’s least developed member countries (80% of which are in Africa) as well as in pockets of poverty in other member countries.

The meeting, to be presided over by Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, will include prominent political and economic leaders and humanitarians from across the OIC member states.

Among the expected attendees are: former Iran president Mohammed Khatami, former Sudan president Abdulrahman Mohamed Hassan Siwar Al Dhahab and former Malaysia prime minister Mahathir Mohammed.

The IsDB delegation will be led by the IsDB President, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali. – TradeArabia News Service