$2m Bahrain aid for Islamic fund

from the Gulf Daily News

By RASHA AL QAhtani

BAHRAIN is joining international efforts to help reduce poverty in Muslim countries by contributing more than $2 million (BD756,000), it was anno-unced yesterday.

The move is part of the country's commitment to the Islamic Development Bank's (IDB) Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) aimed at poverty reduction.

"Bahrain and other contributing countries have been supporting the ISFD since its establishment in 2004 and this amount will be very beneficial to the poor in some Muslim countries," said IDB president Dr Ahmed Mohammed Ali.

The Fund recently approved the first programmes for sponsorship in its Fight for Poverty Reduction scheme.

The first two programmes under the five-year strategy of the ISFD will be covered by a $10 billion (BD3.78m) Waqf fund recently created by the bank for poverty reduction in Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in member countries.

The two programmes, known as the Vocational Literacy Programme for Poverty Alleviation (VOLIP) and the Microfinance Support Programme (MFSP), will seek to provide together some $1bn in financing over the next five years to help address some of the most fundamental causes of poverty in member nations of the IDB, namely lack of education and of employment opportunities.

Dr Ali said that the ISFD was focused on increasing productivity and combating persisting problems of poverty, illiteracy and epidemics.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the IDB's fourth Meeting of Women's Advisory Panel yesterday held at the Regency InterContinental Bahrain.

The two-day meeting addresses a number of key topics, including plans and strategies for empowering women, progress on current projects of the IDB's Advisory Panel and the experience of member states.

It also includes a presentation on the Bahrain's successes to promote the role of women by Supreme Council for Women secretary-general Dr Lulwa Al Awadhi.

The event brings together representatives from a group of IDB's member states, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey and Guinea.

The representatives come from a variety of academic disciplines, have diverse professional backgrounds and enjoy broad experience with development at the national and international levels as well as with both civil society and government, say officials.

Dr Ali said that IDB was committed to supporting development across the Islamic world and believes that women have a critical role to play.

"The Women's Advisory Panel and the bank are now working in a systematic way to ensure that women's participation in society is enhanced," he said.

"The advisory panel and the bank itself have a number of important initiatives that pay particular attention to the role of women."

"Key among these is the ISFD which aims to reduce poverty among the poorest Islamic nations."

"It also seeks to address the needs of the poorest of poor which often include women and children."

Bahrain is sparing no effort in promoting the role of women in the development process, Finance Minister and IDB board of governors chairman Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa said at the opening ceremony.

"Low income countries are likely to need up to $23.8bn (BD9bn) to meet the gender equality and empowerment of women requirements in the Millennium Development Goals," said Shaikh Ahmed.

"It is done here mainly through the financial allocations necessary for this objective in the state budget and the role of Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) in providing financing and technical assistance to small and medium size projects of Bahrain's women entrepreneurs.

"No sustainable development or economic growth could be achieved without investment in human resources. Subsequently, ignoring half of the human capital of any country would seriously hinder its progress opportunities.