Br. Khalid O. M. Ahmed, Economic Empowerment Specialist, represented the IsDB in the opening panel of the Islamic Economics Platform Conference on “The Future of the Microfinance Sector in the Arab Countries and Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic” that took place in 14th of November (Saturday) from 11:00 Am to 12:00 Pm.   

During this opening panel, Br. Khalid presented the Economic Empowerment Department (EED)'s paper on “Economic Empowerment: An Innovative IsDB Approach to Improve the Microfinance’s Impact in Poverty Alleviation”, which compares the business model of the IsDB Economic Empowerment approach against the business model of the conventional microfinance approach in terms of the impact in poverty reduction, job creation and other social development indicators. This paper is co-authored by Br. Syed Hassan Alsagoff, Lead Economic Empowerment Programs Specialist and Br. Khalid O. M. Ahmed, Economic Empowerment Specialist.

Br. Khalid stressed on the importance of using Islamic finance modalities in financing the poor and how these modalities are more beneficial for the poor in terms of profits and business sustainability. He also explained how Economic Empowerment engineers the relevant business opportunities, before providing the necessary financial and non-financial services to help the poor growing their economic activity. To do this, there needs to be a paradigm shift among financial institutions. Their focus should go beyond the promotion of financial services to ensure the economic inclusion of their clients into the mainstream economy.

Furthermore, Br Khalid highlighted that H.E the President of IsDB; based on the previous success stories in Sudan, Palestine, Tunisia and Egypt, has launched an Initiative to mainstream the “ Economic Empowerment Approach” in the IsDB’s Members Countries with the focus of providing Economic Inclusion of the Poor. This is a more comprehensive approach compared to just focusing on financial inclusion, hence making poverty alleviation efforts more impactful and sustainable.