At the IsDB, we are focused on putting in place the next steps to help achieve gender parity in accordance with the tenants of Islam. As part of this we have launched a number of high profile and competitive projects designed to promote women and women’s empowerment.

Women’s empowerment is a key pillar driving the IsDB’s vision as part of a long term strategic framework to ensure that all people are given the right to live in dignity and prosperity. IsDBs commitment to social and economic development via women’s empowerment has been recognized as a key tool to ensure targeted and inclusive growth with greater access to projects for Muslim women.

Projects

IsDB finances many projects across various sectors that help improve the socio-economic status of women.

Coalition to stop Obstetric Fistula Programme

Obstetric Fitsula is a life threatening maternal health condition. The program focuses on women in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia and the Gambia. It’s implemented through a holistic framework that supports prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration either by complimenting existing services or filling gaps where services are not provided.

Addressing Women’s Burden of Care Work

The IsDB supports projects that aim to reduce and redistribute women’s engagement in domestic care work (as a part of their reproductive role) to increase their ability to engage in productive activities. Initial beneficiaries under this initiative include local civil society organizations in Bangladesh and Tajikistan. 

Developing the Capacity of National Women Machineries

IsDB is supporting national women machineries to address the gender-responsive budgeting.  National women machineries are government bodies that support government efforts to create greater equality between women and men. The Bank has helped to organize study visits and knowledge exchange events among its member countries – the first of which was in the Gambia.

OIC-BIN Network  

IsDB and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (ICCIA) have established a web portal to strengthen economic cooperation among businesswomen in member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The portal provides a single platform enabling women entrepreneurs to interact and exchange ideas and information. As well as promoting knowledge sharing, improving market access and enhancing networking, the portal addresses the ‘product-market divide’ that affects many small-scale women entrepreneurs and facilitates linkages between suppliers, customers and investors.

IDB Prize for Women's Contribution to Development

IsDB is changing the Women prize name from “IDB Prize for Women's Contribution to Development” to “IsDB Prize for Women and Girls Empowerment in Education”.

The purpose of the new prize is to encourage and reward those who went extra miles in women empowerment, regardless of their gender, nationalities, or religion. There are many stories of people who dedicated their lives for the purpose of women empowerment e.g. the one who left his home and travelled all the way to live in Nigeria for women and girls empowerment and many other similar stories. 

Prize Concept:

This revamp framework aims to:

• Make the Prize more aligned with the needs of our member countries and aligned with focused SDGs.
• Insure that these prizes are scaled up and well integrated with the IsDB future efforts for women empowerment, by Recognizing, Encouraging, Inspiring, Rewarding, Involving, and Following up with those who earned the prizes for their thirst to serve the purpose of women and girls empowerment in education.
• Maximize the benefit of the Prizes outcome by going beyond the awarding ceremony to involve the winners in our media channels, annual meetings, network and to connect them with local and international NGOs to support them further.
• Ensure the diversity in prizes winners and the mixture of male & female, individuals & institutions, Muslims & Non-Muslims, different nationalities. All comes with one condition, which is empowering and serving IsDB MCs.
• This way we promote women and girls education powerful and give a strong base to economic growth especially in elevating poverty. That always gives many opportunities to find new partners that support us in this universal goal.

Women Prize Alumni:

• IsDB is planning to create the Prizes ALUMNI, which aims to: 
• Create Prize records of accomplishment, to capture the winners’ progress and the prize impact on their countries and societies. 
• Build ecosystems that link the prizewinners with investors and other institutions. 
• Encourage those who are passionate about women empowerment by rewarding them and sharing their stories to inspire the believers in women empowerment. 
• Using the prizewinners as IsDB ambassadors and empowering them by promoting their names locally and internationally through IsDB public channels and interactive platforms.

Prize amount:

The Prize consists of two cash awards:

1. U.S. $ 50,000 To U.S. $ 100,000 for a woman or a group of women
2. U.S. $ 100,000 To U.S. $  150,000 for an organization

The Prize is awarded during the Annual Meeting of the IDB Board of Governors.

Selection Criteria

The rewarded ideas must be outstanding, as demonstrated by the following

1. Innovativenes
2. Impact
3. Sustainability