Speaking at the Steering Group Meeting for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through a video link, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, President, Islamic Development Bank, declared IDB’s partnership with the UN program in wiping out poverty from the African continent while expressing concern that most of the African member countries of his institution were still behind achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

He stated that in order to help bring them to level play, IDB has introduced a number of initiatives including the recent US$ 10 billion Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development which was a manifestation of its resolve to alleviate poverty from the African continent. Besides, the Islamic Summit held in Makkah had issued resolutions to support African member countries. He also informed the Committee that the IDB was working on a special program for Africa with particular emphasis in the areas of education and agriculture and hoped the program to be ready before the next Islamic Summit in Senegal. The US$ 2 billion Ouagadougou Declaration which IDB has been successfully implementing in the last five years was another example of the keenness of his institution to support the development of Africa.

Dr Ahmad Ali further added that IDB was also actively upholding the cause of Africa through a number of projects it has been undertaking with the support of the Coordination Group comprising several Arab financing institutions. He stressed on the importance IDB is giving to projects in the areas of education and agriculture and pointed out the need for more such projects in these areas.

In a joint communiqué issued by the Group comprising the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the European commission, the African Union Commission, the Islamic Development Bank, the UN Development Group and the African Development Bank, the Steering Group, which met Friday, at New York under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, reaffirmed their commitment to spare no effort in reaching the MDGs in Africa and stated that it would focus on strengthening international mechanism for implementation in the five areas of health, education, agriculture & food security and infrastructure. The work of the Steering Group would be supported by the MDG Africa Working Group composed of representatives of the UN system and other major multilateral organizations including IDB. The Working Group would reach out to African Governments, prepare action plans and mobilize the efforts of the institutions represented in the Group in achieving the goals of the Steering Group.