Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 31 May 2022 - Government officials, policy makers, development actors, and private sector leaders will convene in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to discuss topics of relevance to Inclusive Economic Growth, Economic Empowerment of vulnerable enterprises/population, and Poverty Reduction in the post covid-19 world. In addition, the participants in the event will share lessons learned, innovative business models and best practices that could be adopted when it comes to tackling the rising poverty and socio-economic inequality.

On the sidelines of IsDB Group’s 2022 Annual Meeting, the Bank’s Economic Empowerment Department (EED) is to organize an event under the theme “Promoting an Inclusive Economic Growth in Post-Covid-19 World: Building Back Better through Sustainable Employment and Impact Investing”. The discussion will take place at 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Sinai Hall) on 1^st of June 2022.

This side event will feature top-level panelists from governments, international & regional organizations, academia, the private sector and the IsDB including Dr. Nada Massoud (Economic Advisor to Ministry of Planning, IsDB Executive Director for Egypt), Dr. Abdul Hakim ELWAER (Assistant Director- General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, FAO), Dr. Sabina Alkire, OPHI (Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)), Mr. Hussein Abou Bakr (CEO and Founder of Mozare3) and Mr. Khemais El Gazzah (Lead Resource Mobilization Specialist, Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD)).  The session will be moderated by Mr. Matthew Gamser (CEO of the SME Finance Forum). The opening remarks will be delivered by Mr. Amer Bukvic, Acting Director General, Global Practice and Partnership.

This timely discussion takes place while the world is experiencing an uncertain economic backdrop that increases the vulnerability for the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. In 2021, the average incomes of people in the bottom 40% of the global income distribution were 6.7% lower than pre-pandemic projections, while those of people in the top 40% were down only 2.8% - the reason being that the poorest have yet to recover their income losses, while the affluent have recovered more than 45% of their initial income losses. Meanwhile, 163 million more are living on less than US$5.50 a day. Globally, three to four years of progress toward ending extreme poverty are estimated to have been lost.

Mr. Amer Bukvic, Acting Director General, Global Practice and Partnership at IsDB commented: “Focusing on empowering and supporting vulnerable enterprises/population including MSMEs, cooperatives, social enterprises, and leveraging impact investing for such empowerment could be one of the most important mechanism in responding to the current development challenges including rising poverty and widening inequality.”