Jeddah / New York, 28 September 2021 – President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Chairman of IsDB Group, H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, has joined world leaders in supporting jobs and social protection for poverty eradication.

In his remarks at a panel discussion on ‘Macro-economic Policies to Finance Green Jobs and Social Protection’ as part of the ‘UN Secretary General High-Level Event on Jobs and Social Protection for Poverty Eradication’, Dr. Al Jasser reiterated IsDB Group’s commitment to join forces with the global community towards achieving shared goals.

He noted that during 2020, the US$10-billion Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), the Bank’s poverty reduction arm, intensified its support to member countries.

“In 2021, IsDB joined the well-recognized Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, which the International Labor Organization launched to address youth unemployment. We commend the Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection for pushing the boundaries by setting ambitious targets,” he stated, underlining that these include financing, job creation, supporting the shift from informality to formality, and extending social protection for disadvantaged groups in the informal sector.

The IsDB Group Chairman also presented the Group’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Program (SPRP)’, which has mobilized $4.56 billion to tackle the COVID-19 impacts.

“On IsDB’s role in social, climate, and green finance, he noted that in 2019, IsDB launched the first-ever AAA-rated Green Sukuk, raising EUR 1 billion and US$ 1.5 billion in 2020 to tackle the impacts of COVID-19,” Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser further added that the Bank has issued the largest Sustainability Sukuk, raising US$ 2.5 billion to finance green (10%) and social development projects (90%).

Creating integrated and coherent regional and national policies, encouraging private sector investments and public-private partnerships (PPPs), utilizing innovative finance, increasing financial inclusion of women and youth, reducing the digital divide, and introducing accountable and transparent mechanisms were amongst the main issues pointed out by IsDB Group Chairman.

Different panel discussion sessions saw the participation of prominent world leaders in addition to senior officials from global financial and economic institutions such as IMF and OECD as well as Presidents of Multilateral Development Banks including the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) while the opening keynote address was delivered by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, among others.