23 April 2024 - An IsDB delegation led by Dr. Zamir Iqbal, Vice President, Finance and CFO, participated in a series of high-level events that were organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN-ECOSOC) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) at the UN Headquarters in New York.

As part of his interventions in the high-level Opening Panel of the 2024 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Investment Fair, Dr. Zamir called for revitalizing development in alignment with the SDGs by forging more Public-Private-Partnerships, strengthening capacity development, implementing inclusive systems for governments, fostering innovation and diversifying sources of funding.

The panel focused on discussions around guiding questions associated with the role of the private sector in scaling up SDG investment, which will serve as an input to the Business Forum planned for the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025. The session can be viewed online here.

Another high-level panel at the 2024 Forum for Financing Development (FfD) was organized on “Domestic and international private business and finance”, where Dr. Zamir highlighted the massive potential of blended finance for resource mobilization towards the SDGs, especially in Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

He shared the successful experience of the Lives and Livelihoods Fund at IsDB, which has channeled more than USD 2.5 billion to LDCs with a leverage ratio exceeding 1:5. The session can be viewed online here.

A post-fair coaching session on “Delivering Finance for SDGs” was also held with the objective of strengthening capacities of developing countries to mobilize private investment. This was done through building countries’ knowledge of innovative potential development financing opportunities, equity participation, and leveraging using public and private resources.

The IsDB Treasury Department participated in the coaching session with a detailed presentation on Sukuk as an asset class, its rapid growth and role in financing the SDGs (especially Sustainable Sukuk) and IsDB’s own experience with its flagship Sustainable Finance Framework.

The IsDB delegation called on governments, investors and market players to leverage on Sukuk, which is the primary fixed-income instrument in Islamic finance, to mobilize higher capital to help achieve the SDGs. This was reaffirmed by demonstrating the strong alignment of Islamic finance with the SDGs and showcasing its potential to be tapped for SDGs-oriented investments worldwide.

The teams from Global Advocacy of the Partnerships, Global Advocacy and Resource Mobilization (PGARM) department and the Treasury Department of the Finance Complex, led the technical preparatory discussions with the team from UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) counterparts to ensure that one of the IsDB’s key niche areas namely Islamic Finance and Sukuk are featured in the events’ agendas as SDGs oriented financing to improve awareness for the audience at the SDGs Investment Fair and FfD Forum.