Jeddah / Washington DC, 26.10.2021 - Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) President and Chairman of IsDB Group, H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, and World Bank Group President, Mr. David Malpass, held a virtual discussion today that touched upon a wide array of issues including, vaccine rollout, climate action & green transition, regional integration and private sector development, among others.

At the meeting Dr. Al Jasser reiterated IsDB’s commitment to the longstanding partnership between the two institutions as the only two MDBs with common member countries across all regions namely Africa, Europe & Central Asia, MENA, South Asia, East Asia & Pacific and Latin America, reiterating that he would like to take this partnership to the next level.

The IsDB Group Chairman, also hailed the recent MENA deep dive initiative that seeks to identify specific co-financing and partnership opportunities for both institutions to jointly undertake in various sectors.

Speaking on IsDB Group response towards the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Al Jasser elaborated on the Group’s US$ 4.5 billion package that has been addressing public health and economic impacts of the pandemic in member countries inclusive of IsDB’s US$ 850 million COVID-19 Vaccine Access Facility (IVAC) and expressed the Bank’s interest in collaborating with the World Bank Group on vaccine production in Africa. 

World Bank Group President Mr. Malpass, in turn, welcomed the prospects for further cooperation between the two international development heavy weights and expressed interest in pooling project preparation resources to share the burden of upstream work with a view to scaling up co-financing.

Since 2019, IsDB has debuted Green and Sustainability Sukuk worth billion of dollars under its Sustainable Finance Framework while setting a 35% climate finance target by the year 2025. According to Dr. Al Jasser, the Group seeks to benefit from world Bank Group’s experience in mainstreaming climate action in its country operational engagement.

Revitalizing the IsDB and World Bank’s 2009 joint working group on Islamic finance was also raised at the meeting.