Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | U | UN Chronicle

Tackling poverty reduction: the role of the Islamic Development Bank.

Article Excerpt
Poverly reduction is the greatest challenge facing humanity today. An ideological commitment to reduce or eradicate this phenomenon should be contemplated as part and parcel of social moral responsibility and shared human values across countries and generations. Failure to do so will have unprecedented repercussions on human development. Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been accepted as a basis for action to free men, women and children from the dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, more than 1 billion people are estimated to be in absolute poverty worldwide. Of these, about 40 per cent, or 400 million people, are living in member countries of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).

Aware of the need for accelerating progress towards the MDGs and to achieve significant measurable improvement in people's lives in its member countries, the IsDB launched in May 2007 a poverty reduction fund--formally known as the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD)--with a targeted capital of $10 billion to be contributed by all member countries...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!