Social Financing Mechanisms Can Be Pivotal to Realizing Key Investment Objectives, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Islamic Development Bank Event

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to “The road to the SDGs:  the journey so far” (SDG achievements and initiatives — the Islamic Development Bank’s SDG journey) today:

Excellencies, distinguished speakers, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for this opportunity and for your commitment on our crucial journey to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs].

Less than a decade remains to attain the SDGs.  The pandemic has undone years of progress.  Over the last year, around 120 million people were pushed into extreme poverty; with the ranks of the hungry growing by 100 million.  Over 100 million children fell below minimum reading levels, compromising the recovery and narrowing windows to their futures.

Climate change runs ahead with fury.  The global mean temperature is now estimated at 1.2 °C above pre-industrial levels, perilously close to the 1.5 °C upper limit of the Paris Agreement.  And the worst impacts are in developing countries, and among those already vulnerable.

The SDGs — agreed to by all nations — remain our best shared blueprint for the way forward.  Collective action is essential to emerge from the pandemic, and accelerate the transition to equity, sustainability and resilience.

Islamic finance — channelling funding to the real economy, avoiding excessive speculation or leverage, and promoting risk-sharing — can drive innovative and sustainable financing at scale and reinforce solidarity as a vital underpinning of international cooperation.

Let me suggest several key objectives for investment.

• Accelerating equal access to, and the efficient roll out of, vaccines to end the pandemic.
• Reversing losses in education, and in the advancement of gender equality.
• Ensuring robust, universal social protection, building on the many initiatives launched in lower-income countries during the pandemic.
• Hastening the transformations in energy, transport, food systems, and in bridging the digital divide — through financing and technology transfer — that are essential to secure nature for us and our children, and, crucially, ensuring these transitions are just in their outcomes for people.

Islamic social financing mechanisms such as zakat, waqf and sukuk can be pivotal to realizing all of these.  The Islamic Development Bank is already showing the way forward — for example in its support for Indonesia’s Sovereign Green Sukuk issuance, with proceeds in excess of $2.75 billion.  Or in its partnership with the Government of Cameroon in launching a pandemic financing facility.

I welcome the ongoing international dialogue undertaken by the Bank and the UN with global stakeholders, which seeks to leverage Islamic social financing mechanisms to achieve the SDGs.  Dynamic efforts are also being taken by the Bank, the UN, the WHO Foundation, and the Global Vaccine Alliance to launch a campaign focused on utilizing zakat and sadaqah for procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Experiences such as these can catalyse similar innovations across the world.  Multilateralism, South-South and triangular cooperation are vital to the way forward, and the United Nations stands ready to help.

I congratulate [His Excellency] Dr. Bandar al Hajjar, President of the Islamic Development Bank for his leadership.  Rest assured the Islamic Development Bank and its partners can count on the United Nations as an ally, as we aim to recover and build better from this devastating and ongoing crisis.

Thank you.