COLLABORATION AND DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE IN THE POST-PANDEMIC WORLD: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE LIVES AND LIVELIHOOD FUND


2 June 2022; 3:00 – 4:30 PM

Venue: Tonino Lamborghini Suez Canal Room at the International Convention Center Sharm El Sheikh



Overview:

During the last two years, the world has witnessed large-scale negative health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID pandemic on the poorest and most vulnerable. Building resiliency to such pandemics need to develop both the physical and human infrastructure that are critical to addressing the root causes for the inequities made bare by the COVID pandemic.

Development cooperation in the post-COVID era requires concerted and cooperative work that individual nation states or institutions cannot achieve on their own. Through this, the financial and technical resources can be pooled together in ways that respond effectively to future public health emergencies and their economic consequences on Member Countries. Five years since its founding, the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) represents an example of this type of development cooperation. And it has generated valuable lessons towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.



Key issues to be addressed:

Comprehensive development models are much needed that can assist Member Countries effectively manage the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on them, especially concerning limited fiscal space to maneuver through them. The LLF, an innovative concessional financing facility, bringing together the unique capabilities of 7 partner organizations, to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in the Islamic world is one of them.

To this end, some of the questions the event will address and that are informed by the lessons emerging from the LLF initiative include:

  1. How development effectiveness is, or can be, supported through scaled-up donors co-operation initiatives (with the LLF experience as an example)?
  2. What are key success factors, opportunities, challenges, corollary benefits of such development initiatives?
  3. How best can the operational modalities of such cooperation be managed to maintain focus on human development for the SDGs in the wake of the pandemic.

  • Opening and Key-Note Address:
    • H.E. Mansur Muhtar, Vice President, Operations, IsDB

      Is the Vice President, Operations in IsDB. He joined IsDB in 2015 as Vice President Country Programs Complex. During his tenure in IsDB, Dr. Mansur served as Ag. Group Chief Economist, and Ag. Chief Product and Partnerships Officer.

    • H.E Mr. Mahmoud Shaarawi

      Minister of Local Development, Arab Republic of Egypt (Keynote address)

  • Panelists
    • Abdul Hakim Elwaer, Assistant Director- General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, FAO

      Elwaer, a national of Libya, holds a Ph.D. of Philosophy in Environmental Chemistry from Sheffield University, the United Kingdom, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Organizational Leadership from the Gestalt Centre of Organizations and Systems Development in the United States, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering and Science Technology from the University of Sabha in Libya.  

      Elwaer served as Secretary of Environmental General Authority (Minister of Environment) of the Government of Libya in Tripoli and was elected President of the African Ministerial Congress on Environment (AMCEN) from 2004 to 2006.  

      Prior to joining the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), he served as Adviser to the President on Global Advocacy and Partnerships at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he also served as the IsDB Spokesperson and Director of Cooperation, Partnerships, Regional Integration and Resource Mobilization from 2014 to 2017. He was further appointed IsDB’s Sherpa at G20 and Heads of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

    • Mr. James Carty

      Head of Middle East and East Asia at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

    • Dr. Waleed Addas

      Head of the Lives and Livelihoods Fund at the Islamic Development Bank

    • Khemais El Gazzah, Lead Resource Mobilization Specialist, Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD)

      Khaemais has long direct experience in export credit and political risk insurance business, but he also involved directly or indirectly in many other related businesses such as trade finance, Islamic trade finance, structured trade finance, project finance, Islamic banking, FDI, takaful insurance, reinsurance & Coinsurance, IT…  

      In 1995, he joined the newly created entity within the IDB Group, the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investments and Export Credits “ICIEC” where he have evolved from a young professional staff in marketing and sales to senior positions in underwriting to become later in 2012 the Chief Operating Officer responsible of managing fully the insurance and reinsurance operations of the institution. He also served four years as the regional coordinator for Africa and the Middle East in the Coface credit alliance association. In 2012 he was elected as the Vice Chair of the Short Term Committee of the Berne Union, a leading association for export credit and investment insurance worldwide. He is representing the IsDB in the Board of Directors of Takaful Re Limited, in the UAE and ACIG in Saudi Arabia.

  • Moderator
    • Dr. Wolfgang Munar

      Professor in Global Health Systems at the George Washington University