Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 30 May 2022 - The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Institute is organizing the 16th IsDB Global Forum on Islamic Finance to discuss the role of social innovation and entrepreneurship in confronting poverty and fostering shared prosperity in IsDB member countries.

Under the theme ‘Social Entrepreneurship for Shared Prosperity’, the forum will be held on 2 June 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in conjunction with the 2022 Annual Meeting of the IsDB Group.

H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, the President of IsDB, will deliver the opening speech, while H.E. Dr. Hala Helmy El Said, Egyptian Minister of Planning and EconomicDevelopment and IsDB Governor, will deliver a keynote address.

During the panel sessions, prominent development practitioners and experts in social innovation will discuss the intractable social problems facing humanity and some of the best ways to address the challenges.

Social problems have been exacerbated across the world by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The forum aims to use Egypt as the case study to highlight innovative approaches to address the socio-economic challenges and achieve shared prosperity globally.

The forum will have two interrelated panel sessions. The first session will highlight the IsDBI-OPHI Briefs, jointly developed by IsDBI and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford, to analyse multidimensional poverty in Egypt using the global Multidimensional Poverty Index. In the wake of massive reversals of gains in poverty reduction as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this analysis report has become more relevant and critical to assess the situation and identify effective and efficient poverty reduction solutions.

The second panel session will be on the role of social innovation and entrepreneurship in addressing socio-economic challenges and poverty trends, and the growing need for innovative solutions to the emerging socio-economic challenges of IsDB member countries.

Speakers in the first panel session are Dr. Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI; Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Egypt; and Dr. Sami Al- Suwailem, Acting Director General of the IsDBI and IsDB Group Chief Economist. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Areef Suleman, Director of Economic Research & Statistics at IsDBI.

The second session will have H.E. Dr. Tarek Shawki, Minister of Education and Technical Education,Egypt; Ms. Nisrine Ouazzani Chahdi, Managing Director of Moroccan Centre for Innovation &Social Entrepreneurship (MCISE); Mr. Sahba Sobhani,Director of UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development(IICPSD); and Nr. Ayman Sabae, Co-founder and CEO of the Egyptian Social Enterprise ‘Shamseya’ for Innovative Community Healthcare Solutions. Dr. Rami Abdelkafi, Team Leader, IsDBI Knowledge Leaders, will moderate the session.