JEDDAH, 31 May 2007 -- Total contributions of OIC member countries to the $10 billion Poverty Alleviation Fund reached $2.6 billion until Tuesday, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade announced during the opening session of the 32nd annual conference of IDB board of governors in Dakar.
The conference of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group witnessed the official launch of the fund, which aims at combating poverty in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries. Saudi Arabia has given $1 billion while Kuwait gave $300 million to the fund. "The fund will operate like an endowment," IDB President Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali told the conference, adding that returns from the endowment property would be used to finance various projects aimed at alleviating poverty.
Addressing the opening session of the conference, OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said that the IDB has been instrumental in boosting social and economic development of member countries, and called for greater cooperation between the OIC and the IDB especially in the area of fighting poverty.
Ihsanoglu described the 10-year program approved by the extraordinary Islamic summit in Makkah as a turning point in the history of the OIC, the largest organization in the Islamic world. "Setting up a poverty alleviation fund was one of the major resolutions of the summit," he pointed out. He hoped the Dakar conference would witness pledges of contributions by more member countries to the fund.
The IDB group, meanwhile, decided to open its fourth regional office in the Senegalese capital Dakar. IDB President Mohammed Ali and Senegal's Foreign Minister Tidiane Gadio signed an agreement in this respect yesterday.
By P.K. Abdul Ghafour
© Arab News 2007
