Bahrain hosts high-level meeting of Islamic Development Bank Women's Advisory Panel

Notes and media contacts

For media inquiries please contact:

Financial Dynamics
Nabeela Mohammed
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About the IDB
The Islamic Development Bank IDB is a multilateral development financing institution headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was founded by the first conference of Finance Ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and commenced its activities on 20 October 1975. There are 56 countries from all over the world that are currently IDB members.

Over time, IDB has grown into a group with affiliates: the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corp. (ITFC) active in various fields.

The Bank aims to foster economic and social development in member countries and in Muslim communities located in non-member states through the provision of financing for productive projects and enterprises. To date, the IDB has provided in excess of $50 billion in financing in accordance with the principles of Shari'ah or Islamic law.

The IDB has a paid in capital of 2.6 billion Islamic Dinar (ID), a unit equivalent to the SDR (roughly US$4 billion) and an authorised capital of 30 billion ID (roughly US$45 billion). The Bank carries an AAA Long-term Issuer Default rating from Fitch Ratings, an AAA rating from Standard & Poor's and an Aaa rating from Moody's Investors Service.

In addition, the Bank has been assigned a 0% risk weight by the Commission of the European Communities and holds Observer Status to the United Nations' General Assembly.

The main shareholders of the Bank are the Governments of Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.

About the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD)
The Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development is a US$10 billion poverty reduction fund operated by the Islamic Development Bank. The Fund's objectives are linked directly to supporting the achievement of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. As such, the Fund is focused on combating poverty in the poorest IDB member nations, 80 percent of which are located in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as to combat pockets of poverty in other member states.

Specifically the Fund will seek to build the productive capacity of member states through initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable economic growth and job creation, reducing illiteracy, eradicating diseases and epidemics, particularly Malaria, Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS, and developing basic infrastructure.

The ISFD has been structured in the form of a Waqf (Trust), which requires activities of the Fund to be financed from the returns made by the Bank from investments of the principal. The principal of the Fund will be invested in a diverse portfolio and professionally managed so as to generate maximum returns. The Fund will utilise these returns to provide financing to beneficiary countries on a concessionary basis. The ISFD's operations are overseen by the Fund's Board of Directors and the Board of Governors of the IDB.

The ISFD was created by the Third Extraordinary Session of the OIC Islamic Summit Conference in Makkah in December 2005 and its framework subsequently approved by 32nd meeting of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Dakar, Senegal in May 2007. The ISDF is currently implementing its Five-Year Strategy (2008-2012), which was approved by the Board of Directors of the ISDF in February 2008.