Stella Cox CBE chaired the panel discussion entitled ‘Getting blended finance models right’ which took place at an event hosted at White and Case London on 17th June 2019.
This followed on from earlier sessions in the GCC and a roundtable presentation at the RFI Summit in Abu Dhabi in May 2019.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (“IFRC”) and the Islamic Development Bank (“ISDB”), are discussing the creation of a multimillion-dollar WASH Fund that will form part of the IFRC OneWASH programme, which seeks to contribute to the reduction of cholera related deaths by 90% over the next 10 years, impacting the lives of 5 million people.
The ISDB and IFRC have signed an MoU to jointly develop an innovative approach that blends humanitarian aid and private capital, and will enable Sharia’a compliant investors to contribute to the eradication of cholera. The approach will utilise grants and donations along with outcome funding to attract new philanthropic and private investor capital. Thereafter the Fund can be scaled through sukuk issuance.
This objective contributes not only to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) but also #3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), #5 (Gender Equality) and #17 (Partnership for the Goals) and supports the Global Task Force for Cholera Control (GTFCC) ‘Cholera Roadmap’.
The successful conclusion of OneWASH will be a powerful illustration of the outcome of Islamic financial practitioners’ focus on Maqasid Al Sharia’a by offering a transactional template for the very significant, impact-focused contribution that Islamic Finance, as a socially conscious and innovative part of the global financial system, is positioned to make.’