Casablanca, Morocco, February 25 2020 – UNDP’s Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), Islamic Development Bank’s (IsDB)  Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and its affiliate Al Akhdar Bank joined forces to organize the third training on bridging impact investing with Islamic finance in Morocco. ‘Impact Investing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A New Chapter for Participative Finance’ took place in Casablanca on 20-21 February 2020 as part of the Global Islamic Finance and Impact Investing Platform’s (GIFIIP) efforts to expand Islamic finance resources for SDG implementation. Given its rapid growth and expanding market, participative finance offers a vital source of sustainable funding for Agenda 2030.

‘Impact Investing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A New Chapter for Participative Finance’ included panels and master classes to support participative financiers and impact investors in exploring synergies between the two industries. The training shed light on new investment opportunities in sustainable development by analyzing how impact investors and participative financiers can work together within a win-win framework to achieve the SDGs.

The panels were well-attended by 100 participants while the master classes included a focus group of 30 attendees from  development banks, private equity firms, venture capital firms, fintech companies, development organizations and government bodies, including Mr. Mohamed Benyahia, the Secretary General of the Environment Department at the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Environment of Morocco.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Mr. Fouad Harraze, General Manager of Al Akhdar Bank, Mr. Aamir Khan, Head of Financial Institutions Development of ICD and Ms. Gülçin Salıngan, Deputy Director of IICPSD.

Mr. Fouad Harraze opened the event by stressing their commitment on contributing to Agenda 2030, highlighting the importance of mobilizing capital for sustainable development. Mr. Aamir Khan pointed to impact investing as an effective way of leveraging resources to reduce inequalities: "Impact investments should grow faster to help vulnerable populations achieve sustainable livelihoods especially given the increasing migration flows.” Ms. Gülçin Salıngan elaborated on the role of financiers and investors for sustainable development, describing UNDP’s efforts to develop and deploy solutions in the field with both conventional and Islamic finance partners to accelerate the mobilization of impact investing for SDGs: "Impact investing can help Morocco in engaging private investments for the country’s development priorities especially in renewable energy and education.”

Following a successful round of panels, master classes started with industry experts, as structured in four modules. The “Mobilizing Participative Finance for Impact Investing” module provided insights on how to apply participative financial instruments to impact investing activities. The second module, “Introduction to Sukuk as a Mode of Financing”, included technical knowledge on Islamic finance instruments and contracts. During the third module “Impact Investing Risks and Opportunities”, participants explored opportunities and risk mitigation strategies for impact investing in compliance with participative finance. The final master class of the event titled “Impact Measurement and Management” delivered necessary tools and knowledge to measure and manage impact.

Morocco, as an OIC country to adopt participative finance in the current decade, offers three emerging areas for participative finance: Banking, Takaful and capital markets. Although, the share of Sharia complaint assets in Morocco is currently around 1%, the country has significant potential to bolster the participative finance industry to achieve national sustainable development objectives.

For further information on how Islamic finance can help fill the SDGs funding gap, please see https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/partners/islamic-finance.html