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The United Nations Refugee Agency has launched a new global structure that transforms UNHCR’s existing Zakat programme into a global fund. UNHCR unveiled its 'UNHCR Zakat Program: 2019 Launch Report', which shows that global Zakat giving stands at $76 billion worldwide, and could potentially reach an amount as high as $356 billion. According to Houssam Chahine, UNHCR’s Head of Private Sector Partnerships, it was inevitable for the Zakat program to evolve into a structure that better appeals to the global Islamic finance industry. The Fund allows UNHCR to be even more transparent. The decision to restructure the Zakat program into the global Refugee Zakat Fund is due to the high donor turnout UNHCR has witnessed in the past years.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun a scheme that enables Muslims make donations from the alms they typically pay state bodies for the benefit of the poor. According to experts, the amount of zakat money distributed each year in Muslim countries ranges from $20 billion to $30 billion. UNHCR has projected it will need a total of $8 billion for life-saving assistance to millions of Syrians inside their homeland and in neighboring countries. UNHCR has also called for $2.1 billion to provide food and medicine for Yemen, where 12 million people are at risk of famine and cholera brought on by two years of civil war. The new alms project plans to help some 30,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugee families in Jordan, with around $180 in monthly cash support for each family.

Azzad Asset Management has joined a consortium of responsible investors in support of a United Nations' call to end antibiotic use in global food supply chains. The UN statement calls member nations to bring clarity to antibiotic use through national and regional regulations. Antibiotics are frequently used for rapid growth promotion in livestock and poultry and to prevent illness in animals living in cramped and unhealthy conditions. Experts say that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in the meat industry has contributed to the rise of antibiotic resistance in the US and across the world. It is estimated that this public health issue is responsible for 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths each year.

Leaders of the World Bank, United Nations, and Islamic Development Bank Group pledged to work closely together in the region. They recently launched the new financing initiative to support the MENA region aimed at uniting the international community to face the region’s immense challenges, including flow of refugees, and to launch of the process of growth, recovery and reconstruction. This approach aims at completing the massive humanitarian effort through strengthening the capacities of individuals and local communities. The plan needs forming broad alliances as the objectives of the new strategy and the resources necessary to achieve them exceeds the capacity of any single organization.

UN study paper on the humanitarian financing gap.

Excerpt:
"The world today spends around US$ 25 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 125 million people devastated by wars and natural disasters. While this amount is twelve times greater than fifteen years ago, never before has generosity been so insufficient. Over the last years conflicts and natural disasters have led to fast-growing numbers of people in need and a funding gap for humanitarian action of an estimated US$ 15 billion. This is a lot of money, but not out of reach for a world producing US$ 78 trillion of annual GDP.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the Islamic Development Bank Group Dr. Mohamed Ali Al-Madani arrived in Lebanon today at the start of a joint visit to rally global support for the shared responsibility of promoting peace and development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The three organizations are jointly supporting an initiative to raise additional financing needed to help countries in the region cope with the immediate consequences of conflict, while laying the foundations for recovery and reconstruction. Following the Lebanon visit, World Bank President Kim and Secretary General Ban will travel together to Jordan and Tunisia.

A new international bond and grant scheme to help countries dealing with the fallout of war and instability in the Middle East and North Africa should be in place by spring, a senior World Bank official said.
In a Reuters interview, Hafez Ghanem, the World Bank's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, said the type of investment targeted by the plan - education, infrastructure and jobs - was vital to addressing the region's refugee crises. He said that humanitarian aid alone was not enough and the alternative was “one or two lost generations” in a region with 15 million refugees or internally displaced people.

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Initiative has announced the launch of a new reporting framework for its signatories that is aimed to increase the transparency of their investment activitie. The framework consists of approximately 220 indicators relating to investment policies and practices. The indicators are grouped into modules based on the following asset classes: listed equities, fixed income, private equity, property, infrastructure and inclusive finance. By mid-2014, approximately 800 of the 1,209 signatories are expected to have used the new framework. PRI will delist members that fail to report by then.

In the context of the International Anti-Corruption Day, the Secretary-General of the United Nations - Ban Ki-moon - made a call for full global acceptance of an international convention. The purpose of it is to make corrupt practices around the world cease. Mr. Ban sees corruption as a non-inevitable issue. He further pointed out that universal adherence was particularly necessary.

New York, November 16, 2012: International development leaders and experts highlighted the importance of Zakat in advancing global development at a forum titled "Linking Muslim Giving to the MDGs". The forum was co-hosted at the United Nations headquarters by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), The World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, and the UN Millennium Campaign.

"While some countries have made impressive gains in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), others are falling behind. The Muslim world is no exception. Faith emphasizes building communities, sharing wealth and upholding the rights of the poor and marginalized. Faith-based giving such as Zakat which amounts to billions of dollars needs to be spent in more strategic and effective way to accelerate development in OIC member countries” stated Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, the permanent observer of OIC at the United Nations, in his address.

International finance structures must be drastically overhauled in the face of the current global economic crisis, a panel of experts convened by the United Nations General Assembly chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics said.

The expert panel made a number of suggestions to support developing nations and creating an international infrastruture for the global markets led by the United Nations.

The panel included Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia.

The UNEP FI Insurance Working Group, supported by leading academic institutions from the United States and Europe, is conducting a landmark global survey on the understanding and integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in insurance underwriting and product development. The nature and scope of this survey makes it the first of its kind.

The core objectives are to:

- Assess the understanding and integration of ESG factors in insurance underwriting and product development globally
- Assess the financial materiality of ESG factors in insurance underwriting and product development
- Provide recommendations for sustainable insurance underwriting
- Provide research input for potential projects on other core insurance processes (e.g. investment, claims management, and sales & marketing)
- Establish a solid business case for the development of "Principles for Sustainable Insurance"

Visit http://www.unepfi.org/events/2009/survey to find out more and participate.

The UAE is hosting the sixth International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition - DIHAD 2009 from 7th - 9th of April 2009 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of United Arab Emirates, Ruler of Dubai. It is organised by Index Holding with the offical support of the United Nations and the UAE Red Crescent Society. The theme of the event is "Empowering Communities: From Disaster to Development". Specialised sessions are offered:

- Building Community Resilience and Capacity for Disaster Preparedness and Response
- Climate Change and the Global Food Crisis: How can Communities prepare and respond.
- Case Studies of Mitigation, Preparedness and Response to Disasters and other emergencies at the Community Level Urban and Rural Environments.
- Technologies, partnerships and approaches to support communities to prepare and respond to Disasters and direct their development.
- Recovery from Disasters and Sustainable Development -Community Mobilization, and Community Empowerment and Development through Micro-Credit: Global Experience.