Overview:

During the last two years, the world has witnessed large-scale adverse health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID pandemic on the poorest and most vulnerable. Building resiliency to such pandemics needs to develop both the physical and human infrastructure critical to addressing the root causes for the inequities made bare by the COVID pandemic.

Development cooperation in the post-COVID era requires concerted and cooperative work that individual nation states or institutions cannot achieve independently. Through this, the financial and technical resources can be pooled together in ways that respond effectively to future public health emergencies and their economic consequences on Member Countries. Five years since its founding, the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) represents an example of this type of development cooperation. And it has generated valuable lessons towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.

Key issues to be addressed:

Comprehensive development models are much needed that can assist Member Countries in effectively managing the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on them, especially concerning limited fiscal space to manoeuvre through them. The LLF, an innovative concessional financing facility bringing together the unique capabilities of 7 partner organizations to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in the Islamic world, is one of them.

To this end, some of the questions the event will address and that are informed by the lessons emerging from the LLF initiative include:

1. How development effectiveness is, or can it be, supported through scaled-up donor cooperation initiatives (with the LLF experience as an example)?
2. What are the key success factors, opportunities, challenges, and corollary benefits of such development initiatives?

How best can the operational modalities of such cooperation be managed to maintain focus on human development for the SDGs in the wake of the pandemic.