Women & Youth Empowerment

Women Empowerment

The Bank recognizes that the participation of women in the socio-economic development process is necessary to achieve economic prosperity, poverty reduction, and comprehensive human development in its Member Countries.

To gain a better understanding and visibility of women issues within its Member Countries and to align with the global development discourse, the Bank formed the IsDB Women Advisory Panel in 2004. In 2005, the IsDB Prize for Women's Contribution to Development was instituted as a key recommendation from the Panel.

The Prize draws international attention to the vital role women play in contributing to the development of their communities and, hence, to the world at large. It has been recently changed into the IsDB Prize on Women and Girls' Empowerment in Education.

Youth Development

IsDB Group (IsDBG) has been supporting youth through developing their capacities in different socio-economic domains and engaging with them in dialogue regarding their needs and priorities with the aim of reaching an envisioned goal of socio-economic progress of the youth population.

Recognizing that enhancing youth participation and status in any society is essential for achieving inclusive development and poverty reduction, the Bank developed its 10-Year Strategy as a promise to its 57 Member Countries towards a sustainable and inclusive social development.

WYE Mandate

The IsDB’s work related to women and youth empowerment is spearheaded by the Resilience and Social Development (RSD) Department. The RSD acts as the focal point and resource centre in charge of developing the institutional strategic frameworks, including strategies, policies, procedures, and tools, to guide the Bank’s work, but also any work done by its entities, related to women and youth.

It also coordinates and harmonizes efforts with other partners through the global platforms on the above-mentioned thematic areas and will continue to forge new partnerships that can support (i) mobilizing resources and (ii) increasing the sharing of knowledge, with the aim of enhancing synergies and capitalizing on experiences, lessons learned, and best practices related to women and, youth empowerment.

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The principal function of the RSD is to mainstream the women and youth into the policies, strategies, and operations of the Bank. Its key role includes the quality assurance of operations (both lending and non-lending) through the review of operations and sign-off on the women and youth empowerment.

The RSD also participates in the development of member country partnership strategies (MCPSs), through the provision of women and youth related socio-economic analysis identifying challenges and opportunities for the empowerment and full participation of women and youth in the bank’s member countries’ inclusive development.

The Bank through Resilience and Social Development Department also develops knowledge products which identify, capture and disseminate good practices, as well as highlight and raise awareness on new trends on the aforementioned themes.

It is also responsible for strengthening the capacities of its internal staff and its member countries in the area of women and youth for better design and implementation of initiatives that promote and encourage women and youth participation in the development of their societies, toward building more resilient, inclusive and prosperous countries.

More importantly, RSD also develops specific and transformative initiatives aiming at build alliance and partnership, mobilizing resources to support the most vulnerable groups such as women and youth.

Partnerships

Youth Development Working Group (YDWG) was initiated by the Islamic Development Group (IsDB) in June 2018. The YDWG is a group of MDBs, and international development organizations interested in supporting and advocating youth development issues, as it relates to the mandate of respective entities.

The main objectives of the YDWG are to establish a platform for cooperation and coordination of joint activities and knowledge sharing. The Group selected to collaborate on youth and financial inclusion as its focus area for 2019-2020.

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