Sponsored by the Deputy Prince of the region and organized by the Asharqia Chamber in a strategic partnership with the Awqaf Authority
Endowment Forum 2022 AD stresses the importance of spreading the culture of endowment creativity and innovation
The Forum on Stop Practices 2022, organized by the Oriental Chamber Wednesday 28th September 2022 under the auspices of HRH Princess Ahmed bin Fahd bin Salman, Deputy Emir of the Region, and in strategic partnership with the Public Authority of Waqf, was confirmed under the heading of (creativity and endowment innovation), emphasizing the importance of spreading a culture of creativity and innovation and looking ahead to the endowments, It recommended that the Scientific Committee increase attention to the dissemination of the culture of innovative moratorium to all media and social communication and work to support and empower the Awqaf sector by investing in emerging and innovative opportunities and technologies through cooperation with the Waqf Public Authority, It also called on the Committee to build a strategy involving waqf agencies and institutions and in partnership with government institutions to promote the development of innovative waqfs and intensify work to facilitate the financing of innovative ideas and endowment projects through innovation incubators, Also increase endowments for educational, health and residential institutions through innovative applications of endowments.
Many endowment initiatives
During the forum, several endowment initiatives were announced, such as the Endowment of Ideas platform, on the International Institute of Islamic Endowment, which is an electronic platform for collecting ideas about endowments and how to develop existing endowment products or create new endowment products, and the Endowment initiative launched by the Revival of Endowment Investment Company, as well as The launch of the Medical Endowment Village in Dammam, on behalf of the Health Endowments Society, as well as the launch of the pioneering Education Endowment initiative, announced by Professor Rashid bin Abdulaziz Al-Hussan, for the Al-Hussan Educational Group to serve education by launching educational programs that motivate students, as well as the Waqif Trip Book Initiative It was launched by His Eminence Sheikh Saad bin Muhammad Al-Muhanna, The forum witnessed the holding of about five sessions, which included the presentation of about 14 working papers, presented by a group of specialists from inside and outside the Kingdom, which dealt with many aspects related to creativity and innovation in the endowment sector and its role and future in the national economic scene, and was accompanied by an exhibition of about 17 endowment bodies during which they presented Their endowment products and experiences, in the presence of many government officials, businessmen and women, experienced specialists and those interested in the field of endowments.
At the opening of the forum, the Chairman of the Asharqia Chamber "Badr bin Suleiman Al-Raziza" said during his speech on behalf of the patron of the forum, His Royal Highness Prince Ahmed bin Fahd bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Governor of the Eastern Province, that this new session comes To complement the awareness process adopted by the Chamber and the General Authority for Endowments by identifying the best practices, initiatives and innovative and creative programs in the endowment field and ways of disseminating them in the Kingdom and the region, to achieve high investment returns and sustainable endowments in line with the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
knowledge communication platform
Al-Raziza pointed out that the wise government has given great attention to the endowment sector, believing that it is one of the most important sectors in support of sustainable development goals. It made use of all means in terms of organization, legal preparation, and framing of the necessary procedures and policies for its follow-up and management, provided full support and care for projects and programs of social impact, and supported everything that would expand the base of those standing on this generous land, so the Kingdom became home to many endowment institutions with huge assets and great diversity.
He stressed that the forum came in response to the state's development endeavors, and that community movement does not stop to increase the endowment contributions economically and socially, and he showed how the Chamber harnessed its capabilities to participate in the revival, development, and development of the endowment ritual among the business sector, and the activities it provided to spread awareness of the importance of establishing endowments And the adoption of endowment practices, which has become a platform for knowledge of successful endowment practices locally and abroad, and a catalyst for knowledge of development, investment and legal issues of the endowment system.
An important message for the people of the region and the Kingdom
Al-Raziza explained that the forum presents an important message for the people of the eastern region and the Kingdom in general, businessmen and women, by discussing, during this new session of its session, a topic that renews it and with it the vision of the business sector in the region towards the vocabulary of the endowment sector, by highlighting creative and innovative methods with positive returns on increasing The return from endowments and raising the efficiency of the endowment sector, both in terms of the quality of services provided or in terms of upgrading the sector as a whole in the national economic system.
A controlled, active and influential sector
For his part, His Excellency the Governor of the General Authority for Endowments, Imad bin Saleh Al Karachi, said that the endowment sector has recently witnessed a great movement and remarkable development, thanks to God, and then the support and care of our wise leadership in this sector, which resulted in a growth in distinguished and innovative practices in this field to keep pace with the endowment sector with the remarkable development Which our country is witnessing in various fields, and pointed out that the authority is working with its partners to activate this role and stimulate the endowment sector and enable it to expand in the areas of creativity and innovation and create qualitative initiatives that correspond to the needs of society and development trends to integrate with the efforts of other sectors in this field.
Innovative product offering
He explained that this forum comes as one of the important platforms that enrich this aspect, as it highlights the importance of renewal in the field of endowment practices, as the authority works with its partners to offer innovative products that meet the needs and contribute to attracting new endowers, and this, in turn, will be one of the motivating factors for the growth, diversity, and expansion of the endowment sector.
Al-Kharashi looked forward to finding effective and important partnerships that would contribute to accelerating the pace of achievement and achieving the goals, saying: The endowment sector will soon witness a remarkable change and rapid and qualitative growth, and great maturity in its systems, government, entities, programs, initiatives, and impact because we are working at an accelerated pace and addressing and supporting it to stimulate and support this sector. The challenges it faces in coordination with the relevant authorities.
A major contributor to the development
For his part, Member of the Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of the Endowments Committee in Asharqia Chamber, Hamad bin Hammoud Al-Hammad, said that the endowment represents one of the many Islamic financial systems that aim to strengthen ties between all members of society, and its effects include various aspects of social, religious, cultural and economic life. Throughout the history of Islamic civilization, endowments have played a prominent role in the continuation of many aspects of social and scientific life in the Islamic community, which made endowments a great virtue and great importance in the history of Islam and Muslims.
He pointed out that today's forum raises many topics related to innovation and creativity in the endowment sector, through a significant set of working papers presented by specialists in the endowment fields.
Establishing a culture of innovation
The forum was preceded by the opening of the first session, under the title (Establishing a Culture of Innovation and Looking to the Future for Endowments), which was moderated by Abdul Salam Al-Jabr, a member of the Endowments Committee in the Asharqia Chamber, during which Dr. He said: Social innovation is one of the most effective, sustainable and valuable new solutions for society and seeks to develop and implement new ideas to meet social needs and develop new partnerships, pointing out that social innovation aims to develop public benefits and develop individual capabilities, as it depends on individual and institutional creativity, Stressing that social innovation seeks to humanize technology in the era of artificial intelligence, networking between sectors and knowledge, reviving a culture of diligence and urbanization, and contributing to sustainable and innovative solutions, recommending the establishment of an innovation laboratory to help create new value through innovation practices and address complex challenges that seemed insoluble and provide solutions .
National Innovation System
And Dr. Saleh Yousef Al-Ansari, from SIS Consulting, on the role of national innovation systems in creating a supportive environment for innovation in the endowment sector, explaining that the national innovation system is the total ecosystem that promotes the localization of the knowledge value chain through the complex relationships between the links and interaction between Institutions, entities, and legislation, and said that to achieve the economic competitive advantage and the endowment system, several basic needs must be provided, namely macroeconomic stability, health and basic education, legislation, and infrastructure, which are key to resource-driven economies, in addition to efficiency enhancers, namely higher education and training, and market efficiency. goods, The labor market, the development of financial markets, technological readiness, and market size, which are key to investment-driven economies, and finally the factors of innovation and development, which are the development of business and innovation and are key to innovation-driven economies, stressing that to achieve the economic competitive advantage and the endowment system, there must be legislation that facilitates the work of the system. Endowment, integration with the institutions of the national system, research institutions that produce value-added patents, attracting investments in areas of national priority, and localization of sustainable global knowledge.
This session also included a working paper by Dr. Sarhan Shaman Al-Shammari, from the University of Hail, on innovation systems and their integration in endowments, who explained that innovation and technology face several challenges, most notably that technology cannot build moral and ethical decisions with a human dimension, in addition to the rapid changes and bargaining between The risks and benefits of early investment, and he said that the determinants of innovation spread are comparative advantage, the degree of complexity, appropriateness, susceptibility to experiment and acceptance of the result, pointing to the importance of paying attention to distinguished innovators who are known for their interest in new ideas and are fully prepared to take risks.
Innovative Finance in Awqaf
In the second session, which was moderated by Eng. Anas Al-Dowayan, member of the Awqaf Committee in the Chamber, titled (Innovative Financial Techniques in Endowments), during which Mr. Faisal bin Muhammad Al Shamsi, from the Islamic Development Bank, spoke about the mechanisms of a trust fund for endowment properties, and said: The Fund The endowment investment was established in 2001 AD in recognition of the bank’s awareness of the important development potential of endowments, which is an honorable prophetic tradition that played a major role in providing sustainable financing for many basic social services. He pointed out that it is a dollar-denominated investment fund managed by the Islamic Development Bank as a speculator and enjoys administrative and financial independence It finances the construction or purchase of rentier (income-generating) real estate assets, with a maximum of 75% of the total cost of any project, provided that this cost is not less than 5 million US dollars.
The financing period is a maximum of 15 years, and upon start-up, the income generated from the real estate asset is used to pay the fund’s installments, and the surplus returns to the beneficiary to support its charitable and development activities sustainably. Since its inception until the end of 2021 AD, the Fund has agreed to finance 55 projects in 81 A countries with a value of one billion dollars, as these projects generate average annual returns in the range of one million dollars for the beneficiary organizations, and this amount is used for the various human development activities of these organizations.
endowment platform model
Eng. Abdul Rahman Al-Rashoud, from the General Authority for Endowments, also spoke during this session about the impact of crowdfunding platforms on the sustainability of the non-profit sector, (Waqfi platform as a model), explaining that crowdfunding is the practice of financing projects by collecting funds from a large number of people from Through digital platforms, and it may come through direct donation, debt (group lending), shares and so on, pointing out that more than 4 billion Saudis have been collected through crowdfunding platforms in the Kingdom, including more than 50 million donations, and more Of the 300 subsidized endowments, more than 7,000 families supported housing, more than 6,000 medical cases whose treatment was supported, and more than 500 released prisoners benefited. It has transparency, speed of preparation of donation campaigns, the possibility of marketing, and attraction to people interested in the idea.
The experience of stopping the technical transformation
Engineer Machari bin Fahad al-Jawera, Founder and Member of the Technical Transformation Endowment Council, who reviewed the experience of stopping the technical transformation in the digitization of the non-profit sector, stressed that endowments are not in isolation from the world and that they must enter stronger in the field of modern technologies and invest in them to serve society and the country. By innovating digital business solutions and models and enriching knowledge; To achieve the objectives of the sector and maximize its impact.” He pointed out that the project includes many technologies, the most important of which are: financial technologies, artificial intelligence techniques, and robotics technologies, calling for the rehabilitation of leaders in the field of information technology to be among the trustees of the endowments, which will give strength to the councils of overseers in the optimal investment in Modern technologies, as well as qualifying workers in the non-profit sector in the field of information technology to increase the level of professionalism in the provision of services by non-profit organizations.
Digital Solutions for Endowments
Mr. Hassan Raza of Ethos Islamic Bank, who emphasized that consumers increasingly want more ethical products, aligning their values, religious teachings, money, and finance, and that banking is changing globally, said: We at Ethos now use the latest technologies to provide digital solutions for the endowments as they help unleash the endowments and allow for the further development and innovation of products to ensure the service of the endowment to the fullest Especially in light of the expansion of Islamic finance products and services at competitive prices, Referring to Ethos' Islamic investment products, such as ETFs, private equity funds, venture capital funds, these products allow the stay to be sustainable in the long term.
Blockchain Technology in Waqf
The third session of the dialogue on innovative opportunities to serve Waqfs came and was moderated by Dr. Salim al-Qahtani, member of the Eastern Chamber Waqf Committee, and presented by Professor Hisham al-Haqil, He said the importance of continuous research on innovative and creative opportunities that will develop waqf services He emphasized that creativity and innovation in the endowment field give Waqfs new investment dimensions and even diversity in its services provided. The fourth session, entitled "Innovative practices and initiatives in endowments", was moderated by Professor Raed Khalil al-Eid, member of the Scientific Committee, uring which five speakers spoke; During which, Dr. Hassan Azkanin, from the American University in Morocco, reviewed the practices and experiences of Western endowment institutions in the field of technological innovation, explaining that the endowment is one of the stable and continuous sources of funding that is not affected by the policies of the private sectors with a profit-oriented approach or the volatile decisions of government institutions, as its assets are not They are neither sold nor given nor inherited, which requires the innovation of new technologies that enable them to enhance their economic position and improve their level of profitability, such as the blockchain technology, which is a distributed database that maintains a list of records or transactions that is constantly increasing, and is characterized by decentralization, authentication, and anonymity so that Enables users to create different addresses to use while interacting over the network, A procedure that allows ensuring their privacy and protecting their information, as well as the verifiability and auditing of operations, which is one of the most important characteristics of the blockchain technology, as it is a distributed network that verifies and tracks all operations at any time by accessing private databases, recommending that further studies and research be conducted on the extent of the applicability of This technology is in the field of endowments, by building a strategy in which endowment institutions participate with government institutions to study the possibility of creating an endowment ecosystem based on blockchain technology, calling on legislative authorities to study this technology from a practical and applied perspective, and the possibility of downloading its solutions to endowment services, and creating a crowdfunding platform It is based on smart contract technology to promote endowment investments.
Social innovation trend
Likewise, Dr. Muhammad Abdullah Nassif, from the Institute of Islamic Economics at King Abdulaziz University, who reviewed the endowment of Prof. Dr. Abdullah Nassif's “the trend of social innovation,” said that the “Abdullah Nassif” endowment bears a vision to be “a source of hope for society through our being The leading platform in unleashing the energies of young people in a way that contributes to achieving sustainable community development.” Nassif reviewed the most prominent areas of interest in the endowment, which are: (social innovation), contributing to supporting the national economy, and facing challenges related to humans and the future through social innovation, business incubators, and employing tools Modern technology. and (sustainability of societies) Awareness of young people about their leadership role in achieving sustainable development and building a vibrant community, and (Foresight of the future): promoting scientific concepts and practical applications that contribute to foreseeing and supporting future projects through local and international partnerships, and (National personality: strengthening the effective national personality by encouraging it to Highlighting its role in community contribution and sustainable development, and stated that (Nassif) focuses primarily through its projects and initiatives on spreading the culture of social innovation to enhance the role of youth in achieving positive development and supporting the national economy as well as contributing to solving societal and future challenges, as it provides a comprehensive and integrated journey in stimulating Youth creativity with future ideas and projects through the Nassif Prize, and developing these ideas to be national and sustainable economic projects through the Social Innovation Lab.
Innovative Endowments in Health and Education
During the session, Mr. Ali Al-Mutawa from the Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation in Dubai discussed the support of innovative endowments in the health and educational sectors and indicated that the Foundation, since its inception, has been keen to provide support to children and women of different nationalities through cooperation with many institutions and centers specialized in their care, rehabilitation and development of their skills. And providing them with various aspects of integrated care, in proportion to their needs, to be able to participate in building society. He reviewed several achievements at these levels, revealing that the Dubai Endowment amounts to 7.85 billion dirhams.
Innovation in pooled finance
Professor Atef Al-Shabarawi of the Japanese Egyptian University, French University of Sejour, and the World Bank's consultant also spoke on innovation in collective finance. "International experiences", emphasized the importance of innovation in public finance, Indicating that it is an umbrella term that describes the use of small amounts of money ", obtained from a large number of individuals or organizations, To raise funds for a business or loan, whether it is personal or to finance other needs through Internet-based platforms He reported that $410 billion was provided to charities by Americans in 2017.
As 46% of them came through campaigns on crowdfunding platforms because donating through the Internet is more suitable for young people, and a new study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania found that projects funded by the platform, contributed to its campaigns of 2.1 million people, raised one billion dollars, and saved Funding 70,000 creative projects, employing 29,600 people full-time and 283,000 part-time, helping found 8,800 new and non-profit companies and generating more than $5.3 billion in direct economic impact for these creative filmmakers, musicians, video game creators, comic books, and journalists. He reviewed the types of crowdfunding and their goals, These include Sharia-compliant financing, lending (financing companies or individuals with loans, known as peer-to-peer), and lenders receive interest payments in exchange for their loan, investment (to obtain a share/shares of a company or project, this type of financing is especially suitable for early stage and companies Startups, donations, rewards (financing creative or cultural initiatives, in return for one-time payments in the form of products or services. Invitations, free products or services.
