Increasing the Resilience of the Food Systems

In Islamic States in Face of Future Food Crises

assets totaling $3.2 trillion as of June 2018.

Zakat Funds are also important; the UNHCR’s

Refugee Zakat Fund is a vital consideration for an OIC-wide social safety net. Established upon

five authoritative fatwas, the Fund had disbursed $14.4million to 6,888 families across Jordan,

Yemen, and Lebanon, from 2016 to 2018.

The fourth recommendation is ensuring a robust project management function that supports

investments and implementation of food system enhancement projects across the OIC . The

Islamic Organization for Food Security could play an important role in funding and driving

research and development activity in the food sector across the OIC, mirroring the USDA’s

important role in the U.S. and the UK Technology Strategy Board (UK TSB) in the United

Kingdom. Since 2004, UK TSB has been tasked with funding innovation in all sectors across the

UK; an important objective is the maximization of the commercial impact of world -class

knowledge and the country's research base, creating over 70,000 jobs.

The IOFS couldmanage

any commercially viable projects based on recommendations and imperatives from SESRIC and

COMCEC.

A fifth recommendation is trade liberalization among member countries, whereby the OIC has

the opportunity to review its commitment to lifting trade barriers. Tariffs applied by OIC

members are higher than the WTO average for the majority of OIC countries, and this is

especially true for agricultural products. Under the frameworkof the existing Trade Preferential

System, further exploring trade liberalization between member states would strengthen the

OIC-wide food system, and in particular, would reduce the risk of food crises in B1 and B2-

classified member countries.

Supplementing a government-led, OIC-wide trade agreement is a policy to foster targeted

cooperation betweenmember countries in producing particular products. Partnerships can be

created between member countries that may have different strengths—for instance, a country

with strong manufacturing capabilities, such as the UAE, purchasing raw materials from a

country with strong agricultural capabilities, such as Egypt. Such partnerships can be created

across different product segments of food and agriculture and can bring together private

companies as well as investment firms and sovereign wealth funds.

Thomson Reuters and DinarStandard. (2018). State of the Global Islamic EconomyReport.

UNHCR and DinarStandard. (2019). Refugees: Themost in need of Zakat. Retrieved fro

(2019, June 10). Innovate UK releases 2019-2020 DeliveryPlan. Retrieved from