United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20)

The Islamic Development Bank Group President, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, acknowledged the importance of ICBA’s programs in providing a framework for advancing research and development and playing a strong policy and governance role in the member countries of the IDB Group. 

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 20-22 June 2012, Dr Ali outlined some of the recent key projects led by ICBA in the Middle East and North Africa, such as MAWRED (Modeling and Monitoring Agriculture and Water Resources Development), which will provide scientific data to inform decisions affecting water and food security, and the crop/livestock diversification and sustainable management of marginal lands through the scaling-up and dissemination of high-yielding forage production packages that are better adapted to saline and marginal environmental conditions. In his statement, Dr Ali also identified ICBA’s role in leading a four-year project on crop diversification and sustainable management of marginal land resources in four Central Asian countries (Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan). 

Based in Dubai, ICBA was established in 1999 with the support of the Islamic Development Bank Group, and the United Arab Emirates Government. The IDB Group also attracted additional financial support for the center from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) and the OPEC Fund.