IDB, Bill Gates launch $500mln-fund to fight Poverty

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched $500-million worth fund, called “Life and Living Fund,” to fight poverty and diseases.

The new fund aims to tackle poverty and disease in 56 IDB member countries, through support for health-care programs, small agricultural holdings and basic rural infrastructure.

The decision was taken by Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali, president of IDB, and Bill Gates during the 40th annual meeting of the IDB, being held in Maputo, Mozambique, on Wednesday.

Ali said that the fund will enable IDB, through a combination of funding from donors and mobilized resources from the market, to provide additional funding of up to $ 2 billion, over five years, to fight poverty and disease in the member countries, especially the least developed member countries.

The IDB president expressed hope that the fund would start operations in early 2016 thanks to the generous donations from the Gates Foundation and the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development.

For his part, Bill Gates said that some member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has achieved remarkable economic growth and stability, pointing out that more than one billion people in the world live in abject poverty, 400 million of whom live in the Muslim world.

“We have now a lifetime opportunity to improve the quality of life for almost two billion people living in the member countries, expressed his pride to the contribute of this this historic effort,” he added