The UNHCR Refugee Zakat Fund: Beyond the OIC

Abstract

This chapter ambiguously paints a picture of some of the most vulnerable among the OIC member states. It highlights their plights, rationale and the urgency of establishing the Refugee Zakat Fund as a means to alleviating the plights of these vulnerable individuals. The impact of the Refugee Zakat Fund in bridging the heightened social inequalities amongst the most vulnerable populace within the OIC is casually discoursed. Herein, the widespread and far-reaching impact of wealth redistribution is accentuated. Based on the impactful nature of the Refugee Zakat Funds within OIC, the chapter explored the feasibility of replicating such Islamic social finance mechanism or wealth distribution model (Zakat) amongst vulnerable populace found within selected Hindu, Catholic, Buddhist and Christian countries with a significant population of citizens living below the poverty line. The aim of this chapter is to assess the feasibility of bridging the social inequality gaps amongst a select non-OIC member state through a replicate of the Zakat-model. To achieve this aim, the chapter adopted a desktop analysis and qualitative content analysis stratagem. Invariably, such wealth distribution model may possibly serve as a stepping stone to begin to narrow the social inequality gaps amongst the cited people of concern.

1. Introduction

Conflicts, climate change, poor infrastructure, inequality, poor health care system, marginalization, lack of access to clean water and sanitation, poor education; alongside other vices have subjected millions of people to vulnerability [1, 2, 3]. Vulnerability in this context will however be confined to individuals the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) classifies as ‘people of concern’, that is, the ‘internally displaced people’ (IDPs) and ‘refugees’ [4]. Estimates provided by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) allege that over 70 million individuals have been forcefully displaced globally [5]. Majority (above 60%) of who are citizens from the Organization of Islamic Corporation (OIC) countries [6]. Discourses around refugee crisis has taken centre-stage since 2015, where the influx of migrants from ‘hot spot zones’, also referred to as conflict zones, were seen migrating into Europe [7]. The plights of the refugees as well as internally displaced people are topical concerns. Their pitiable condition is ranked as one of the most severe humanitarian crisis globally [8]. It is believed that almost half of Sovereign Muslim countries currently are reliant on other countries for humanitarian assistance. Particularly OIC countries such as Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan have relied on aids for more than a decade [9]. Despite the series of interventions and humanitarian assistance offered by entities such as the UNHCR, the enormous challenges, dynamics and complexities faced by some of these countries does not seem to be ending any time soon [8]. Ironically, despite the prosperity and affluence witnessed amongst some OIC member countries such as Saudi, Bahrain and Qatar, it is stark contrast of the reality in Yemen and Syria where a majoritant of the populace are in severe poverty [10].

The critical challenges faced by some of the OIC member states resulted to the World Humanitarian Submit in 2015 [11]. The 2015 World Humanitarian Submit (WHS) which took place in Jordan convened high level stakeholders from 40 plus nations, and over 500 delegates. These delegates consisted government, civil societal groups, agencies from the United Nations, private sector, academia, donors, as well as other relevant international and regional actors [12]. The primary aim of the 2015 WHS was to initiate an operational and inclusive humanitarian response framework [13]. The zeal and optimism of the 2015 WHS laid the foundation for the 2016 edition which took place in Turkey. The 2016 edition convened over 9000 attendees whom were able to design a comprehensive road map aimed at alleviating the plights of the ‘people of concern’ [12]. The sustained momentum from 2015 to 2016 on humanitarianism eventually instigated the UNHCR to advance philanthropy to an unprecedented level [14]. Thus, in 2017, the UNHCR pilot tested an initiative referred to as the ‘Refugee Zakat Fund’. Since the piloting of this initiative, more than $21 million has been raised from donors, benefiting an estimated 750,000 ‘people of concern’ across 17 countries [15]. Despite the positive impact, a significant number of vulnerable people still were not reached [16].

The prime objective of this chapter is to assess the feasibility of bridging the social inequality gaps amongst a select non-OIC state through a replicate of an Islamic Finance mechanism – Zakat. To achieve this aim, the chapter adopted a literature review, whilst incorporating a desktop analysis approach. Thus, a systemic online search of scholarly works from the middle-east, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Western countries were found useful. The search strategy was mainly confined to social inequalities, humanitarian aids/ relief, UNHCR, Refugee Zakat Fund, Islamic social finance, Zakat, vulnerability and poverty. The scope of the chapter was predominantly limited to contemporary studies within the last 6 years as a means to extracting the most relevant and contemporary discourses within the context of study. The identified citations of the searched articles in the preliminary round further resulted to clues of other useful and relevant scholarly works.

To ensure credibility of this chapter, only peer-reviewed articles from reputable databases such as Taylor and Francis, Emerald Insight, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Science Direct, Web Online, SpringerLink, JSTOR, IEEE online and Scopus were used. Also useful were applicable editors’ reviews; book chapters, and conference papers. In the preliminary search, a total of 591 publications were retrieved. The second round of search excluded duplicate citations found amongst the aforementioned database, which were later filtered to 93 publications. A key inclusive criterion was language, as only prior studies in English were accessed, whilst other scholarly works published in non-English languages were excluded. Furthermore, the chapter utilized the qualitative content analysis. This was considered suitable as a conceptual framework for synthesis and analysis within the scope of a systematic literature review.

Due the extensiveness of this field (vulnerability), the current chapter is only confined to the vulnerable populace within the Organization of Islamic Corporation (OIC); vis a vis the impact the Zakat donations made to the UNHCR has had on the plights of this mentioned vulnerable group. In consonance to the afore narrative, the later segments of this work will provide a discourse in relation to how the UNHCR has utilized the Refugee Zakat Fund to bridge the social inequality gap within the OIC. Furthermore, the direct impact these Zakat funds have had on people of concern (vulnerable populace) is highlighted. A critique is also brought forward on some of the setbacks in Zakat funds not reaching its optimal potential; whilst the chapter also brings forth the possibility of replicating a financial mechanism such as the Zakat-institutionalism amongst non-Muslim states, as a means to achieving a globalist approach to bridging the social inequality gaps.

2. Social inequalities within OIC

Social scientists have often described social inequality from a variety of perspectives. This term is loosely defined as one “characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. It contains structured and recurrent patterns of unequal distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments” [17]. Discourses centred around social inequality has been a topical issue since the era of Aristotle and Plato to Rousseau; Max Weber, Karl Marx, and countless other scholars [18]. The facets of social inequality are often apparent amongst people who are often ignored; such as the immigrants, minorities, peasants, refugees, aboriginals, and the likes [18]. These categorized groups of people are often considered ‘vulnerable’ [19].

The term ‘vulnerable’ has often being used to describe (some) citizens of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), who are at times refugees, internally displaced people (IDP), forced migrants, stateless, or individuals living in dire conditions [12, 13]. The OIC is an intergovernmental organization comprising 57 countries, spread across four continents. It is ranked as the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations [20]. This organization was established in 1969 to promote solidarity amongst Muslims [21]. Though, some significant achievements have been recorded since its formation; nevertheless, some states within this intergovernmental organization still face a variety of challenges emanating from intolerance, poverty, armed conflicts, climate change and natural disaster [9] It is believed that an estimated 80 million citizens from the OIC are either internally displaced or stateless [20]. In particular, the poverty recorded within OIC member states is ‘lagging behind the world and developing countries averages in terms of poverty figures’ [9]. However, some wealthy OIC member states such as the Qatar and Kuwait have made some philanthropic gesture towards other OIC member states whose situation is in a peril [10]. Despite the multiple challenges faced by (some) OIC member states (such as Syria, Yemen and Palestine), some resounding feat has been recorded over the last three decades [14]. Going by the poverty baseline of $1.25 per day; the number of people who were living on $1.25 per day is said to have decreased from 396 million to 322 million between 1990 and 2011 [9]. In statistical terms, the share of poor within OIC member states in 1990 was at 41.1%; by 2011, this had dropped to 22.3% [9].

A key international, intergovernmental entity which has taken a leading role in alleviating the plights of the most vulnerable citizens within OIC member states is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [20]. The UNHCR has taken stringent measures to protect lives of individuals fleeing their homes due to conflict and persecution whilst providing them with basic necessities such as food and shelter [14]. In so doing, this Refugee Agency of the United Nations makes efforts in improving the welfare of the most vulnerable, such as those residing within the OIC [6]. Despite the UNHCR’s progressive strides in improving the quality of life amongst this vulnerable populace, the desired result is yet to be achieved partly due to the funding gap [10].

3. Funding gap

Despite the concerted efforts made by the UNHCR, alongside its partners in raising funds for humanitarian endeavors, the funding gap still persist as a reoccurring issue. In particular, the exponential growth in number of vulnerable individuals trapped in never-ending crisis has outwitted this funding gap [11]. As highlighted in a UN report, the amount of progress made since 2016 is non-corresponding to the humanitarian need [15]. Though, since 2016, funding is said to have increased by $6.3 billion; nevertheless, the humanitarian budget has doubled since 2015. This was further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Thus, from the $38.6 billion budget of 2020, only 48% of required funding was acquired. The raised amount was less the typical 60% funding level of prior years [22]. The increased humanitarian aid budget can be traced to the instability amongst some OIC member states. The on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the Yemeni; as well as the Syrian conflict has further justified the urgent need for more funds, as a means to providing humanitarian assistance to these vulnerable individuals. According to the UNHCR [4], the number of IDP’s and refugees grew persistently between 2015 and 2019, reaching a record high of 35%. By the end of 2019, an estimated 86.5 million vulnerable individuals were accounted for by the UNHCR [1].

In an attempt to close the funding gap, stakeholders have also taken decisive measures to reducing the humanitarian needs. This has come in the form of creating capacity in conflict –resolution as a means to tackling the protracted conflicts, whilst taking a step back to examine the root causes of these crises [11]. In Willitts-King and Spencer’s [22] view, some headway has been established in addressing some of these conflicts; however, it is unclear if the adopted approaches can be taken to scale.

Furthermore, as an agendum to reducing this funding gap, a report by High Level Panel (HLP) in 2016 highlighted three key recommendations [23]:

1. Shrinking needs by bringing development financing into crisis situations; it also referenced reducing conflict but did not make specific recommendations.

2. Broadening the resource base, including bringing in new donors and the private sector.

3. A Grand Bargain on efficiency in which donors would provide more and better-quality funding with a reduced reporting burden in exchange for aid agency reforms around localization, transparency, participation and needs assessment, amongst others.

Some of these measures enacted by the HLP and other key stakeholders were not as efficient as anticipated due to a variety of reasons. One of such reasons was that raised by Bowden and Metcalfe-Hough [24] who argue that, the member states of the United Nations have failed to provide the much needed diplomatic support for the United Nations to play a role in advocacy and diplomacy amongst conflicting entities. More so, the 4 year tenure of the former United States President, Donald Trump is arguably a setback in addressing some of the international conflicts. Willitts-King and Spencer [22] notes that, these conflicts were exacerbated by Trump’s 4 year tenure, as there were tensions amongst major global powers. Furthermore, in the words of the President of International Rescue Committee (IRC) – David Miliband, “it is an age of impunity, in which power has shifted towards autocratic regimes, war crimes go unpunished and human rights are under pressure, fuelled by greater ambivalence towards them in liberal democracies” [25]. All of these issues adversely impacted on the working togetherness of intergovernmental and private donors who had been striving towards a common goal of aiding the most vulnerable people.

According to Willitts-King and Spencer [22], the UNHCR budget requirement for IDP’s and refugees was estimated at $7.9 billion in 2019. An estimated 70 percent of this ‘people of concern’ were from the OIC. Similarly, a report by the UN Deputy Secretary-General states that, “a persistent $2.5 trillion annual financing gap stands in the way of the Sustainable Development Goals” [14]. Many of whom were the supposedly beneficiaries were from the OIC member states. This huge amount is not expected to come from the traditional or conventional means the UNHCR has solicited for funds in the past. Hence, key stakeholders continuously searched for alternative sources of funds [6]. Figure 1 provides an illustration of funding gaps between 2011 and 2020.

Figure 1.

The UN-coordinated appeals, 2011–2020. Source: UN OCHA FTS data (cited in Willitts-King and Spencer [22]).

The figure highlights the total requirement, against funds obtained to attend to the humanitarian needs between 2011 and 2020. From these figures, the unmet requirements are quiet apparent. The above figure invariably highlights the UNHCR funding gap, thus necessitating the need to source funds from alternate avenues.

In the HLP search for alternative sources of funds, the Islamic social financing mechanism, such as the Zakat was seen as a ray of hope [13] Though, the Islamic social finance mechanism had for long been playing a significant role in alleviating the plights of the vulnerable within the OIC region; however, it is believed that the full potentials of this finance tool is yet to be fully exploited [26, 27]. In emphasizing the potential of the Zakat, Kidwai and Zidani [6] state that, the inaugural report of the UNHCR in 2019 indicate that an estimated $76 billion was paid by Muslims yearly in Zakat. This is suggestive that the humanitarian needs and philanthropic cause may be buffered by a well-managed and standardized Islamic social financial mechanism, said the CEO and Managing Director at Dinarstandard – Rafi-uddin Skikoh [22]. He further adds, ‘optimization of Zakat funds collection may be the pathway to addressing the funding gap the UNHCR had often battled with in meeting up with its humanitarian endeavors [22]. Upon such views and sentiments coming from a variety of key humanitarian stakeholders, the UNHCR established the Refugee Zakat Funds in 2019 [15].

4. Refugee Zakat funds

According to Obaidullah and Shirazi, cited in Rehman and Pickup [28], the yearly Zakat donated by Muslims across the globe is estimated between $200 billion – $1 trillion. Zakat is an Arabic word which implies: “blessings, purification, growth and development’ [29]. Payment of Zakat is obligatory upon wealthy Muslims who possess an amount referred as Niṣāb. Niṣāb is the minimum amount of wealth that a Muslim must have before being obliged to give Zakat. Thus, such wealthy Muslims are required to pay 2.5% as Zakat from their wealth on a yearly basis. More significantly, this form of charity (Zakat) in most Muslim-majority countries is mandatory, and is generally understood to be a form of worship [30]. In such countries, specific organizations are assigned for collecting, channeling and disbursing Zakat funds. Amongst six Muslim-majority countries, it is mandatory for the wealthy individuals to pay their annual Zakat, as governments’ in these countries have established a mandatory system for such payments. Similarly, in another nine Muslim-majority countries, Zakat donations are channeled via formal organizations; whilst, there is no government system in place in 25 Muslim-majority countries [29].

Upon realization that an estimated 60% of IDP’s and refugees originate from OIC member states; the OIC, UNHCR alongside key partners thereby propelled an initiative as a means to driving philanthropy to a new phase. Thus, the percentage of ‘people of concern’ from OIC member states served as one of the core basis the UNHCR institutionalized, standardized and launched its Refugee Zakat Funds in 2019 [13]. Since 2019, the collated funds have served as an effective means to providing the much needed humanitarian aid to the most susceptible households [31]. As highlighted in the UNHCR’s inaugural report, the collated Zakat funds benefitted a staggering 1,025,014 ‘people of concern’ amongst eight countries. These comprise, Malian refugees settled in Mauritania; Rohingya refugees settled in Malaysia and Bangladesh; as well as a high majority of Syrian refugees residing in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. To further accentuate this humanitarian endeavor, the UNHCR is beginning to solicit Zakat donations from tech-savvy Muslim youths in gulf countries such as UAE, Qatar and Saudi. Through this approach, an array of potential Zakat donors has been reached. The UNHCR has continued to use its online platform to further appeal to the global Islamic finance industry, thus, raising surmountable donations for the Refugee Zakat Fund. More so, a key advantage of establishing the Refugee Zakat Fund has been its ability to enable institutions, individuals and high net worth donors to fulfill their Zakat commitments in an effective manner, using a global, reliable and trusted system [32]. Thus, Islamic finance, through avenues such as Refugee Zakat Fund is gradually becoming a conspicuous part of the global economy [14, 30].

Prior the launch of the Refugee Zakat fund in 2019, the piloting of this initiative in 2017 provided humanitarian support to the fleeing refugees from Syria; and served as a buffer to the overwhelmed host countries of Jordan and Lebanon [13]. Attempts are made by the UNHCR to disburse these collated funds as efficiently as possible. To enhance efficiency, the UNHCR promotes transparency, accountability, whilst also ensuring rigorous governance and oversight functions [14].

Despite some of the plausible benefits and resounding achievements recorded through the Refugee Zakat Fund, some scholars [31, 32]. of Islamic finance have argued that Zakat is yet to reach its optimality. These scholars further explain that, Zakat benefits are often underestimated, as they are seen as an ‘absolute poverty relief’, rather than a social empowerment scheme for whole communities. BAZNAS [26] further buttresses this view by stating; the prime objective of Zakat is in changing the lives of the poor from “dependence to independence, and from being mentally and financially constrained to being intellectually and socially emancipated”. Hence, the consensus amongst some of these scholars is, should the Refugee Zakat Fund have these has its basis, the social inequality gaps found across some OIC member states and elsewhere may be closed much faster.

This segment is further advanced with a discourse on the impact of the UNHCR’s Refugee Zakat Fund amongst the OIC vulnerable populace.

5. Impact of UNHCR refugee Zakat fund

Zakat has been an empowering tool for a significant number of poor Muslims [33]. Using the 2022 UNHCR Refugee Zakat Funds as a baseline, an estimated 727,000 beneficiaries in 17 countries benefitted from the $21.4 million received through Zakat contributions in year 2022 [14]. More significantly, since the piloting of the UNHCR’s Refugee Zakat Funds in 2017, more than 4 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and refugees in 18 countries have benefitted from the Zakat contributions [14].

Figure 2 depicts 17 countries that benefitted from the Zakat contributions in 2022.

Figure 2.

Zakat beneficiaries amongst 17 countries. Source: Adopted from UNHCR [14].

As seen in Figure 2, a whole total of 756,157 individuals, often referred to as “people of concern” by the UNHCR benefitted from 17 countries. Whilst some beneficiaries classified (solely) as IDP’s benefitted in four countries, those classified as Refugees benefitted in 12 countries; and while both IDP’s and Refugees benefitted in Somalia. It can be observed from Figure 2, that quite some significant individuals across several countries benefited from the UNHCR’s Refugee Zakat Funds in the 2022. Such individuals may have been more vulnerable without this humanitarian aid/endeavor.

Of note, amongst these 17 countries, whilst some people of concern received ‘cash assistance’, some received ‘livelihood kits’; whilst some in countries such as Bangladesh received a combination of ‘hygiene kits’, ‘shelter kits’ and ‘medicines’. Similar donations were made in India, where people of concerns benefitted from ‘cash assistance’, ‘shelter kits’ and ‘mosquito nets’. These needs were often prioritized based on the level of urgency [15]. The 2022 Zakat distribution modalities are illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Zakat distribution modalities. Source: Adapted from UNHCR [14].

Prior the distribution of these basic needs (highlighted in Figure 3); the UNHCR conducted an assessment of the most urgent needs amongst some of the vulnerable populace residing in these countries. And based on such assessment, the relief packages such as hygiene kits, shelter kits, medicines, mosquito nets and cash assistance were provided, which served as a significant relief to a select set of beneficiaries.

Furthermore, the UNHCR has used the Zakat donations to drive some well-thought off campaigns. Amongst the commonest campaigns are, the Global Ramadan Campaign, as well as the Winter Campaign. The Global Ramadan Campaign has been running for a decade [14]. This initiative commences prior the fasting month of Muslims, wherein the UNHCR mobilizes the much needed resources for the people of concern. Recently, the UNHCR was able to support an estimated 100,000 IDP’s and refugees through this campaign [14]. The theme in the last campaign was “Every Gift Counts”. Through this highly publicized campaign, the UNHCR was able to solicit funds through Zakat from generous Muslims [32]. Thus; awareness was made on the plights of the internally displaced people and refugees mainly within the OIC. Likewise, the winter campaign has equally been feasible due to the funds raised through Zakat. Ever since the launch of the Winter Campaign on the 13th of November, internally displaced people and refugees have been assisted in five countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon [15]. The much needed aid came in form of cash assistance through which several vulnerable families were able to purchase winter clothing, fuel, and heat up their homes. More so, distribution of winter core reliefs and weatherproofing were also provided [31]. The UNHCR claims significant funds used for these campaigns were generated from two prominent Muslims donors who were paying off their Zakat: Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI), as well as His Excellency, Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah bin Thani Al Thani [14].

Furthermore, the Zakat funds have had a direct impact on a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Particularly, the Zakat contributions have contributed towards the realization of the SDG Goals 1 (No poverty); SDG Goals 2 (Zero Hunger); SDG Goal 3 (Good health and Well-Being); SDG Goal 4 (Quality Education); SDG Goal 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG Goal 6 (Clean water and sanitation) within the OIC [34].

With consideration to this impact, a more widespread and globalist disbursement of Zakat funds may possibly pull much further impact. This hypothesis will be further expounded upon in the latter segment.

6. Replication of Zakat in non-Muslim states

The refugees, vulnerable populace, and the broad group classified as ‘people of concern’ are not only found within the OIC member states [35, 36]. These classified groups of individuals are scattered across almost every region of the globe; however, in varying proportions [37, 38]. Keeping in mind, monies collected through Zakat donations can only be disbursed amongst Muslim faithful [13], which raises the concern for non-Muslims who may equally be in pitiable condition similar to that of the refugees or ‘people of concern’. However, it is worth mentioning that an Islamic finance mechanism such as Sadaqah (alms giving/ charity) may be disbursed to non-Muslims by Muslims [26]. However, the focus of this chapter is Zakat, which has been found to be a vital tool within the global Islamic finance industry. The Zakat in particular has impacted on lives of the poor Muslims for several centuries [26, 27, 39], which in the authors’ opinion, can possibly reach a much wider audience beyond the OIC, or Muslim devotees. This can potentially better the livelihood of non-Muslims if such scheme is replicated amongst other faith groups.

This section uses four non-Muslim faith groups as a case study. In so doing, it highlights a Hindu-majority country: Nepal; a Catholic-majority country: Equatorial Guinea; a Buddhist-majority state: Myammar; as well as a Christian –majority state: Democratic Republic of Congo. According to available data, these religions are practices by an above 80 percent of the citizens of respective countries [40]. More so, according the United Nations classification, these four countries are categorized as countries with a significant proportion of populace living below the poverty line of $1.90 per day [37, 41]. Hence, these countries serve as typified non- Muslim majority countries with high levels of poverty. This is further illustrated in Table 1.

Dominant faith	Country	Estimated Country population	Estimated percentage of dominant faith	Percentage of poor citizens (living below $1.90 per day)
Hindu-majority state	Nepal	30,03o,000 (2021)	81.19% [42]	25.2%
Catholic- majority state	Equatorial Guinea	1,620,000	80.7% [43]	71%
Buddhist-majority state	Myammar	53,800,000 (2021)	90% [44]	24.8%
Christian – majority state	Democratic Republic of Congo	63,150,000	95.7% [45]	62% (living below $2.15 per day)

Table 1.

Vulnerable populace per faith group.

Source: Adapted from Refs. [42, 43, 44, 45].

In line with the advocacy of this chapter: to replicate an Islamic Finance mechanism such as the Zakat amongst non-Muslim majority countries, requires the years of experience and expertise of specific arms with the United Nations, Humanitarian organizations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent (IFRC), financial institutions, faith groups, and other pertinent stakeholders. More significantly, the available infrastructure of the United Nations in a multitude of countries globally is imperative in actualizing this humanitarian endeavor. Replicating the Zakat amongst non-Muslim states will require a number of pre-requisites. These pre-requisites are explained as follows:

• Firstly, the conceptualization has to be proactively driven by an intergovernmental entity such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This arm of the United Nations is in charge of financial, technical and operational obligations [46]. This arm of the UN will need to put forth a convincing and well-thought out proposal to prospective partnering faith groups.

• Secondly, a round of negotiations and high level panel discussions, similar to those of the World Humanitarian Submits held in Jordan (2015) and Turkey (2016) will be needful [47]. Such Submits will be used to engage faith groups, humanitarian organizations, finance institutions and other potential private donors or businesses (amongst these faith groups).

• Thirdly, it will be imperative to collate a comprehensive data. Such data will entail details of prospective beneficiaries and benefactors amongst the four countries (Nepal, Equatorial Guinea, Myammar and Democratic Republic of Congo) where the humanitarian effort is meant to be conducted.

• Fourthly, a piloting of this initiative should be conducted. This may possibly be test run amongst small counties within these four countries, in which case, OCHA (UN) personnel solicit funds from religious institutions, which are thereby later disbursed to the most vulnerable community members based on the prior data collated (in Phase three).

• And lastly, a comprehensive review and evaluation is conducted in order to identify flaws, potentials and oversights.

Upon realization of these pre-requisites, the OCHA (UN) may thereafter officially launch the humanitarian campaign, similar to how the Refugee Zakat Fund was established in 2019. Thus, the actual contribution and donations may thereby begin, under close monitoring and scrutiny. The modalities in this context may possibly be similar to the 2.5% annual deduction from the wealth of wealthy Hindu’s, Catholics, Buddhist and Christians within these countries; and thereafter disbursed to the most poverty stricken households who are adherents of these respective faith groups.

Furthermore, a replica of the Refugee Zakat Fund disbursement strategy may be adopted whereby needs are provided to localities based on the urgency of needs. Hence, it may necessitate the giving of Core relief items to the vulnerable households or Non-food Items such as cooking utensils, Liquefied Propane Gas, for cooking, as well as shelter kits. Also, the Cash Based Interventions similar to those of the UNHCR may also be employed, where cash assistance is provided to the vulnerable to support their livelihood, health or shelter.

This will invariably require a significant amount of resources to handle these pre-requisite phases. However, with the consideration that should such initiative work; it will have a long lasting impact on the poor amongst these poor countries. More so, this will potentially be a quick avenue to address the immediate needs of some of the most the susceptible households, thereby reducing the social inequality gap amongst a wider populace beyond those of the OIC member states.

7. Conclusion

We currently live in a world where wealth is increasing exponentially amongst the elite, whilst the severity of poverty amongst many also seems unbearable [6]. An estimated 800 million people do not have adequate nutrition, making them food insecure [48]. Beyond food insecurity, many of these vulnerable individuals are often without a decent shelter; or access to adequate health care facilities, nor do their family members have access to quality education [49].

The compounding causes of poverty and vulnerability seem to be fast outpacing humanitarian efforts across the globe [14], thus necessitating innovative and sustainable interventions to reduce the ever widening social inequalities [11]. Bridging social inequalities requires rigorous planning, whilst designing tailor-made and effective approaches for specific localities [27]. For such humanitarian effort to gain sufficient ground speed, key actors will need to pursue a strategic course whilst driving in the same direction at the same pace [50]. With commitment, efficiency and consistency over time, such widened social inequality gaps may begin to reduce gradually.

Invariably, addressing social inequalities requires the redistribution of resources. One of such means to achieving such redistribution may come through the Zakat-model of income redistribution from the wealthy Hindu’s, Catholics, Buddhists and Christians to the less privileged within the identified non-OIC countries. This stratagem may possibly present an opportunity of reaching poor remote communities which probably may have been previously neglected. Moreover, such humanitarian campaigns may potentially lead to transfer of skills from UN (OCHA) personnel to local community members. Through this, capacity could be built from within the local communities thereby, empowering the community.

While the advocated Zakat-model may bring some immediate relief to the poor and vulnerable, it is however a temporary relief measure in some cases [51]. The longer term impact however, may be actualized by equipping the poor and vulnerable with the right set of skills which could bring them economic opportunities [33, 52].

Despite the afore-positive narrative, Zakat operations by the UNHCR have equally come with a number of challenges [53]. There have been reported cases of Zakat funds mismanagement, fraud, or instances where donated monies were not reaching those most vulnerable [54, 55]. These raised concerns have also been cited as the reasons for ‘low collection’ of Zakat monies in specific OIC countries [6]. Due to these challenging concerns, scholars have often recommended a paradigm shift, by upgrading the Zakat-model from a charity initiative to an empowerment and structured scheme, which touches the lives of the most vulnerable households; in which case requires professional management, expertise and experience of humanitarian actors, good and transparent governance; adoption of Block chain technology, amongst others [54, 56].

A significant limitation of the study was the exclusion of non-English articles; as a number of scholarly works relating to the discoursed themes are available in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish; Persian, Urdu and Hebrew. The inclusion or review of some of these non-English articles may have created further insight and robust in the chapter.