Pakistan talent wins Islamic Development Bank funding to solve SDGs

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has awarded four Pakistani innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs seed capital and business skills mentoring as part of its fifth edition of the Transformers Roadshow competition, held in association with COMSTECH.

The Roadshow is a global initiative in which applicants are invited to pitch ideas accelerating one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Addressing the gathering and during the press conference, President Islamic Development Bank Dr. Bandar Hajjar said, Pakistan is the integral member country of the IsDB group and is the third largest beneficiary of IsDB financing.

The IsDB group has provided total financing of 12.43 billion USD to Pakistan, helping improve the lives of the people of Pakistan through a range of development projects. He highlighted that IsDB is financing Neelum Jhelum Hydro Power Project, Jamshoro Power Station, CASA 1000 project for improving energy needs of the country. Dr. Bandar Hajjar said that he had very fruitful and constructive meetings with the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan. He said IsDB has earmarked a 500 million USD fund for promoting science technology and innovation in the member countries.

The competition attracted more than 200 entrants from across Pakistan, with shortlisted 20 teams presented their innovative ideas and 4 finalists were selected by the esteemed judging panel, awarded $3,000 seed capital and a ticket to Transformers Roadshow final to be held in Senegal later this year. The initiatives were assessed in line with the SDGs agenda across factors such as innovativeness, impact and outreach, practicality, scalability, sustainability, the potential for patenting and commercialisation.

Launched in July 2018, the Transformers Roadshow is one of the initiatives led by the IsDB Transform Fund set up to support the IsDB’s strategic focus on capacity building and human capital development. Previous editions took place in Uzbekistan, Niger, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh, where the Bank has awarded nine innovators. The IsDB mission via the Transform Fund is to equip people to drive their own economic and social progress at scale, putting the infrastructure in place to enable them to fulfill their potential.

Original source: IsDB
Published on 04 May 2019