JEDDAH: Gulf speakers at the Social Development Forum yesterday shed light on how social development can work when government and private organizations cooperate.
Nasir Al-Qahtani from the Arab Gulf Program for the United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) delivered a presentation on how his organization has used strategies such as microfinance to help people. “The Kingdom has signed the Millennium Agreements with the United Nations and became part of it in terms of tackling social issues strategically,” he said.
AGFUND is a nonprofit regional development institution established in 1980 under the initiative of Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz and with the support of the leaders of Arab Gulf states. The organization is concerned with supporting sustainable human development efforts targeting needy people in developing countries.
Al-Qahtani explained that in the Kingdom, AGFUND targets women and children, and issues relating to health, education and poverty. “They are priorities,” he said. “What was mentioned in the Millennium Agreem-ents is a map of certain plans to follow and implement. We have to draw our own map and implement it with Saudi hands,” he said.
“Localizing experiences,” he said, is behind the success of AGFUND projects. “We have worked with 131 countries and we consider a failure any AGFUND project that is not localized within the first six months of its launch,” he said.
He also spoke about the organization’s primary target: The issue of poverty and how it can be resolved. He, however, described it as “complicated” and that “solutions are simple.” Al-Qahtani also attributed the success of three major AGFUND projects to one primary reason: believing in both men and women.
“Our project to fight poverty started with an idea, a strategic plan, and its implementation in one country. AGFUND has worked with Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who has worked to reduce poverty. We have established with him a plan to setup a microfinance plan in cooperation with the private sector,” he said.
He also gave an example of a project that was set up in Jordan in cooperation with Fadi Ghandour, a leading businessman there. “He, as a businessman, gave his time and help to establish a bank to give small loans to the poor and the needy,” he said, adding that this bank has helped 44,000 poor families.
“These families now have health insurance,” he said. AGFUND has also created a mechanism to give opportunities to the needy. Al-Qahtani gave another example of AGFUND’s work in Yemen where the organization has created a microfinance system, giving jobs to more than 2,300 people in four branches. “We have not used any foreign expertise. All local,” he said, adding that this is what happens if one believes in one’s abilities. “To fight poverty, you have to know where the poverty is. You have to have a map,” he added.
In the afternoon session, Director of the Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation Mansour Al-Sagaabi delivered a presentation on the foundation’s success stories. He gave examples of the foundation’s major social development projects: A reconciliation center, a handicrafts profit project, and a listening project.
“In these three projects, we have managed to get support, financing, cooperation, activation, and administrations working to support themselves and benefiting others as well,” said Al-Sagaabi.
Through these projects, the foundation has helped people in troubled marriages, provided an income to women in need, and established a helpline for people who are unable to deal with their psychological problems.
“The help center works with social and psychological experts and specialists to serve all ages,” he said.
