IsDB-IAEA Collaboration to Strengthen, New Potential Initiatives

The ongoing collaboration between the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to address women’s cancer in IsDB member countries will be strengthened further with the launch of a trust fund to bring together global partners in mobilizing support.

“The collaboration harnesses the power of innovation and aims to save over 1 million women’s lives from breast cancer and 3.7 million women’s lives from cervical cancer over the next decade,” mentioned Dr Hayat Sindi, Senior STI Advisor to IsDB President, as an invited speaker in the IAEA Scientific Forum of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Austria on 21 September.

IAEA Scientific Forum during the General Conference. Photo: IAEA 

Inspired by IsDB’s Public-Private-Philanthropic-Partnership for People (5Ps) model, the IsDB-IAEA initiative has so far raised over US$ 144 million to support the cause. In 2021, IsDB’s Engage platform successfully completed the second edition of a dedicated Call for Innovation for Women’s Cancer, which will award innovative proposals working on curbing women’s cancer in IsDB Member Countries (MCs).

Dr Hayat Sindi addressing the IAEA Scientific Forum during the IAEA General Conference. Photo: IAEA 

While addressing a session on “Enhancing Global Preparedness to Control Zoonotic Diseases,” Dr Hayat highlighted recent examples of IsDB support during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among those were special financing of US$ 2.3 billion to finance the IsDB Strategic Preparedness and Response Program (SPRP) for MCs, and mobilisation of several global diagnostics and healthcare technology partnerships for STI-based COVID-19 innovative solutions to respond to shortages of essential healthcare supplies and strengthen local production capacity of medical health care products and pharmaceuticals.

With IAEA Deputy DG Mr Hua Liu (R), PACT Director Ms Lisa Stevens (2L). Photo: IAEA 

Dr Hayat emphasised the prevention and management of zoonotic diseases in the MCs, given their impact on the world population with an estimated 60 percent of human infections having an animal origin.

Discussion with IAEA Deputy DG Dr Najat Mokhtar about Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (Zodiac) and plastic pollution. Photo: IAEA 

“The role of research for the early detection of novel pathogens and their progress towards disease is quite significant,” she added. IsDB’s Research & Technology Transfer Grant, jointly launched in early 2021 with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), supports talented young and female researcher groups from the MCs in areas including the identification of possible sources of viruses, evolution of viral diseases from animals to human and mutations of human strains, among others.

With IAEA colleagues and regional directors for Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Photo: IAEA

IsDB’s US$ 500 million Transform Find has also supported capacity building to scale up innovative technology for Dengue control in Indonesia, in collaboration with the World Mosquito Programme (WMP) and icddr,b.

Under the Fund, the recently completed 4th Call for Innovation “Building Resilience through Innovation in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic” will leverage and scale up innovative solutions that support procurement, development, and transfer of innovative technologies to boost local manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines capacity in IsDB MCs, among other support areas. In addition, the IsDB Group already established its IsDBG Vaccine Access Facility (IVAC) to support the MCs in providing access to the COVID-19 Vaccine.

Courtesy: IsDB-Engage