(FEB NEWS) Islamic social finance, which includes zakat, infaq, alms and waqf funds, has great potential to support sustainable development goals (SDG's) in Indonesia. "In 2022, Islamic social finance funds in Indonesia that have been collected will amount to 14 trillion rupiah, without waqf," said Noven Suprayogi, SE, M.Si, Ak, Chair of LPEI FEB Unair. The huge potential of Islamic social finance funds is not yet optimal in supporting sustainable development goals in Indonesia. Therefore, this Zakat Seminar aims to discuss the model for empowering Islamic social financial funds to support the realization of sustainable development goals in Indonesia, as well as the accountability of Islamic social finance in sustainability reporting.
This Zakat seminar is a collaboration between the Islamic Economic Development Institute (LPEI), Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga and the National Zakat Amil Institute (LAZNAS) Infaq Management Institute (LMI). This activity is an annual routine activity of LPEI FEB Unair with LAZNAS LMI, and this year is the second year of collaboration between the two parties. The theme of this year's zakat seminar is the Role of Social Finance in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (TPB/SDG's). This seminar was attended by 350 people consisting of students, lecturers and LAZNAS LMI partner companies as well as zakat activists and community empowerment activists. This seminar was opened by the Secretary of the Department of Sharia Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga , Sulistya Rusgianto, SE, MBA, Ph.D. "The problem of sustainable development (SDG's) is very complex so it requires collaboration between parties, starting from Islamic social financial institutions, companies, government, even mass media which also have an important role in realizing sustainable development goals (SDG's)," said Sulistya Rusgianto in his speech.
Bayu Arie Fianto, Chair of the SDG's Center, Universitas Airlangga , said in his material presentation that SDG's achievements in Indonesia are still not optimal, so they need to be pushed further so that the SDG's goals can be realized by 2030. "Islamic social finance has great potential to support the realization of SDG's goals. "There are several issues that must be resolved in Islamic social finance so that it can be optimal in realizing sustainable development goals, one of which is the lack of synergy and collaboration between parties so that there is often overlap in empowering Islamic social finance funds," said Bayu Arie Fianto. On the second topic, Prof. Iman Harymawan highlighted the need for the Amil Zakat Institution to develop operational strategies that have a sustainable development perspective. "Don't make trash bins in one place, but throw rubbish in another place. This means that in every activity we must pay attention to long-term aspects. For example, LAZ distributes zakat fitrah using plastic which can increase plastic waste. "One side of the activity is good, but the other side has a bad impact on environmental aspects," said Prof. Harymawan Faith. "In the future, LAZ needs to make sustainable reports, so that the impact of LAZ's social activities can be measured on the achievement of sustainable development goals," explained Prof. Harymawan's faith further.
Meanwhile, Noven Suprayogi, Chair of LPEI FEB Unair, highlighted the lack of success of the poor community empowerment program because most of the social financial fund distribution programs were consumptive and charitable in nature so they had little impact on poverty alleviation in Indonesia. "Based on existing research, the new Islamic financial fund empowerment model includes a model for achieving 11 of the 17 SDG goals, so there is still opportunity to further develop the Islamic social finance fund empowerment model to achieve SDG's goals," said Noven Suprayogi. "There are many models of empowering Islamic social finance funds for poverty alleviation, but many are not optimal. One of the reasons is that the majority of poverty alleviation programs are in the form of productive zakat for businesses, whereas not all the poor have the skills to do business. "Therefore, there needs to be a poverty alleviation program in the form of increasing the competency of the poor to work in companies or other places," explained Noven Suprayogi further. At the end of his presentation, Noven Suprayogi, provided a model for empowering poor people through improving professional work skills in companies. This program is suitable for poor people who do not have the motivation and skills in entrepreneurship. It's just that this model requires collaboration with companies that are committed to accepting a certain percentage of workers from poor community groups.
Before the zakat seminar closed, awards were given to LAZNAS LMI partner companies which have contributed to social activities and community empowerment carried out by LMI. "This award is given to LMI partners who have made a big contribution to several areas of social activities carried out by LMI to motivate companies to contribute even more and can be emulated by companies that are not yet LMI partners who can immediately join in collaborating with LMI," said Agung Wicaksono, ST, Director Main LAZNAS LMI. "We would like to thank FEB Unair, especially LPEI FEB Unair who has been willing to collaborate with LMI to organize this zakat seminar activity, God willing, it will continue next year," explained Agung Wicaksono further.
