1. Unlocking Islamic land endowments(waqf) for social development
25 March 2014
World Bank Land and Poverty Conference
Unlocking Islamic land endowments(waqf) for social development
Bernadette Baird-Zars, Rana Amirtahmasebi, Abdulla Darrat

2. Waqf as a land tool: Extent and status
Multi-country survey of administrative, legal and management context
(a) administration and management bottlenecks and opportunities,
(b) local legal innovations that could support a contemporary development agenda
(c) lessons from policy and programmatic experiments in regeneration of properties.   
Major findings
Administration and legal framework
Current management and utilization
Cross-cutting obstacles
Questions

3. WHAT IS WAQF? Waqf/Awqaf
Establishes permanent assets with a purpose – social development
Some are religious; this paper will discuss ‘charitable’ waqf for social aims
Assets can be liquid or semi-permanent; this paper will focus on land, particularly in urban or peri-urban areas
Legal framework for management encouraged cross-subsidization, market rents
Local boards of trustees, local court oversight
Major provider of services historically; preserves endowments.
Prominent method for women to control land
WHAT IS WAQF?

4. extent Assets extensive but not well mapped
Neighborhood surveys suggest 10-20% of urban land in waqf
Current Indian waqf board estimates place current asset value at over USD 1 trillion
Largest landowner in Indonesia
A 2010 global snapshot by Ernst and Young estimates at least 105 billion in waqf, 2/3 rds in property
Single largest landholder in Syria
extent

5. New lenses for old tools
Examining waqf for development
Poverty alleviation
Leveraging private sector participation in social development
Growing local capacity – civil society and municipal management for investment and operations of services and social infrastructure
‘Strategic private philanthropy’ (Brookings)
Municipal assets to financing expansion
Seed funds to grow sector of mission-oriented developers; NGOs
Source for civil society – or FBO.
New lenses for old tools

6. Uniquely place and land-based
Cities
Waqf
Need land for social purposes – affordable housing, services
Have little funding for expanding basic services, providing social infrastructure
Have few established tools to partner with private sector, civil society
Service area inherently place-based: neighborhood or city-scale
Location in historic centers, areas just out of historic centers, large areas of peri-urban agricultural lands.
Often host informal settlements
Respected as method for non-statal delivery of services
Coming from a practical standpoint
Uniquely place and land-based

7. state of current Knowledge
A rich literature examines historical role and legal configurations of waqf
The few studies that describe contemporary waqf underscore three points:
Current administrative frameworks underinvest, and are often purely public
Diversity in country-level tools and legal traditions
Status of assets, eg current usages, extents, and new investments, only exist in city-level or neighborhood level profiles
Note Sait and Lim, Cizezca
state of current Knowledge

8. methodology On-site experience in Morocco, Iran and Syria
Initial scan and matrix of 18 countries
In-depth analysis of 6 countries: Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco and Uzbekistan
In-depth review published academic literature
National-level reports and studies
Public-sector data and official publications
Conversations/interviews with officials, local experts in-country
methodology

9. Findings: governance Local Centralized Local leaders/association
Local leaders/association
Local governments /
Neighborhoods
National-states
National ministry
Single religious authority
Local Centralized
Afghanistan (de facto)
Some Indonesia
Morocco (family awqaf and sufi brotherhoods)
Iran (management)
Uzbekistan
India
Saudi Arabia
Morocco
Iraq (by sect), Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Afghanistan
Kuwait (Consortium)
Iran
Note that Iran is mixed; management and property income is local
Findings: governance

10. Scale of governance of current management systems, mapped along a spectrum of centralization and public/non-public management
Legal and management framework type
Examples from countries with waqf
Centralized public - under direct administration and purview of national government agency.
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Turkey, Iran (religious authority)
Centralized with regional boards
Saudi Arabia, India, Southeast Asia
Centralized ‘network’ of institutions
Kuwait
Local community boards or managers
Previously widespread. South Africa, Indonesia to some extent.
Officially removed from legal system.
Many waqf properties persist de facto.
Russia, Tunisia, former Soviet Republics 

11. Findings: asset management
Across all countries surveyed:
Significant waqf land assets
India: USD 19.5 billion estimated in waqf assets; 600,000 acres
Indonesia: 594 square miles of land in waqf
Underutilization
India: 0.013% rate of return; could generate USD 1 trillion more/year
Morocco rents are 2% to 6% of market rents; produce less than 50% needed for basic maintanence
Indonesia: have potential of earning USD 1.9 billion/year
Findings: asset management

12. Cross-cutting barriers
Space to integrate the awqaf into wider social processes by separating management of religious and charitable waqf
Opportunity to reignite the waqf’s cultural legacy through new management incentives
Need for innovative legal and financial mechanisms within the tradition of Islamic jurisprudence
Demand to improve transparency and availability of data related to waqf holdings.
Cross-cutting barriers

13. Questions Rana Amirtahmasebi: ramirtahmasebi[@]worldbank.org
Bernadette Baird-Zars:
Abdulla Darrat:
Questions

14. Singapore: 150 units, 130 million invested. Rapidly income-producing
Singapore: 150 units, 130 million invested. Rapidly income-producing. Warees waqf management.
Putting into practice

15. Singapore: 150 units, 130 million invested. Rapidly income-producing
Singapore: 150 units, 130 million invested. Rapidly income-producing. Warees waqf management.

16. Putting into practice

17. Putting into practice Land
Remains in permanent endowment, cannot be sold and must serve dedicated social purpose in perpetuity.
Previously managed by Ministry of Aqwaf, now managed by Municipal Redevelopment Company.
Management and coordination: Municipal Redevelopment Authority. Likely a waqf board and management entity inside of MRA. Pays developer upon satisfactory completion of units.
Qualifies residents, matches them to finance. Manages and maintains property. Collects income from rent-producing units, such as stores on the bottom floor. Ensures compliance to purpose of waqf.
Construction and development finance
Private banks to provide economical, sharia-compliant project finance.
Financing for families (for long-term lease)
Government housing bank; private banks or housing finance entities. Will require negotiation with management company.
Residents
Low-income families who are deserving and qualify for the original purpose of the waqf; waqf board can set income level and/or special needs (such as widows, etc).
Putting into practice