HOW ISLAMIC FINANCE CONTRIBUTES TO ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
This report identifies the opportunities that Islamic finance presents for donors. To achieve these, Arab and OECD Development Assistance Committee donors need to mobilise innovative forms of financing and deliver the call to deepen the transformation of development finance systems. DAC members could do so by broadening and deepening exposure to alternative forms of financing, such as Islamic finance. Islamic finance represents USD 2.5 trillion – a share of which could be mobilised for development – and its tenets resonate across the member countries of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and beyond. Arab donors could harness Islamic finance, as a means to strengthen partnerships with DAC members, whilst increasing the effectiveness of existing aid flows in countries and contexts where they have considerable access. Doing so could create a more equitable and stable development finance order capable of delivering the SDGs and achieve greater impact in partner countries. Both communities would then be able to chart a path for all development actors, notably the private sector, development finance institutions and other bilateral donors. This report provides a set of action points for Arab and DAC donors, highlighting the benefits of engaging in and co-operating through Islamic finance.
An effective finance function is integral to an organization’s long-term success. Therefore, ensuring a fit-for-purpose finance function that meets the needs of an organization is crucially important.
This tool is designed for use by boards and management teams to support meaningful discussion on how the finance function progresses within the organization. It also helps identify priority areas for further development that will maximize the value and contribution of the finance function.
This tool is meant to be used alongside two other reports, which provide a vision for the CFO and finance function and future-fit roles for accountants in business.
The world is changing fast, and so are the roles of finance and accounting professionals. The nature of work performed by professional accountants and the nature of their contribution to organizations are rapidly evolving in response to significant business trends.
This report identifies the roles that future-fit accountants in business can fulfill to remain integral to their organizations in the coming decade based on the experiences of senior business and finance leaders, CEOs, board directors, and other stakeholders.
THE CFO AND FINANCE FUNCTION ROLE IN VALUE CREATION
This report sets out current thinking on how CFOs and their finance teams can account for and communicate value creation for internal and external stakeholders.
This thinking enables CFOs and their teams to focus on:
Understanding value creation and how value creation is defined, created, delivered, and sustained; and
Measuring and tracking performance covering three interconnected value creation perspectives: balance sheet, business, and societal value.
As economies digitize, organizations of all sizes across sectors face enormous disruption and opportunity. Professional accountants must expand their approach to include both structured and unstructured datasets to support organizations in making insight-driven decisions. The Professional Accountant’s Role in Data, a joint report released by IFAC and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), outlines a data management value chain and explores four key roles professional accountants can occupy within it: Data Engineer, Data Controller, Data Scientist, and Strategic Advisor.
Organizations are facing chronic skills shortages in these areas, and professional accountants have the opportunity to fill these roles. The report includes case studies highlighting how professional accountants in different roles, such as the CFO, can broaden their roles in driving data-driven decisions.
