The Road to the SDGs

– Executing agencies – Project implementation units – Co-financiers – Suppliers – Other external contracting parties involved in the preparation and implementation of projects and programmes financed by or through IsDB. X It also contains advice on how to deal with co-financing from partners who have requested that IsDB assume responsibility for administration of project or programme disbursements. X The policies and procedures outlined in the Handbook apply to sovereign and sovereign-guaranteed operations funded by IsDB (or IsDB-administered funds). These operations utilise proceeds from sources including: – OCR – ISFD – Waqf Fund – Special and trust funds. Other donor-originated funds administered by IsDB X The policies and procedures outlined in the Handbook apply to all Islamic mode financing extended by IsDB to beneficiaries, including grants financed or managed by IsDB. They cover matters such as: – IsDB’s general conditions applicable to sovereign-backed financing, guidelines for procurement of goods, works and related services, and guidelines for procurement of consultants – Services under IsDB’s Project Financing, Project Financial Management or Integrity Policy, and IsDB’s Anti-Corruption Guidelines. X Other matters covered by the Handbook include: – A broad overview of IsDB Group structure and organisation, with a particular focus on IsDB’s operations to which the disbursement-related policies and procedures apply – Aspects of IsDB’s policies that relate to disbursement operations, including those covering critical financing-related project events such as suspension or cancellation – The broad procedural contours of the four standard modes of disbursement at IsDB. X The Handbook also features information about the main organisations relevant to disbursement operations of IsDB: – ICD – ICIEC – ITFC – IsDBI. ACHIEVEMENTS X The Handbook has enabled IsDB to achieve a significant reduction in delays at various stages of project implementation. X Significant time efficiency was gained in disbursement request processing, from an average of 19 days in 2017 to only 7 days in 2020. This is primarily due to the decentralisation of disbursement- related functions under the P5P, as well as other initiatives such as the Disbursement Handbook, which has improved the overall efficiency of the process. X An aspect of IsDB’s funding cycle that has seen considerable improvement is the time from approval to first disbursement of funds. Between 2017 and 2019, IsDB reduced this by five months (from 24 months to 19 months), thus enabling recipients to begin seeing the benefits of funding much sooner. X The greatest improvements were observed in water sector projects, where the time lag between the approval date and first disbursement date was reduced from 30 to 17 months, followed by the finance and agriculture sector projects. INVESTMENT X The Handbook’s comprehensive focus on IsDB’s disbursements has contributed to reducing the ratio of internal administrative expenses per US$ 1 million disbursement to US$ 50,000 in 2021 from US$ 63,000 in 2018. 2 0 1 9 D I S B U R S E M E N T S In 2019, IsDB disbursed US$2.98 billion for projects and grants — 16% higher than in 2018 The Handbook and the new decentralised disbursement model have reduced the disbursement cycle period from 19 to 7 days [ 191 ] T H E R O A D T O T H E S D G s | P R O G R E S S A N D A C H I E V E M E N T S