This research aims to examine the effects of the Islamic social finance (zakat), the Islamic Human Development Index (IHDI), and the quality of governance on poverty alleviation in 39 Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries from 2007 to 2020. This study uses a fixed effect model to analyze the relationship between variables. The findings show that the Islamic human development index, as a proxy for the quality of human resources, supports the reduction of poverty in OIC countries. Furthermore, the zakat, voice and accountability, and trade openness have a negative and significant relationship with poverty. The quality of governance, population, inflation, and exchange rate, on the other hand, has no significant effect on the poverty rate. These findings can be used as the foundation for state government as the policymaker to solve poverty. The uniqueness of this study is the application of the modified human development index based on the five Islamic objectives and empirically investigates its impact on poverty.
The utilization of Islamic social finance instruments is far behind what is expected. To realize its full potential, Islamic social finance instruments must be integrated. This study examined solutions and priority strategies for integrating sustainable Islamic social finance that could be implemented in the short and long term using the Benefit, Opportunity, Cost, and Risk (BOCR) framework, which includes six aspects: Governance, sustainable financing, institutional aspect, human resources, regulations, and supporting technology. This qualitative research employed the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method using the benefit, opportunity, cost, and risk analysis. The data were obtained mainly through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with respondents among academics, practitioners, associations, regulators, and community leaders. The respondents were selected for their expertise and experience in the selected topic. The data were processed using the Microsoft Excel and Super Decision software. There are several findings worth considering from the analysis. First, the highest priority in integrating Islamic social finance aspects are human resources (0.97), regulation (0.86), and technology (0.76). Second, based on the short- and long-term analysis, financial integration through sustainable financing (0.01 and 1.44, respectively) and improving human resource quality through certification and training (0.01 and 1.56, respectively) is a priority solution and strategy to integrate sustainable Islamic social finance. Meanwhile, according to expert judgments, integrating national data (0.24) and optimizing technology use (0.18) are priority solutions and strategies. The findings emphasize the critical role of improving human resource quality to utilize technology, with experts identifying a national data integration as the most critical solution. As a result, relevant stakeholders are concerned about technology management training for Islamic philanthropic managers, with the goal of maximizing the potential of technology's growing role and adoption.