Arab Pension Funds are Increasing Their Focus on ESG, and Could Benefit Even More From Recognising its Alignment with Islamic Finance

The Arab Monetary Fund and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have jointly surveyed Arab pension funds and found rising understanding of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and a willingness to explore, strategise and plan to implement moreExisting ESG integration is dominated by negative screening and thematic approaches, with much more limited work on systematic integrationGiven the prominence of the Arab world in the global Islamic finance industry, and the findings of research by RFI Foundation on the integration of ESG and Shariah screens, there are currently under-explored opportunities to improve outcomes for beneficiaries

UNDP and the Arab Monetary Fund recently released the results of a survey of a limited sample of pension funds i...