THE HISTORY OF THE OPEC FUND
Social Fund for Development in Egypt A 2010 World Bank Impact Evaluation report concluded: “Since its inception, it has disbursed about US$2.5 billion, of which nearly two-fifths was devoted to supporting microcredit and financing community development and infrastructure. The authors find that the Social
spending on health, sanitation interventions have cut household spending on sanitation and lowered poverty, and road projects have reduced household transportation costs by 20 percent. Microcredit is associated with higher household expenditures in metropolitan areas and urban Upper Egypt. The road projects generate benefits that exceed the costs as do health and potable water interventions; this is less evident for interventions in education and sanitation. The Fund’s support for microcredit is strongly pro-poor.”
Fund’s programs have had clear and measurable effects, in the expected direction, for all of the programs considered: educational interventions
have reduced illiteracy, health and potable water programs have lowered household
Khaled Al Zayer, Strategy Advisor to the Vice President, Public Sector
It created hundreds of thousands of jobs and had a revolving structure – borrowers repaid their loans, allowing new ones to be
A key issue for the global development agenda was the question of energy security in times of growing environmental awareness. “It is OFID’s firm belief that human development and energy are inseparably linked,” Director-General Al-Herbish wrote in 2016. However, rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions, to which fossil fuels were a sizeable contributor, and the impact on the global climate made the question of the right energy mix a central priority for sustainable development. Faris Hasan, who served as Director of Strategic Planning until 2020, looks back: “What’s the most important thing for the OPEC Fund? It’s energy. And if you recall, the Millennium Development Goals did not address energy at all. So we interacted
issued. We followed up with additional loans of US$40 million and later US$95 million, each time setting new records for project size. The model proved highly effective, helping micro-entrepreneurs grow into small and medium-sized businesses.” The growing activities of the OPEC Fund were reflected in its results: As the institution marked its 30th anniversary in January 2006, the total development support extended stood at US$7.9 billion, to which the new Private Sector Operations had already contributed US$417.9 million. To symbolize its “reinvention,” as the OPEC Fund magazine phrased it, the institution in 2006 also underwent a comprehensive rebranding with the introduction of the acronym OFID, the creation of a new logo, the subsequent adoption of the motto “Uniting against Poverty”, the new vision: “To aspire to a world where Sustainable Development centered on human capacity-building is a reality for all,” and the new mission statement: “To foster South-South Partnership with fellow developing countries worldwide with the aim of eradicating poverty.”
Energy and development Energy is the lifeline of a modern economy and a foundation for development. Yet according to a 2024 paper by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), at least 1.18 billion people are energy poor across the developing world. That total is 60 percent higher than the official global estimate of 733 million lacking electricity access. The World Bank says that annual investment in electricity generation in developing countries needs to more than double by 2035 – from US$280 billion today to US$630 billion.
with the UN, went to many conferences and appealed to many to join us in the effort to put energy as
a priority. In doing so we were aiming at the poor.”
Faris Hasan, Director of Strategic Planning and Economic Services, 2002-2020, OPEC Fund
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