BAZNAS together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) began to develop Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BAZNAS and UNDP Indonesia in Jakarta on Thursday (20/4).

"This cooperation is very important, and the various programs in this cooperation will show how strong the cooperation is," said the UNDP Director for the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Haoliang Xu, after signing the cooperation.

He hopes this cooperation will become a model that can be replicated throughout Indonesia and other countries.

The cooperation, among others, will be the construction of zakat platform for SDGs. This platform is expected to increase the role of zakat which then can support the achievement of SDGs in Indonesia.

The cooperation also includes enhancement and efforts to further intensify the collection of zakat through the Zakat Inclusion Program in collaboration with financial institutions.

In addition, both parties also prepare programs to improve zakat service and zakat-based social finance through access to programs such as Zakat Community Development, a community development program in various fields based on zakat funds.

Based on data owned by BAZNAS, only 2 percent of the total national zakat potential of 18 Billion US Dollars per year can be collected formally, either through the central BAZNAS, BAZNAS at provincial and regency/municipality level as well as zakat collection through the official Zakat Institutions.

Chairman of BAZNAS, Prof. Dr. Bambang Sudibyo, MBA, CA, hopes that cooperation with UNDP and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) could increase the collection of zakat as this cooperation enhances the credibility of BAZNAS as the official zakat institution established by the State.

"I hope that before 2020, zakat institutions will become sharia financial institutions supervised by OJK. This is important so that the institutional of BAZNAS and LAZ will be managed as sharia banks in Indonesia," he said.

As part of the agreement, a clean water program is being prepared in East Nusa Tenggara using zakat, infak and shadaqah fund collected and managed by BAZNAS.

(Source: http://pusat.baznas.go.id | Transl: amelya/puskasbaznas.com)