ITFC and the Islamic Development Bank partner to boost Institut Pasteur de Dakar and a network of African laboratories on COVID-19 biomedical research program

Jeddah, KSA, 31 August 2020 – The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), are to support Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) based in Senegal with medical equipment and biomedical research in the fight against COVID-19 across a network of laboratories in several Sub-Saharan African countries.

This intervention is facilitated through the IsDB Reverse Linkage Mechanism and under the Arab Africa Trade Bridges Program as part of the IsDB Group COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Program (3Rs). It will ensure IPD’s laboratories network across ten other African OIC member countries receive medical equipment and collaborate in their responses to COVID-19 through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. The ten countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Togo.

The Reverse Linkage mechanism is a technical cooperation to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and expertise, as well as sharing of best practices amongst partnering OIC member countries. Whilst the scheme was created to boost broad-based economic growth and the enrichment of value chains, it is a mechanism that can also serve to accelerate the diffusion of innovative and strategic approaches to fighting the COVID 19 pandemic. The scheme is helping to combat the effects of the virus in sub-Saharan African OIC member countries through capacity development, peer learning and knowledge sharing from knowledge centres across the continent such as the Institut Pasteur de Dakar.