The challenges of managing, investing and financing Waqf assets in Yemen : the need for alternative model

Abstract

Waqf has played a significant role throughout Islamic history. This has been possible through proper management, investment and financing of various Waqf assets to enhance the socioeconomic development of Muslim societies. In particular, it has contributed significantly to the encouragement of religious practices, improvement of education, health and helping the poor and the needy, creating employment and supporting other socio-economic activities. However, nowadays most of Waqf assets have become idle and no longer serves the needs of the Ummah due to problems, such as poor governance structure and human resource. Few studies have tried to address challenges facing Waqf but unfortunately these studies have been conducted in countries where the governance structure is robust and the quality of human resource is very good. Such models may not be suitable in contexts such as Yemen where Waqf assets are mostly in the form of physical assets such as lands and buildings and the quality of human resource and governance structure are poor. Therefore, the current study has proposed a model to address these challenges in terms of management, investment and finance in Yemen. The study has used semi-structured interviews with experts to explore the acceptability of the model in Yemen. The experts interviewed are mainly policy makers, Waqf directors and academicians specialized in the areas of Waqf and Islamic banking. The findings of the study indicate that Islamic banking model could play a significant role for development of Waqf assets. Further, according to the findings of the current study, the applicability of the proposed model to the Yemeni context is supported.