Using Zakat to Build the Resilience of Communities to Disasters: Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

Disasters have a major impact on the poor and need substantial resources to reduce them both before and after the disaster. Zakat may be an important resource that can be used especially to build the resilience of poor communities to disasters. This study aims at investigating the role of the effectiveness of the zakat system as an instrument in helping the poor and needy to build communities resilience to disasters in Egypt. To meet this, the study presents the concept of poverty and then discusses Zakat ability to Build the Resilience of Communities to Disasters. A search of the English literature addressing Zakat; Poverty Alleviation; Egypt; Risk financing; Cost of damages; Disaster management fund; Public-private partnership, and related topics was conducted using online resources and databases accessed through the Egyptian Knowledge Bank – EKB. The most important results are the different types of charities may play an important role in Building the Resilience of Communities to Disasters in Egypt. The study emphasizes the need for the Egyptian government to monitor and control the processes of collecting and distributing Zakat and the need for voluntary charities as complementary tools in Building Resilience.