Zakat as Policy Tool to Reduce Poverty and Improve Livelihoods

This chapter examines Zakat (a faith-based institution) as a potent wealth mobilisation and redistribution mechanism, which has the efficacy to reduce poverty significantly not only within countries but also among countries. Zakat occupies a central position among the five pillars upon which the edifice of Islam rests. This centrality should manifest in the fight against poverty. In its central position, Zakat should serve as a link between wealth and poverty, affluence and deprivation and, for a want of better term, between the nonpoor and the poor. Data on Zakat have been empirically gathered. A structured questionnaire has been used to elicit first-hand information on the role of Zakat in poverty reduction and livelihoods sustainability in the selected countries. The data were collected from the state’s departments responsible for the administration of Zakat in the selected countries. That is, these are the few countries where Zakat has been given a legislative backing because Zakat has not been institutionalised in the majority of the OIC countries.