The Waqf and its Role in Achieving Local Development

The Case of Annaba Province

Abstract

Islamic Waqf (Endowment) focuses on investing in productive capital assets that generate benefits and revenues consumed in the future, whether collectively, such as benefits for mosques or schools, or individually, as distributions to the poor and needy. It is a process that combines both saving and investing. Within this context, this study aims to analyze the extent of the Waqf's contribution as an Islamic financial instrument to achieving local development in Algerian provinces through a case study of Annaba Province (eastern Algeria). To achieve the aforementioned objective, the researchers conducted a field study at the headquarters of the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Waqf in Annaba Province. Interviews were conducted with the head of Religious Guidance and Rites and Waqf and with the Director of Religious Guidance and Waqf Office at the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Waqf in Annaba Province. A descriptive approach was used to present the theoretical framework and previous studies, in addition to analyzing and discussing various statistics that serve the topic and obtained from the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Waqf in the province. The study concluded that there is limited contribution of the Waqf in achieving local development in Annaba Province due to several reasons, the most prominent being the weak income of Waqf, digitization, community awareness, and the legal, regulatory, and accounting frameworks governing them, not to mention the failure of Qard al-Hasan (interest free loan) program. Based on the aforementioned results, the study recommends the necessity of collecting and inventorying existing Waqf properties, searching for lost ones, registering them, and their legal settlement, along with good marketing for them.