Sustainable Development Goals and Islamic Social Finance: From Policy Divide to Policy Coherence and Convergence
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I believe that the paper presented for review is important in terms of promoting new approaches to financing the Sustainable Development Goals not only in Muslim countries but also globally. The findings of the research can be used to formulate strategies for ISF development around the world, primarily for developing countries.
What deserves attention is the fact that reading this manuscript one can notice a very thoughtful and logical structure of the argument. The paper has the review character, which in no way diminishes its cognitive value. The literature review is based on more than 90 sources.
As a review article should take into account the specific requirements in this regard: Review manuscripts should comprise the front matter, literature review sections and the back matter. The template file can also be used to prepare the front and back matter of your review manuscript. It is not necessary to follow the remaining structure.
(https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions#back)
As the authors rightly note, ISFs have the potential at the national and international levels to mobilize efforts to create more convergent and coherent policies aimed at harnessing these sources for refugee needs. And the policy focus is around the national and international levels. The case studies cited in Table 1 show how much potential there is in Islamic Social Finance.
There is also no denying the posited thesis that ISF instruments such as Zakat, Waqf, Sadaqah are inherently multifaceted and accountable tools. They redistribute a portion of the income earned by successful market players to support marginalized groups in society. However, the mechanisms and capabilities of ISFs are yet to be thoroughly explored, and such mechanisms need to be promoted and developed. In doing so, one thing should be kept in mind - any ISF funding mechanism should be safeguarded against the impact of funds from illicit sources, most notably those related to the financing of global terrorism.
Specific comments:
Line 118-119: This sentence appears to be broken off, unfinished.
Line 588: Title of chart in capital letter.
References were not prepared according to journal requirements. They need thorough improvement.
Summing up, I believe that the presented paper meets the requirements for scientific papers, offering high cognitive value, therefore, after taking into account the indicated comments, I recommend it for publication.
Author Response
Dear Editorial Team
We are deeply grateful to the reviewers for taking the time to review our manuscript. We sincerely appreciate all valuable comments and suggestions which helped us to improve the quality of the article. We have given below our responses and explanations point by point for all the comments and suggestions given by the respected reviewers.
RESPONSE TO REVIEWER 1
Comments: I believe that the paper presented for review is important in terms of promoting new approaches to financing the Sustainable Development Goals not only in Muslim countries but also globally. The findings of the research can be used to formulate strategies for ISF development around the world, primarily for developing countries.
What deserves attention is the fact that reading this manuscript one can notice a very thoughtful and logical structure of the argument. The paper has the review character, which in no way diminishes its cognitive value. The literature review is based on more than 90 sources.
As a review article should take into account the specific requirements in this regard: Review manuscripts should comprise the front matter, literature review sections and the back matter. The template file can also be used to prepare the front and back matter of your review manuscript. It is not necessary to follow the remaining structure.
(https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions#back)
Response: Thank you. We have followed the guidelines and edited the manuscript accordingly.
Comments: As the authors rightly note, ISFs have the potential at the national and international levels to mobilize efforts to create more convergent and coherent policies aimed at harnessing these sources for refugee needs. And the policy focus is around the national and international levels. The case studies cited in Table 1 show how much potential there is in Islamic Social Finance.
There is also no denying the posited thesis that ISF instruments such as Zakat, Waqf, Sadaqah are inherently multifaceted and accountable tools. They redistribute a portion of the income earned by successful market players to support marginalized groups in society. However, the mechanisms and capabilities of ISFs are yet to be thoroughly explored, and such mechanisms need to be promoted and developed. In doing so, one thing should be kept in mind - any ISF funding mechanism should be safeguarded against the impact of funds from illicit sources, most notably those related to the financing of global terrorism.
Specific comments:
Line 118-119: This sentence appears to be broken off, unfinished.
Line 588: Title of chart in capital letter.
Responses: We have Corrected the errors,
Comments: References were not prepared according to journal requirements. They need thorough improvement.
Summing up, I believe that the presented paper meets the requirements for scientific papers, offering high cognitive value, therefore, after taking into account the indicated comments, I recommend it for publication.
Response: Corrected according to the guidelines, thank you.
Reviewer 2 Report
This study seeks to analyze how Islamic Social Finance instruments contribute to achieving SDGs. The paper topic is sufficient of interest, but should be improved before being accepted for publication. These are my comments:
- The introduction section is too long. It is not clear untill the end of the section what is the objective of the paper. I would reccomend the authors to entirely rewrite this section, trying to highlight the contribution and the gap of the literature coered by the study. Besides, a discussion on the methodology choosen (case study) wouold be interesting.
- Some of the ideas included in the introduction should be moved to the second section, where are duplicated.
- There are no hypotheses development. There should be a theoretical discussion clearly explaninjg which theoreies are used to support the hypotheses.
- The selection of case studies should be clearly explained.
Author Response
Dear Editorial Team
We are deeply grateful to the reviewers for taking the time to review our manuscript. We sincerely appreciate all valuable comments and suggestions which helped us to improve the quality of the article. We have given below our responses and explanations point by point for all the comments and suggestions given by the respected reviewers.
RESPONSE TO REVIEWER 2
This study seeks to analyze how Islamic Social Finance instruments contribute to achieving SDGs. The paper topic is sufficient of interest but should be improved before being accepted for publication.
Comments: The introduction section is too long. It is not clear until the end of the section what is the objective of the paper. I would recommend the authors to entirely rewrite this section, trying to highlight the contribution and the gap of the literature covered by the study. Besides, a discussion on the methodology chosen (case study) would be interesting.
Responses: Thanks for the respected reviewer. We revised the introduction and theoretical section of the manuscript. Accordingly, we added explanations about the existing gaps in the literature and highlighted the contribution of our study
Comments: Some of the ideas included in the introduction should be moved to the second section, where are duplicated.
Response: We moved part of the introduction to the literature review section of the manuscript and reviewed the introduction section.
Comments: There are no hypotheses development. There should be a theoretical discussion clearly explaining which theories are used to support the hypotheses.
Response: The objective is clear that there is a gap in the 17-SDGs that did not address the issue of refugees. On the other hand, ISF instruments have potential to fill the existing gaps to achieve SDGs. Therefore, there should be a policy coherence that helps to use ISF instruments outside the Muslim world to support the mainstream humanitarian and development aid activities. We use case studies. The theoretical backgrounds were discussed in the first and second section of the paper
Comments: The selection of case studies should be clearly explained.
Response: Thank you, we explained in the revised manuscript the justification for choosing the cases.
Reviewer 3 Report
This is a thorough, well-written analysis on Islamic Social Finance. The literature review is extensive and well-structured and the discussion is interesting.
I have a few suggestions for improving the paper.
- There is very little data in the article, the case studies are not properly discussed, and specific policy recommendations are missing.
- Limitations of the study and future research directions should be highlighted.
Author Response
Dear Editorial Team
We are deeply grateful to the reviewers for taking the time to review our manuscript. We sincerely appreciate all valuable comments and suggestions which helped us to improve the quality of the article. We have given below our responses and explanations point by point for all the comments and suggestions given by the respected reviewers.
RESPONSE TO REVIEWER 3
This is a thorough, well-written analysis on Islamic Social Finance. The literature review is extensive and well-structured, and the discussion is interesting. I have a few suggestions for improving the paper.
Comment: There is very little data in the article, the case studies are not properly discussed, and specific policy recommendations are missing.
Response: The case studies have discussed in the discussion and analysis section of the paper. The extent of the information about the cases is based on its availability. We have also added in the last section of the revised manuscript policy recommendations in the revised manuscript.
Comment: Limitations of the study and future research directions should be highlighted.
Response: Thank you for reminding us to indicate the limitations of the study. We added the potential limitations of the study in the conclusion section of the paper. We highly appreciate. We believe that this is a good recommendation and was missed in the first draft. So, added it as part of our recommendation in the last section of part of the paper.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
After the authors' revision, the paper is now acceptable for publication.
