Achieving Sustainable Impact of Zakāh in Community Development Programs

Zakāt Community Development (ZCD) Program is one of the featured programs initiated by Indonesia National Board of Zakāt in empowering the community and prioritizing the fulfillment of people's capacity and skills as a basis for mobilizing people and making changes. More than a hundred communities, which are represented at village level, have been chosen to benefit from the program since last year. In practice, the ZCD program has various fields in economic, spiritual, social, educational, and health activities to improve the living standards of the mustahik. The beneficiaries of the program are also expected to be self-reliant and be able to spread the inspiration to those around them so as to make the impact of zakāt long term. This study is conducted to examine the sustainable impact of zakāt toward the welfare of mustahik living in a community. By using mixed methods, the indicator of sustainable impact is derived from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The assessment or evaluation indicator is developed specifically to determine whether the communities are suitable to benefit from ZCD programs. It is also necessary to measure the outcome of the program from the perspective of sustainability This study shows that conceptually zakāt and SDGs have significant relevance. It is because zakāt is an instrument of Islamic economic development which places the Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah as its implementation goal. Because of its narrower scope compared to the Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah, SDGs can be used as a reference indicator for zakāt to fulfil the purpose of development which is reflected in Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah. Furthermore, from samples of ZCD programs in some selected villages, it has been found that communities of mustahik are able to scale up their welfare by utilizing the zakāt programs. Some of them have successfully created new productive activities which transform their status from mustahik to muzakki. Interestingly, these achievements are not only for those who receive zakāt, but also for non-recipients who are living in the same community that gets involved in the programs.