Youth Charity Engagement, Islamic Social Finance and Perceived Collaboration Effectiveness for Sustainable Development: Evidence from University Students in Uzbekistan

Islamic social finance instruments such as sadaqah, ehson and qard al-hasan (benevolent, interest-free loans) are promoted as complements to public finance for the Sustainable Development Goals, yet little is known about how young people in emerging Muslim-majority economies evaluate them. This study examines whether university students' charity participation, preferred social-finance opportunity, perceptions of youth initiatives and expected outcomes of benevolent finance are associated with their assessment of collaboration effectiveness. A survey of 352 students in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was conducted in September–November 2025 and analysed with Monte Carlo chi-square tests, Holm correction, rank-based tests and ordinal logistic regression. Most respondents (73.3%) rated collaboration as effective. After correction, perceived youth-initiative impact (Cramér's V = 0.208; adjusted p = 0.001) and preferred social-finance opportunity (V = 0.171; adjusted p = 0.031) were associated with collaboration ratings; charity participation and expected outcomes were not. These associations were concentrated among the few students who endorsed no instrument or initiative, not among students preferring one instrument over another. This endorsement threshold suggests that universities and Islamic finance institutions in Uzbekistan should prioritise reaching disengaged students and making initiative results visible, rather than promoting any single instrument.

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