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The Islamic finance industry has only been dominated with Islamic banking, Takaful, Islamic capital, and the money market, although, the Islamic cooperative (I-Coop), which is a non-financial institution in most cases is yet to be fully adopted in the contemporary Muslim societies. The Islamic cooperative can be a development reform tool or a social and economic growth method, it can be used to offer interest-free loans and to cover specific demands in rural and urban settings. The main purpose of this study is to investigate Islamic cooperative operations in some OIC countries. This study adopted the content analysis method by reviewing literature as the evidence to demonstrate and provide insights into various critical factors that have prompted the establishment of Islamic cooperatives in some OIC countries. Samples of literature for OIC countries were found and examined. Three I-Coop member countries were given focus to (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nigeria). The findings show that Islamic cooperatives only exist in few OIC countries. It was found that the OIC countries have emphasised more on operating Islamic banking rather than Islamic cooperatives. It was also noticed that the lack of the well-regulated Islamic cooperatives in these countries is due to lack of the government support to established it. However, in Nigeria, the Islamic cooperative is considered new, but the study found various types of Islamic cooperatives already operating there. Lastly, based on the experiences of the Islamic cooperatives in the selected countries, the study suggested creating more awareness, promotions, and guidelines most especially within the OIC countries.

In Malaysia, there has been frequent large-scale flooding in the recent years that resulted in damage in property and giving impact on the livelihood of the people, particularly in the east-coast regions of the country.The objective of this study is twofold.First, it aims to investigate the impact of the flood on the socio-economic livelihoods of the victims, and second, to explore the awareness among the flood victims towards a Takaful protection to enable them to better cope with the flood risks. In terms of methodology, survey method has been adopted to 147 respondents who were affected by the flood in the flood-prone areas in the states of Kelantan and Pahang.Based on simple descriptive analysis, it is found that flood had affected the victims financially especially on their sources of income. In terms of awareness towards Takaful schemes, majority of the victims are aware of Takaful, yet about 30 percent of them are uncertain about the existence of Takaful schemes that may reduce their financial losses when the flood hit. Furthermore, the victims also have limited knowledge on the amount of Takaful contribution that they have to pay for flood coverage (41 percent) and they are uncertain on their capability to pay the monthly Takaful contribution in future (44 percent). The findings of this study provide important inputs on the possibility of establishing an affordable micro-takaful meant for future financial protection as a safety net especially for the lower income and most vulnerable flood victims in the country.