Waqf, an Islamic endowment for charity, has long financed the socio-economic wellbeing of Muslim communities by supporting public goods such as education, healthcare and infrastructure. Recent articles talk about waqf as an enabler of sustainable development objectives in particular through creative forms of financial infrastructure such as waqf sukuk and cash waqf. In this report, we explore the role of waqf in sustainable development and discuss financial innovation, governance reform and the adoption of waqf in today’s banking infrastructure. Focusing on lessons from more recent research, this paper also discusses how waqf can be used to build long-term social and regional economic development. The common theme is that governance must be transformed to be more transparent and efficient with regard to the management of waqf assets. Then, digitalisation and technologies are also listed as key solutions for waqf management and extension. The debate compares the mobility of cash waqf with the structured waqf sukuk and both have distinct advantages depending on the scale of development projects. Finally, the paper suggests that waqf, if correctly reforms, can be an effective means to achieve sustainable development objectives, especially in Muslim-majority nations. We would like future research to examine empirically waqf’s applications in practice, notably in regional economic planning and poverty alleviation.