HC Deb 12 May 2004 vol 421 cc365-6W
10. Julie Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State, Department for International Development, if he will make a statement on mechanisms for financing development. [172244]

Hilary Benn

In January 2003 HM Treasury and the Department for International Development (DFID) launched a proposal for an International Finance Facility (IFF). The IFF is designed to "frontload" aid to help meet the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The IFF has the following advantages; it provides the additional resources necessary to help achieve the MDGs, making funds available for education, health, economic development, debt relief and building trade capacity; it is the only feasible proposal at the moment which would deliver these resources; it locks in the political commitment of donors to Monterrey pledges and it provides the predictability and critical mass of aid needed for simultaneous and sustainable investment in developing systems across sectors, tackling the causes rather than the symptoms of poverty.

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