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The Chancellor of the Exchequer issued a written ministerial statement on Innovative Financing for Development on 2 March 2006, Official Report, column 29WS, following his attendance at the Paris Ministerial Conference.The UK Government recognises that in order to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, additional resources are urgently needed. The UK is, therefore, committed to developing innovative financing mechanisms, in particular the International Finance Facility (IFF) and the pilot IFF for Immunisation (IFFIm).In September last year, the IFFIm was launched with contributions from France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and now Norway and Brazil, as well as the UK. By frontloading aid and investing an extra $4 billion in vaccination now, the IFFIm is expected to save a total of 10 million lives, including 5 million children before 2015. France has reiterated its support for this important initiative and will contribute an average of $100 million a year over 20 years. The IFFIm is now so advanced that the first bonds will be issued within a few months, and the IFFIm will begin purchasing vaccines and delivering these to the poorest countries in 2006.Given the scale of the challenge for reaching the MDGs by 2015, France and the UK have agreed jointly to establish a working group to consider the implementation of an IFF going to health and education, among other sectors, which will be partly funded by an air ticket levy.The UK has also agreed to support the proposal for an International Drug Purchase Facility, which will provide greater access to those in developing countries to much-needed drugs to tackle HIV/AIDS and malaria. |