Events

President Chirac opened, on February 28, the international conference on “Solidarity and Globalization: innovative financing for development and against pandemics.” The conference was held from February 28 to March 1 at ministerial level at the International Conference Center [CCI]. It was open to the press—the inaugural session at the Palais de l’Elysée and the working sessions at the CCI.

Over a hundred countries from the North and South were taking part in the conference along with 18 international organizations and some 60 NGOs, with the aim of moving into a new phase for the implementation of innovative financing for development.

For several years, the international community has been looking for new tools to ensure sustained financing for development and the fight against poverty. A consensus has gradually emerged on the usefulness of such financing and on the technical and political possibility of setting it up. 79 countries endorsed the Declaration on Innovative Sources of Financing for Development adopted on September 14, 2005 at the United Nations in New York.

The Paris conference was an important milestone in this endeavor and aimed both to expand the circle of countries supporting such mechanisms and to establish a pilot group of countries ready to implement such financing in a short time. Various options, such as the international financing facility, co-development and facilitation of transfers of migrants, the tax on financial transactions and the fight against tax evasion was examined in round tables.

France decided to establish an international solidarity contribution on airline tickets, which will go into force on July 1, 2006, with part of the proceeds going to the International Drug Purchase Facility in the context of the fight against pandemics. These subjects were debated in plenary session.

Philippe Douste-Blazy, Foreign Minister, Thierry Breton, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry, and Brigitte Girardin, Minister Delegate for Cooperation, Development and Francophony, wtook part in the work at the conference.

The plenary session devoted to innovative financing for public health, which were held on Tuesday, February 28, , were introduced by Philippe Douste-Blazy. The foreign minister was also close the conference and held a press briefing on March 1 at the CCI.

  Read the press kit
  Read the booklet about this conference

Official statements

  Chair’s Summary (Paris, 1 March 2006)

"Participants noted that several innovative sources were particularly well adapted to financing health-related development programmes, although this is not the only sector in which they can be applied. They stressed that the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria must be carried out via the strengthening of developing countries’ health systems. National authorities with the help of cooperation agencies must take strong and sustainable action to this end. However more efforts must be made at an international level to improve access to low-cost drugs if the goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS treatments is to be achieved by 2010. With this in mind, participants reviewed the proposal to create an International Drug Purchase Facility (IDPF)."

  Leading group on solidarity levies to fund development (Paris, 1 March 2006)

"Emphasizing the need to involve all interested stakeholders, we have decided that the Leading Group will be chaired alternately by a developed country and a developing country for six months, and that the first two chairs will be Brazil and then Norway. France will host the Group’s permanent secretariat. The Group will involve interested international and non-governmental organisations in its work."

  "Solidarity and globalizations : innovative financing for development and against pandemics" - Speech by Mr Chirac, president of the Republic (Paris, 28 February 2006)

"We are going to use the most advanced techniques of our modern economy in the interests of the poorest. We are going to transcend the North-South divide to further a spirit of global solidarity and responsibility. That is the whole point of the commitment of France and some 100 other countries attending this Paris International Conference on New Development Financing Mechanisms."