PRESS RELEASES

MEDIA ADVISORY: Paris from (2009-05-27)

On 29 March 2009 world leaders will convene in Paris for the meeting of the High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing. You are invited to send a photographer or reporter to cover the opening session of the third meeting of the Taskforce.

DATE: Friday 29 May

TIME: 09:30 for a 10:00 start

LOCATION: OECD Conference Center, Room 15, 2, rue André Pascal, 75016 Paris, France.

SCHEDULE: The Taskforce Meeting will start at 10:00 and photographers and reporters are invited to attend for the start of the meeting. There will be an opportunity to speak to Taskforce Members at the close of the meeting at approximately 12:30.

Attendees include Bernard Kouchner, Foreign Minister, France; Graeme Wheeler, Vice President, the World Bank; Ivan Lewis, UK International Development Minister; Margaret Chan, DG World Health Organization; Bob McMullen, International Development Minister, Australia, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Health Minister, Ethiopia and Phillippe Douste-Blazy UN special envoy to the Taskforce.

RSVP: It is essential that you confirm your attendance in advance. Please contact Colleen Harris, Communication Adviser to the Taskforce or Antoine Colombin to confirm your attendance, request an interview or for more information.

Telephone: +44(0)7802 296 737 or +33(0) 667 248 617
Email: colleen@colleenharris.co.uk or acolombin@mocca.fr

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BACKGROUND: Chaired by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems is a group of political and world leaders who are determined to find new ways of funding healthcare systems throughout the developing world.
The Facts – why funds are needed now:
• Halfway to 2015, numerous countries are lagging behind in reaching the health MDGs
• Worldwide a child dies every three seconds, a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth every minute and 7,000 people are infected with HIV every day
• More than half a million women die from preventable complications in pregnancy and childbirth every year. Over 300 million suffer from preventable illness and disability
• Current donor funding is not sufficiently predictable or sufficiently large to support reaching the health MDGs.

About the Taskforce

1. The Taskforce will make recommendations on the mix of innovative international financing mechanisms needed to deliver the extra resources required.
2. The Taskforce will promote international support for these recommendations to ensure they are implemented.
3. The Taskforce’s first meeting was held in Doha in November 2008. The second meeting was held in Downing Street, London on 13 March 2009 and this is third meeting in Paris.
4. There have been a number of civil society consultation events - London in March 2009; Johannesburg May 2009 and Abuja in May 2009. A number of meetings have been held with the private sector, Government Ministers and MEPs.
Taskforce members:

1. Prime Minister Gordon Brown (United Kingdom) (co-chair)
2. Robert Zoellick (President of the World Bank) (co-chair)
3. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia)
4. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Norway)
5. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Health Minister, Ethiopia)
6. Bernard Kouchner (Foreign Minister, France)
7. Giulio Tremonti (Finance Minister, Italy)
8. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (UNSG Special Envoy for Finance for Development Conference & Development Minister, Germany)

9. Stephen Smith (Foreign Affairs Minister, Australia)
10. Margaret Chan (Director-General of the World Health Organization)
11. Graça Machel (President and Founder, Foundation for Community Development, Mozambique)
12. Shigeru Omi (Special Assistant to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan)
13. Bert Koenders (Development Cooperation Minister, Netherlands)

Phillippe Douste-Blazy the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy on Innovative Financing serves as Special Envoy to the Taskforce.
For more information on the work of the Taskforce and to see copies of Working Group reports please visit www.internationalhealthpartnership.net/taskforce.html