PRESS RELEASES

MEDIA ADVISORY: Johannesburg from (2009-05-13)

The Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems would like to invite you to join the closing remarks session of the Civil Society consultation which is currently taking place in Johannesburg.

Following a lively start to the discussions today, Mrs Graca Machel, Taskforce member and President and Founder of the Foundation for Community Development, will close the two-day consultation with a rousing call for Civil Society organisations to work in unity to increase their impact as a whole.

DATE: Thursday 14 May

TIME: 2.00pm for a 2.30pm start

LOCATION: Hyatt Regency, 191 Oxford Road, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa 2132 Tel: +27 11 280 1234

SCHEDULE: The closing remarks session, delivered by Mrs Graca Machel, will run from between 2.30pm – 3.00pm.

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

Telephone: +44(0)7802 296 737
Email: colleen@colleenharris.co.uk / colleen@harrisprivate.com

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BACKGROUND: Over forty senior Southern based delegates from prominent civil society organisations will be taking part in this consultation event over two days, as part of the work of the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems. The consultation is an important opportunity for participants to voice their views on what steps can be taken to increase funding for health systems to prevent the financial crisis from becoming a human crisis.

Chaired by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, the Taskforce for 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.

About the Taskforce

The Taskforce will:
1. Make recommendations on the mix of innovative international financing mechanisms needed to deliver the extra resources required;
2. Promote international support for these recommendations to ensure they are implemented.

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 Affaires Minister, Australia)
10. Margaret Chan (Director-General of the World Health Organization)
11. Graça Machel (President and Founder, Foundation for Community Development, Mozambique)

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 please visit www.internationalhealthpartnership.net/taskforce.html