Ban to chair meeting on innovative financing solutions for development

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will preside over a meeting tomorrow in Geneva to identify pioneering financing solutions for development, as people in developing countries have been made more vulnerable by the current economic crisis which has intensified disparities between wealthy and poor nations.

The idea of innovative finance was first identified at the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, which resulted in the adoption of a landmark partnership agreement by developed and developing countries focusing on issues such as domestic resource mobilization, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and debt relief.

Innovative financing aims to find sustainable sources of funding that do not substitute official development aid (ODA), and to date, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.

Since the Monterrey gathering, major initiatives have been launched to help achieve development goals, and eight of them will be convening tomorrow. These include (Product) Red, which raises funds to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and is one of the largest consumer-based fundraising efforts by the private sector for an international humanitarian issue.

At tomorrow’s meeting, Mr. Ban seeks to create a dialogue among the initiatives on best practices, how to coordinate action, developing new projects and raising awareness about the need to develop innovative finance as a means to reaching development targets.

Also tomorrow in Geneva, the Secretary-General will address the Conference on Disarmament, participate in the World Health Assembly and meet with representatives of vaccine companies.

Mr. Ban arrived in Geneva from Bahrain, where he attended yesterday’s launch of the “Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction” by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

The 200-page study finds that global disaster risk is on the rise because of unsafe cities, environmental destruction and climate change, jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

While in the country, Mr. Ban held talks with the Foreign Minister of Sudan, and the two discussed Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the situation in Darfur, and Sudan-Chad-related issues.

He also met with Bahrain’s King and Prime Minister, as well as the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and those discussions centred on disaster risk reduction, climate change and the Middle East, including Gaza.

Also in Bahrain, the Secretary-General visited the country’s Supreme Council for Women, where he reaffirmed his commitment to promote the empowerment of women.

“This effort is one of my highest priorities,” he said in an address. “And it includes ending the appalling violence that so many women and girls face.”