Green light for chancellor's immunisation plans

Wednesday, 3 August 2005 12:00 AM

Gordon Brown's plans to raise money for immunisation in the world's poorest countries have been boosted by news that the scheme will not count as government borrowing.

The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIM) aims to raise at least $4 billion (£2.25 billion) to be spent in providing vaccines, mainly in Africa, over the next ten years.

It would use long-term commitments by developed nations acting as guarantors to borrow money on the international market and raise the amount needed quickly.

Participating governments would then pay the money back through the facility over about 20 years - a decade after the money has been distributed to causes that cannot wait that long.

Britain has pledged to provide about one third of the $4 billion, while France, Italy, Spain and Sweden agreed to contribute.

A major obstacle in the way of the chancellor's scheme, which hopes to save about five million lives, was the reluctance of European countries to take on more borrowing.

However, Eurostat, the EU's statistical body, yesterday announced that bonds issued by the IFFIM would not be included in the borrowing figures of the countries involved - effectively giving it the green light.

The Treasury welcomed the decision, which was backed up by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), as a "major step forward" for the IFFIM.

"Crucially this innovative new financing mechanism will frontload additional aid and provide it on a secure, predictable footing, maximising the impact," a spokeswoman said.

The government will now proceed as quickly as possible with the scheme, and hopes to secure the support of other donors over the coming weeks.

The IFFIM has been developed and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation, Unicef, the World Bank and the Vaccine Fund.

As well as providing vaccines to some of the world's poorest countries by 2015, it will also act as a pilot for the larger scale International Finance Facility (IFF).

The ONS has insisted that yesterday's Eurostat decisions "do not set any precedents for the IFF" and the features of that scheme will be "examined on its separate merits".

But a successful pilot is likely to pave the way for the establishment of the IFF, which aims to double the amount of development aid to $100 billion a year up to 2015 and is a vital part of Mr Brown's plans to "make poverty history".

Tags: