European AIDS NGO Initiative: International Air Ticket Contribution - an Opportunity to Support Treatment of HIV/AIDS

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International Air Ticket Contribution - an Opportunity to Support Treatment of

HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Sign-on NGO Statement, February 2006

THE DEADLINE IS WEDNESDAY 15 FEBRUARY!**

Dear All,

Representatives of a number of European NGOs fighting against AIDS,

Tuberculosis and Malaria, met in Paris on 19-20 January 2006 and issued a

statement to support new sources of financing for development and, among them,

the international air ticket contribution.

This strong statement advocate for aditionality of funding, for a dedication of

the new resources to long-term, stable and predictable needs as treatment of

HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

This statement must be widely disseminated and circulated for signature in the

NGOs networks.

The signatures will be collected for 15 February at the latest (forward the

signed statement to statement@....)

I remind you the statement circulation we planned :

- Friends Europe send the statement to each participant to the 19-20 January

meeting.

- Each participant will send it in its own network with copy to Friends Europe

(statement@...).

- The signatures will be collected for 15 February at the

latest(statement@...).

- The statement with all the signatures will be forwarded to each participant to

the 19-20 January meeting on 17 February.

If any problem, do not hesitate to contact me.

Please, find in the sign-on statement below. For the statement in French,

please contact Sylvie Chantereau at: sylviechantereau@...]

Thanks everybody for your mobilization!

Best regards,

Sylvie CHANTEREAU

Friends of The Global Fund Europe

Email: sylviechantereau@...

International Air Ticket Contribution - an Opportunity to Support Treatment of

HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria NGO Statement, February 2006 (Please forward

the signed statement to: statement@...

As representatives of a number of NGOs working to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis

and malaria, we welcome the support given by 79 countries to explore the

implementation of solidarity contributions levied on airplane tickets in the

'Declaration on Innovative Sources of Financing Development' (September 2005).

This is one of a number of initiatives to create alternative sources of

financing for development - including

international taxation mechanisms and the International Financing Facility for

immunisation.

Since the declaration in September, Chile and France have each adopted airplane

ticket contributions which will be formally launched later this year. At the

initiative of French President Chirac, the French

government is also hosting a High Level meeting on innovative sources of

financing development on 28 February-1 March 2006. We hope to see other

governments taking the opportunity there to announce the establishment of

similar airplane ticket contribution schemes.

Alternative sources of funding such as this are urgently needed to prevent

unnecessary deaths due to hunger and disease, to fight poverty, and to stimulate

social and economic development - especially as long as donor governments fail

to meet the target of allocating 0.7 percent of their GNI/GNP to overseas

development assistance.

However, we strongly believe that funds raised from airplane ticket contribution

initiatives - and other new sources of financing for international development -

must be additional to existing or future government funding; used for long-term

projects such as the treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; and

disbursed through existing funding mechanisms:

* Additionality of funding. Any funding raised from innovative sources of

financing for international development should be truly additional in nature.

These resources should not reduce existing government budgets for international

development - nor be counted as part of government commitments to spend 0.7

percent (or other percentages) of GNI/GDP on overseas development assistance.

* Use of the new resources. Given that funding from innovative sources is likely

to be stable, predictable, and long-term, the resources available should be used

for support and development of projects that also need long-term, stable and

predictable funding. This would include recurrent costs (such as drugs and

salaries), the production of global goods, and the development of human capital.

In particular, we believe that the proceeds of airline ticket contribution

schemes should be allocated to the long-term

treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

* Allocation mechanisms. New mechanisms should not be created for the

disbursement of the new resources; instead they should be allocated to

well-functioning, existing financing mechanisms. We believe that there should be

a clear commitment from all countries implementing airline ticket

contribution schemes to dedicate the proceeds to long-term treatment of

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through the 'Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB

and Malaria.'

We are very concerned that there is still no concrete plan, nor a sufficient

increase in financial support, to meet the commitment to universal access to

HIV/AIDS treatment by 2010, which was made during the G8 meeting in Gleneagles

in July 2005. Failure to achieve the universal access commitment, and failure to

scale up funding to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, will not only result in

us falling short of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halting and

reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, and incidence of

tuberculosis and malaria by 2015, but it will also undermine efforts to achieve

other MDGs.

Signatures

AIDES (France)

Friends of The Global Fund Europe

International HIV/AIDS Alliance

Open Society Institute

Results UK