UK: one thousand dollars from the Pope

The first bond has been undersigned by the Pope for 1000 dollars and will also be used to help the poorer countries. This is what happened on the 7th of November in London where the first Ifflm – International Financing Facility for Immunisation ? bonds have been issued. The Ifflm is part of the Iff which is a mean for capturing new funds for development put together by U.K?s Minister of Finance, Gordon Brown. Ifflm bonds will help provide vaccines for poliomyelitis, malaria and tbc in 72 countries in the world and according to estimates could save as many as up to 10 million people, including 5 million children, by 2015. The Iff scheme consists in the issue of government guaranteed bonds. Bondholders will be repaid from future donor payment streams over a twenty year period. The Ifflm, launched by Gordon Brown the day after the Gleneagles G8 in 2005, is the first experiment that aims to raise funds to provide better access to vaccinations to those in the poorer countries. On the 7th of November a special body created specifically for the task has emitted the first bonds for a total value of 1 billion dollars. The funds generated, managed by the World Bank, will be used to finance Gavi, the global alliance for vaccinations created in 2000 by Unicef and the World Health Organisation and with the initial donation of 1 billion 700 million dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Cardinal Renato Martino was the first to buy a bond , on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. In Italy the Iff was first presented in the Vatican during the conference on Poverty and Globalisation: development finances in 2004 that Gordon Brown also participated to. Anyone can buy the bonds: individuals, institutions, private organisations. They give returns of 5% per year and are guaranteed by the governments that have adhered to the scheme, these being: Great Britain, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden (Brasil and South Africa have announced their intention to also join). Italy has agreed to contribute 30 million dollars every year until 2025, which is when the scheme is planned to end and the bonds be reimbursed. ” The first emission of bonds has been a success, there has been more demand than supply” states Jean-Pierre Le Calvez, Gavi spokesman, from London ” there were bonds available for 1 billion dollars and there were requests for 1 billion 700 million.” The bonds that were issued, for a value of 1000 euros, will run out in 2011. The objective is to reach 4 billion dollars. This way the Ifflm should be able to guarantee funds for vaccinations for the next twenty years to millions of people. Global Alliance for Unicef-Oms vaccinations : www.gavialliance.org