INVITATION TO A DIALOGUE

We'd like to invite you to a dialogue on the initiative "Action Against Hunger and Poverty" taken by the governments of Brazil, Chile, France and Spain. The dialogue takes place on 17 November 2004 at 10.00-12.00 in the Citizens Information Point, at the Parliament of Finland.

In January 2004, in Geneva, the Presidents of Brazil, France, Chile, together with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, started an action program aimed at identifying innovative sources of financing. A technical group was set up to explore new sources of finance, such as taxation on certain sales of arms, taxes on financial transactions, voluntary and socially responsible investments and environmental taxation. The British proposal to establish an International Financial Facility is also under consideration by the Group.

In this context, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil invited world leaders to a meeting, on September 20th in New York, to discuss the findings of the technical group and other contributions from governments and institutions. The ultimate objective of the meeting was to galvanize political support for the implementation of viable financing mechanisms, in an attempt to reach a consensus on possible avenues for effectively reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Summit in New York gathered an impressive participation of head of states, including the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen.

In Finland, the government has adopted a new development policy, which aims at reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals through action by all policy sectors, thus stretching beyond development cooperation. The initiative on Action Against Hunger and Poverty takes the debate on development finance forward and therefore deserves close examination and support.

Programme:
Presentation of the initiative by Ambassador Luiz Henrique Pereira da Fonseca, Ambassador of Brazil in Finland

Comments by:
Susanna Rahkonen, the Finnish Parliament Group for Global Issues
Ville Luukkanen, Kepa - Service Centre for Development Cooperation
Heikki Patomäki, NIGD - Network Institute for Global Democratisation
A representative of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs invited

Discussion
The dialogue is jointly organised by the Network Institute for Global Democratisation (NIGD) and the Finnish Parliament Group for Global Issues, and is chaired by Marko Ulvila, NIGD.

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More information:

Information on the initiative "Action Against Hunger and Poverty:
http://www.mre.gov.br/ingles/politica_externa/temas_agenda/acfp/index. asp

Milllennium Development Goals: http://www.developmentgoals.org/

NIGD (Network Institute for Global Democratization), nigd/