Check against delivery

Secretary-General,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Yesterday, Norway, together with UNICEF and the leading medical journal of the world “the Lancet”, held a Symposium here in New York. The Symposium’s big issue was how we can achieve the Millennium Goal No. 4, which compels us reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

I see a clear connection between that challenge and the UNITAID initiative.

Because we have to mobilize for health on a broad base.
Using both traditional and new sources of funding.

Norway is a leading country on aid. We give 0.96 per cent of our income for development.

And we support ongoing efforts to find innovative financing sources.
Because present levels of aid are insufficient.

Soon, the International Finance Facility and its pilot project on vaccines will be operational.

Today, we commend France for spearheading this initiative – and I commend the key developing countries that joined the core group early on.

In 2007 - our first year of participation - Norway will contribute a large portion of the proceeds from a CO2 tax on aviation fuel to UNITAID.

This will total between 20 and 25 million US dollars.

It will help us to focus on providing access to drugs,
drugs that are critical for an effective response to global threats such as AIDS.

And it will help us to close critical gaps such as the lack of drugs for children.

In our search for new mechanisms, let us never lose track our goal

- to mobilize more resources.
- more that we do today together.

For development.