U.K.'s Brown Pledges $1.8 Billion For Vaccinations

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that includes forced risk taking by large numbers of individuals, the
potential for human rights abuses is directly proportionate to the money and
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U.K.'s Brown Pledges $1.8 Billion for Poor Country Vaccinations

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will
today pledge around $1.8 billion over 15 years towards vaccination programs
for the world's poorest countries, an official from the Treasury said.

Brown and Development Secretary Hilary Benn will say they plan to give the
money to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, which yesterday
received $750 million from Microsoft Corp's. Bill Gates and $200 million
pledged by Norway.

``Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn are calling for a total $4 billion to be
committed,'' said the London-based Treasury official.

Brown's wants to boost international aid budgets with an extra $50 billion
through his so-called International Finance Facility, which he proposed in
January 2003 to allow western nations to sell investment-grade bonds on
financial markets backed by their annual aid budgets. In addition Brown,
Gates and the French government want to double the amount of money available
by also leveraging aid to GAVI in capital markets.

The program will act as a pilot for Brown's wider IFF proposals, though they
don't have the backing of countries such as the U.S. and Germany.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, who disagrees with Brown's approach,
recommended in October that the World Bank cover the cost of canceling the
debts itself and then avoid future debt mountains by providing aid through
grants rather than loans.

The German government has also said it can't afford to meet Brown's request
for assistance due to its budget deficit, which was 39.5 billion euros
($52.2 billion) last year, according to the Finance Ministry.

Debts

The U.K. Treasury official said most of the money for GAVI had been budgeted
for out of funds allocated to the Department for International Development.

Brown has urged lending nations to write off as much as $50 billion in debts
owed to the World Bank, and wants $12 billion loaned by the International
Monetary Fund to be written off by revaluing or selling part of the fund's
gold reserves.

Brown will today reiterate calls made during his recent six- day tour of
sub-Saharan African countries to have $20 billion of the IFF money allocated
to education and health. The Treasury official said Brown would present
proposals for a ``five point implementation plan'' to be carried out this
year.

He also wants an advance purchase agreement with pharmaceutical companies so
that they can devote more resources to finding a cure for HIV/Aids and more
assistance for developing countries to boost trade.

Brown's proposals will be discussed at the meeting of the Group of Seven
industrial countries that takes place in London on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, the
official said.