High representatives have strongly supported innovative financing during the MDGs Summit organized by the United Nations last 20-22 September 2010. Speeches of the French President and Prime Minister of Spain, during the opening of the General Assembly, have demonstrated a strong support for a levy on financial transactions to finance development.

The Final Declaration, adopted by the United Nations on September 22, refers explicitly for the first time to the role of innovative financing to achieve the MDGs, as well as to the work of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing and to its initiatives undertaken on taxation of international financial transactions and education sector :

“§78. We commit ourselves to accelerating progress in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal 8, including through: (h) Exploring new innovative finance mechanisms and strengthening and scaling up existing ones, where appropriate, given their potential to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Such voluntary mechanisms should be effective and should aim to mobilize resources that are stable and predictable, they should supplement and not be a substitute for traditional sources of finance and should be disbursed in accordance with the priorities of developing countries and not unduly burden them. We note the ongoing work in this regard, including by the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development as well as by the Task Force on International Financial Transactions for Development and the Task Force on Innovative Financing for Education.”

This statement constitutes an important step following the Doha Conference on Financing for Development in December 2008, which already called for “scaling up” innovative financing.

Text of the Declaration