Halifax Initiative

January 20, 2004

Washington DC,
December 1st 2003

Dear UN delegations active in the Second Committee;

We, the undersigned NGOs, are encouraged that the UN General Assembly Second Committee is taking the UN Financing for Development (FFD) process seriously by giving careful consideration to proposals made at the High Level Dialogue of the General Assembly (past October 29-30th, New York).

The Financing for Development conference meant an unprecedented effort to build a consensus among a broad set of stakeholders, including international organizations, civil society and the private sector, on means for financing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals. However, as some delegations noted during the High Level Dialogue, the Monterrey Consensus was never a finished product, but rather a point of departure. In fact, the credibility of the Financing for Development follow up process hinges upon its ability to build on the broad language of the Monterrey consensus to provide concrete proposals that effectively address the key issues that hinder the availability of resources for development in our time.

November 20, 2003

Mr. A. Ian Gillespie
President and CEO
Export Development Canada
151 O’Connor Street,
Ottawa, ON K1A 1K3

The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew
Minister of International Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs
125 Sussex Drive, Tower B, 5th Floor
Ottawa, ON   K1A 0G2

Dear Minister Pettigrew and Mr. Gillespie,

Thank you for forwarding me Rev. 2 of the OECD “Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Support Export Credits 2003.”

Novemb