AFGH was invited by the Spanish Presidency of the Council to give a presentation outlining what AFGH view priorities for Global Health. The presentation was one of two given to the working group, the other being from the Assistant Director-General of the WHO - Susanne Weber-Mosdorf. The presentations were then used as the basis for the first debate the council working group has had on the topic under the Spanish presidency of the Council. Their discussions are due to lead to Council Conclusions on the topic being adopted at the May development meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.

Action for Global Health organises a Cross Europe Conference on “Delivering the Right to health with the health MDGs” taking place in the European Parliament, Brussels, on March 2^nd. The event will look at what the EU needs to do to ensure progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the realization of the right to health.

What will happen to the current health aid architecture? The need to strengthen health systems and the agenda of aid effectiveness arise challenges in the coordination of global health initiatives. Civil Society organizations have something to say about a possible platform WB, GAVI and the FM to strengthen health systems.

At the Executive Board meeting of the World Health Assembly - the governing body of the WHO - Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called to highlight the need for Member States to make additional pledges to increase funding for health-related MDGs, ahead of the forthcoming MDG plenary and Global Fund replenishment conferences. MSF urged WHO to play a leading role in ensuring that health needs are addressed in ongoing discussions on innovative finance mechanisms such as financial transaction taxes.

AfGH Spain, together with other Spanish NGO's networks, delivers the Letter on Global Health addressing the three next EU Presidencies and signed by more than 450 international NGO's to the Spanish State Secretary for the EU, Mr Diego López Garrido. Last Friday, 15th January, taking the opportunity of the launch of the Spanish EU Presidency Agenda in Madrid, AfGH Spain delivered the Letter "Making progress on global health in the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian Presidency of the European Union: civil society recommendations" to Mr Lopez Garrido, State Secretary of Spain for EU.

At a briefing given by DG Development on the “Spring Package for Development” a Commission official disclosed the additional intention of the Commission to adopt a Communication and staff working paper outlining the economic implications of Financial Transaction Taxes. The briefing outlined what the Commission intends to inlcude and achieve with this package, how it relates to other items of the Commission work and the role of the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies as well as the new structures under the Lisbon Treaty.

The Bulgarian nominee for the Commission, Rumiana Jeleva, has resigned potentially delaying the approval of the European Commission by the European Parliament. The new Bulgarian nominee to the Commission has been named as Ms Kristalina Georgieva, currently Vice-President of the World Bank.

AfGH partner Plan staff reported widespread panic when the 7.0 magnitude quake and 2 strong aftershocks struck. It is the most powerful earthquake to have hit the island of Hispaniola in 200 years.

The aid implemented by the European Commission through United Nations organisations amounted to over 1 billion euro in 2008. The European Court of Auditors has examined whether decisions to channel aid through the UN have been the result of a transparent and objective selection process and whether monitoring arrangements provide adequate information on the achievement of objectives and the robustness of financial procedures.

The Belgian Government has met the United Nations goal to provide 0.7% of national output as international development, earning its membership in the so-called 0.7% Group. Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are among the European nations that also spend at least 0.7% of their national output on international development.

On 11th of January Andris Piebalgs, the Latvian Commissioner-designate for Development, has had his hearing in front of the members of the European Parliament. The choice of Mr. Piebalgs as Development Commissioner was a real surprise for many. In the hearing the Commissioner-designate then gave clear and detailed answers to the MEPs.

More than 450 European NGOs and networks, including AfGH, have joined to ask the new trio presidencies to rescue the health MDGs. In a joint statement to the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian Governments, NGOs have made six recommendations, including the allocation of the 0.1% of GNI of donor countries to health cooperation.

The U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech Friday, January 8, 2010 to commemorate the 15th year of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Secretary Clinton announced the U.S. Government's renewed support for and dedication to reaching the ICPD goals and other related UN agreements, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by 2015.

January 2010 British Medical Journal presents, among others, an editorial note commenting on the December Copenhagen Conference of the Parties (COP15) and its relation to area of health and what doctors have to say therein.

The written answers from the nominated European Commissioners to questions from the European Parliament have been posted online. The Commissioner Designate for Development, Andris Piebalgs, gives strong support to improving efforts to achieve the MDGs particularly by improving aid effectiveness and policy coherence for development. Unfortunately even if nearly half the MDG indicators relate to health, there is no specific mention of health in his answers.

Action for Global Health has submitted its response to the on-line consultation of the European Commission on Global Health before it closed on 9 December 2009. All the responses to the consultation have now been made available on the consultation web site.

The AfGH Brussels partners were invited by the European Commission to co-chair the Global Health Policy Forum together with the European Commission. Around 40 representatives of different CSOs were present at the meeting and exchanged their opinions on the consultation.

54 Commonwealth countries committed themselves to achieve universal coverage of health services free at the point of use. Leaders also agreed on a Commonwealth Health Compact, proposed by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which calls on donor countries to deliver existing commitments for health financing and to identify new ways to increase international resources for health.

On 9 December, Action for Global Health (AfGH), and its 15 member organisations of European-based NGOs, endorsed an international civil society declaration that aims to push for the creation of a currency transaction levy to finance global health.

Meeting in Brussels EU leaders at the European Council have recognised the large impact that the financial crisis has had on developing counties and have thus reaffirmed their ODA commitments. They also agreed on the need to strengthen the regulation of the financial services sector including regulating pay and bonusses to the sector. Additionally they urged the IMF to consider all options for improved regulation of the sector including a global financial transaction tax.

As the world marks Human Rights Day (10 December) Action for Global Health calls for more and urgent action by donors, national governments in low- and middle-income countries and international civil society to fulfil the universal right to health.

Whilst not capable of providing precise answers to this question, the meeting held at the OEDC headquarters on 30 November, on the findings of the interim report recently released by the “Task Team on Health as a Tracer Sector”, has allowed many insights into the key challenges faced by international aid effectiveness in the health sector. Action for Global Health was represented by Frazer Goodwin in the first panel, regarding new forms of aid architecture.

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament has hosted a hearing on Financial Transaction taxes in Brussels. The hearing saw contributions from the European Commission, the OECD, the London Stock exchange, CSOs, and An academic. The contributions and questions from the MEPs present underscored the political nature of the FTT. Whether, how much, when and how it may be implemented will be dependent upon ideological and political positions rather than a rational application of optimal economic policy making.

On the World Aids Day 2009, the European Union stresses the need to further strengthen the response to HIV/AIDS, at national and international levels, by all partners, private, public, civil society and international organisations taking into account the need for a broader participation by all stakeholders in partner countries.

The make up of the new European Commssion has been announced in Brussels by Commission President Barroso. The Development portfolio has been assigned to the Latvian Commissioner Designate Andreas Piebalgs, who lacks experience in the development sector.

An informal “brown bag lunch meeting” has been hosted by the Action for Global Health Brussels partner Stop Aids Alliance on the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). At the meeting Anton Kerr of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance outlined both the proposals Civil Society have developed for a Currency Transaction Levy (CTL) for health, and the most recent developments at the G20 level for a FTT.

The OECD interim report “Aid for Better Health – what are we learning about what works and what we still have to do?” released earlier this week, brings Action for Global Health evaluation about the level of participation of civil society in the formulation and implementation of health policies in developing countries.

Action for Global Health has been represented at the GAVI partners forum (Hanoi, 18-20 November) assisting in the development of a Call to Action issued collectively from Civil Society actors present at the Forum, seeking greater critical and meaningful engagement of civil society in GAVI's mission to boost universal access to immunisation amongst the poorest and most unreached populations.

The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research launched its latest report "Systems Thinking for Health Systems Strengthening" at the Global Forum for Health Research held in Havana (Cuba). The report offers a fresh and practical approach to strengthening health systems through "systems thinking".

The 4th GAVI Partners Forum has opened in Hanoi with reflections on the successes of GAVI and the challenges it faces in the comming years. A recurrent theme has been how the scale of GAVI programmes can be maintained in the current economic conditions. The discussions covered both how resources may be maintained, including with co-financing from partner countries, and how the available resources may provide more health benefits with reduced vacine prices. The GAVI press release highlighted the price reductions that have been seen, even if many interventions at the Forum have highlighted how modest these reductions have been compared to the reductions in price expected when GAVI was founded.