It’s an idea that’s been lying idle for decades since it was first put forward in the 70s, but suddenly there’s a flurry of activity and proposals on the table. France, which holds the presidency of the G20 this year, wants to create a financial transaction tax (FTT) to raise new funds in these cash-strapped times. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Sarkozy have been jointly promoting the idea. And now the European Commission is getting the legislative ball rolling for an EU-wide FTT, which it estimates could generate at least 50 billion euro a year.
The scale of the debt crisis surely needs attention. But the developing world also needs help; and Europe can help by allocating a sizeable proportion of the new funds to development issues.
Health is one deserving candidate for new funds. A tax for health is needed because the resources dedicated to fighting global health emergencies are shrinking. Take HIV. Overall funding for HIV decreased in 2009 for the first time in a decade, and fell again in 2010. In the wake of overwhelming scientific evidence that treating people living with HIV also helps prevent the spread of the virus and therefore new infections, governments recently committed to scale up the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment to 15 million by 2015. But where is the funding to pay for the antiretroviral drugs for the nearly nine million people?
It’s not only HIV where sustained funding generated from a FTT can make a big difference: malaria and malnutrition are among the biggest killers of African children, and both can be effectively addressed if the right treatments and the right foods are given. But there’s a money problem.
Funds from a FTT should be used not only to roll out existing treatments, but potential new breakthroughs – like new rapid tests to detect tuberculosis – could be developed too. Money for research and development is desperately needed; for example, for new vaccines that don’t need to be refrigerated, or that come in aerosol sprays so they’re better suited to resource-limited settings. Research for new drugs for neglected diseases such as sleeping sickness is also necessary, as some of the current drugs are so toxic they can kill patients.
Of course, money is not the only problem. But spending on health now means spending less later. The earlier people with HIV are treated with antiretroviral drugs, for example, the less likely they are to need more expensive second-line drugs. They are less likely to develop other infections, especially TB. Fewer children will be orphaned. There is also a benefit at the community level of treating people earlier, as the risk of transmission and new infections is reduced. All of which adds up to less money needed in the future for more expensive drugs, or to treat TB, or treat new cases of HIV.
It’s all possible to achieve – provided the will is there from the EU to commit a share of the money from the FTT to benefit global health. The EU has taken the political lead by exploring the implementation of a financial transaction tax. Now the EU needs to take the humanitarian lead and dedicate some of the windfall generated to addressing urgent medical needs and seizing the opportunity to bring out dramatic health changes in developing countries.