Unitaid

It all started with a discussion with President Chirac, who was the first to grasp how unsustainable it was for rich countries to keep getting richer while poor countries remained poor. The gap between the two was already becoming increasingly wide in the early 2000s. To bridge this gap, we decided, together with President Lula, to look for new sources of financing for development. A report was therefore commissioned from Jean-Pierre Landau, in which many ideas for new sources of funding were put forward. The idea of levying one euro per airline ticket was selected. Thus, together with President Chirac, we created UNITAID.

Founded in 2006 by a group of visionary countries—France, Brazil, Chile, Norway, and the United Kingdom—UNITAID is the first blueprint for a global solidarity tax: a small, painless contribution for each individual, but made by a multitude of people. We used this funding to treat the poorest, in particular by making it possible for the most disadvantaged populations to access new medicines that had previously been reserved for rich countries. This is the only way to help address the world’s greatest global health challenges, notably HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and the health of women and children.

The organization invests in innovative solutions to reshape markets, whether for medicines, diagnostic tests, or medical devices. Its sole objectives are to reduce costs, ensure that poor populations have access to the same quality as the wealthy, and guarantee supply everywhere.

Unitlife

In 2018, I realized that chronic malnutrition was one of the greatest threats to humanity, a threat almost entirely unknown not only to the general public but also to heads of state and government. One hundred forty-eight million children suffer from it. These children experience stunted growth, weakened immune systems with frequent infections that explain their low life expectancy, cognitive deficits, and psychomotor delays that become permanent after the age of three. The long-term consequences are therefore devastating, affecting health, learning, and productivity. This condition silently and insidiously erodes the human capital of the poorest countries. Forty percent of their populations are affected. Moreover, climate change is accelerating the risk of this condition: droughts alone increase it by nearly 50%.

This is why I created UNITLIFE, thanks to President Macron and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed, then presidents of France and the United Arab Emirates. As with UNITAID, I wanted UNITLIFE to be hosted by the United Nations. UNITLIFE is the UN trust fund dedicated exclusively to financing maternal and child nutrition through innovative financing mechanisms. Since 2005, with the arrival of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation—chaired by Sir Christopher Hohn—on the board, we decided that this scourge should be tackled by creating new sources and mechanisms of financing (debt swaps, blended finance and matching funds, innovative levies and domestic instruments, etc.).