Creating new financing to combat extreme poverty is just a political battle.
Indeed, without rapid progress in global solidarity, the waves of migration will not cease. They will even accelerate. This is why the budget cuts decided by many Western Heads of State – and not just Trump – are counterproductive. They can only increase global imbalances. If we do not create the conditions for a dignified life for every individual - if we do not create the conditions for sustainable financing of global public goods, such as health, education, drinking water, food, and sanitation - we will never have any prospect of better regulating our world and ensuring the stability of our societies. Yes, there is a direct link between peace and extreme poverty, well known and already demonstrated many times! We were already aware that the commitment of rich countries to devote 0.7% of their GDP to aid for poor countries would probably remain a dead letter.
This is how the idea of finding additional sources of financing that are not dependent on national budgets was born in 2003: these are the famous innovative financing for development. These innovative financings are based on a simple idea: to put the flows of globalization at the service of the poorest, by levying a minimal contribution on these flows in favor of health, education, and other essential services. These contributions are painless for those who pay them and more broadly for the citizen, and above all, these levies are more predictable and stable because they do not depend on the annual budget arbitrations of the States. This predictability multiplies their impact in the service of development.
Only this type of financial approach is capable of solving the global problem of injustice at birth.
The only answer is through international solidarity based on globalized economic activities that affect the 2 or 3 billion human beings who can buy plane tickets, mobile phone subscriptions that exceed 40 euros per month, gigabytes of mobile data, stock market securities, and any other flow of rampant globalization. The only condition for this type of financial innovation: that it be a micro-contribution, completely painless per unit, but which pays off by the number of purchases or the volume of the flows concerned.
I am proud that with and thanks to Jacques Chirac, we were able to create the 1€ contribution on plane tickets, which was used to finance UNITAID. Yes, I am proud to have contributed to founding this organization which today benefits 320 million human beings each year. Since its creation, this micro-tax on plane tickets in France has brought in 6 billion euros for international solidarity. And how I regret that the airlines are still explaining to their passengers that this contribution on plane tickets is a tragedy, when with this microscopic sum the passengers contribute to saving millions of children from malaria, AIDS (transmitted during childbirth) or tuberculosis...
Yes, I am proud that we were able to create the first pharmaceutical patent pool (“Medicines Patent Pool”) which allows the poorest to benefit from the most recent and effective drugs which were previously reserved only for the inhabitants of developed countries. Since its creation (2012), nearly 60 billion doses of drugs have thus been able to be supplied to the most deprived.
Yes, I am proud to have convinced Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011 to set up a solidarity contribution on stock market transactions. And we must thank him for it. It has made it possible to finance not only Unitaid, but also the Global Fund to Fight against major pandemics, and the Green Funds for the Climate. This tax on financial transactions brought in 1.6 billion for international solidarity.
Three exceptional instruments to finance a more just and secure planet, for the French and all other peoples. I was at the heart of the creation of these three innovative financings, and I was then the guarantor of the effectiveness of the use of these funds, which have changed the lives of millions of human beings. I know exactly how these funds proceeded, their successes, their failures, and what we can do today. But I would have failed in two things: one, not having convinced many countries to do the same and, on the other hand, not having made it known to the general public when it is a huge, original, and effective success.
My political fight today is to propose precisely new innovative financing based on the main flows of globalization: maritime transport, agricultural commodity exchanges, mobile data, which are added to plane tickets and stock market transactions. 5 contributions, in order to meet 5 major challenges, beyond health, such as that of the climate emergency of course, which will again lead to immense migratory waves, that of chronic malnutrition.
It is a fight for dignity, for a peaceful world, to preserve the balance of our societies, to prevent a third world war. A fight for which we are already well on our way, without our knowing it. I remain deeply idealistic, but what I propose is realistic, pragmatic, and proven.