In this newsletter from EG4H…

• Tobin or not Tobin? That is the question… – Find out why the Tobin Tax has resurfaced as a way to respond to the crisis in funding for the health MDGs
• $10 billion financing gap to scale up the health MDGs – read about the data behind the numbers
• The IMF needs more than guidance and support: it is time for a complete overhaul – Why EG4H is against a Global Economic Council for the IMF
• Just Out! Links to the latest writing and events on economic governance for health

Are you interested in helping us get the word out about the importance of economic governance for health?

Would you like to do more and join our active campaign outreach network? We have an expanding number of ‘outreachers’ who help amplify our message. Typically they do this by:

• Forwarding information about EG4H to their own network of contacts and lists
• Encouraging people to respond to an EG4H request or to take up action on an event we are promoting.
• Translating EG4H primers or communications into additional languages

If you are interested in joining this network of active campaigners, or can suggest organizations – or better still key people within those organizations – whom we should contact, please send an email to info@eg4health.org

Tobin or Not Tobin, that is the question…

The brain-child of Nobel prize winning economist James Tobin, the idea behind the ‘Tobin Tax‘ is that a tax would – and should – be levied on the currency market. Trade in currency – essentially betting on whether the value of a currency will go up or down – is a massive market: approximately $1.8 trillion of currency are traded every day. The idea has been largely ignored by politicians since it was first mooted in the 1970s because of pressure from the banking sector, who would incur a small cost – 10-25 cents for every $100. But the potential benefits are huge – $100-300 billion every year to spend on global priorities.

Banking: a “socially useless activity”

The Tobin Tax is in the news again this month because UK Financial Services Authority chairman, Lord Turner is supporting renewed calls to establish a Currency Transaction Levy (CTL) – a Tobin Tax by any other name. Civil society campaigners developed the idea prior to the G20 meeting in London earlier this year, and Turner’s support for it has caused outrage in the banking sector; although describing much of the activity of London bankers as “socially useless”, may also have had something to do with it. However, the CTL proposal comes at a time when the UN is estimating a $5 billion shortfall for international aid projects, and when the Global Fund is facing a $3 billion deficit. Clearly, it is a vital time to be pushing governments to adopt such innovative reform.

Support for the Levy

The UK-base NGO Aids Alliance is actively campaigning for the CTL, arguing that a levy of just 0.005% on major currencies could fill much of the funding gap needed to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals by 2015, including reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating AIDS, TB and malaria.

And as the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the former French foreign minister now the UN’s secretary-general’s special adviser on innovative financing for development has also lent his support to the idea. If, as is becoming increasingly likely, investment from western countries decreases and aid commitments fail to reach countries in need, Douste-Blazy’s blunt assertion is undeniable: “We can’t continue like this. We have to redefine the system.”

$10 billion financing gap to scale up the health MDGs – the data behind the numbers

As we reported in Newsletter 8, the High Level Taskforce on International Innovative Financing recently reported a figure of $10 billion as the ‘top-up’ required for international donors to meet their Abuja commitments to development. EG4H argued then that this figure was too low and asked for the data behind this calculation to be made publicly available.

The WHO has now published a paper that lays out the details of the costing estimates used by the Taskforce. Whilst the Report provides detailed presentations of year-by-year financing by program, and details the interventions included in the costing estimates, it does not provide the country-by-country figures EG4H has been calling for.

The IMF needs more than guidance and support – it is time for a complete overhaul

In a recent article in the Financial Times – Global economic council should oversee all – Timothy Adams and Arrigo Sadun present an argument for superseding the G20 and G8 with a Global Economic Council or Gleco. They argue that Gleco would “oversee the proper functioning of the global economy and the stability of the international financial system by providing close political support and strategic guidance to all international financial institutions”, including the IMF and World Bank.

What Adams and Sadun fail to mention is that the IMF has had political, institutional, and financial support and guidance for the last fifty years by the wealthy countries of the global north, often at the expense of countries in the global South that have had little say in the institution’s liberal financial policy reforms. EG4H represent a growing campaign to harness the voice of the health community – health workers, academics and activists – in advocating for change in the global institutions that govern the global economy. We argue that instead of the formation of Gleco, the IMF should be opened to further democracy so that the interests of the global south who are affected the most by IMF policy are fairly represented.

But EG4H goes one step further in its critique of the world’s financial institutions. The IMF, World Bank, and others could become the most democratic institutions on the planet and still expound global economic policies that impact negatively on health. And they do impact negatively on health, as the WHO’s Commission on the social Determinants of Health reported so clearly in its 2008 Report.

It is missing the point completely to argue for a new oversight mechanism – such as Gleco – that simply helps the IMF discharge its economic policies more effectively. It is the policies themselves that require radical overhaul: away from the blind neo-liberal policies of the past, and towards policies directed at improving the well being of the poorest as a central concern, and which are sufficiently transparent to avoid inappropriate policy capture within ostensibly democratic structures.

Just out! Links to the latest writing and events on economic governance for health

• The impact of the financial crisis on conflict and state fragility in sub-Saharan Africa by Shiv Bakrania and Brian Lucas. In this paper from the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, the authors explore the conflict and fragility dimensions of the financial crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa – asserting there is currently little in-depth information available.
• The global financial crisis: risks for fragile states in Africa by Timothy Othieno. In this Opinion piece from the Overseas Development Institute, the author argues that OECD-DAC donors need to at least maintain their aid commitments to African states to counter the effects 
of the global financial crisis that has the potential to exacerbate state fragility in Africa.

• Add your name to our open letter to Dr Margaret Chan
• Join the group – simply send an email to info@eg4health.org
• Sign our 30 second supporter survey – we want to know how to help strengthen your collective voice through our campaigning and advocacy work
• Volunteering with EG4H – EG4H is currently run on a voluntary basis. We are always looking for people to join us in the organisation and running of EG4H. Inparticular, we would like to hear from you if you would be able to 
support our outreach effort: raising awareness of EG4H amongst the health community and encouraging people to sign up. We are also keen for support in IT and translation. We aim for EG4H to become a platform for the entire global health community. We welcome expertise and interest in all areas of health to create a truly international movement which can move us forward. The time and energy of everyone are valued highly, but we also recognise that people have jobs, families and many other commitments. Following this, we hope that you will be able to help out in any way you can, whenever and in whatever form that help take. If you are interested in helping with any of these areas, no matter how much time you have available, please contact andy@eg4health.org