Published 4 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4235
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4235

Feature

International Aid

Innovative financing of health care

Tatum Anderson, freelance journalist

1 London

tatum.anderson@tiscali.co.uk

With national budgets stretched, countries are trying to find new ways to fund aid to developing countries, Tatum Anderson reports

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Morocco’s airline travellers will soon be contributing to the cost of drugs to treat malaria and antiretrovirals to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV and treat infected children after a new tax on flights is introduced. Morocco joins over 30 other countries that collect taxes on airline tickets (Norway also contributes part of its tax on carbon dioxide emissions). So far, the $1.2bn (£75m; {euro}80m) raised has enabled aid agencies to negotiate up to 70% discounts on drug purchases and buy more drugs for people who cannot afford them.

This levy is one of numerous novel methods to raise money for health interventions in developing countries that have captured the imagination of countries around the world. "Innovative financing is the new architecture for development," said Phillippe Douste-Blazy, UN secretary general’s special adviser on innovative financing and chairman of Unitaid, the Geneva based agency that manages the levy.

France’s President . . . [Full text of this article]


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