Activists lobby for 'Robin Hood' levy to raise funds

A "Robin Hood" tax of just a fraction of a per cent on financial transactions could smash the funding crisis gripping the war on AIDS, activists said at the world AIDS forum.

"Robin Hood taxes are the answer to the question that everyone at this conference has been asking, which is: 'How can we keep financing a great scale-up in services against HIV/AIDS?'," Khalil Elouardighi of Coalition Plus, a group of anti-AIDS organisations, told journalists.

A micro-tax of just 0.005 per cent on all financial transactions would raise some $33 billion (€25.75 billion) per year worldwide, he said.

"It acts like an invisible micro withdrawal. Knowing that 97 per cent of transactions are of a speculative nature, there will be no consequence on the real economy," noted Philippe Douste-Blazy, UN under secretary general for innovative financing for development.

The time was right to push for the tax, ahead of a summit on Millennium Development Goals in September and a G20 meeting in November, campaigners said.

"It is up to us to explain to the heads of state that they do not have any other solution because we know that it only depends on political will," said Douste-Blazy, a former French foreign minister.

The tax was technically feasible but the key was now to make sure the money was used for development, rather than to reimburse state debt or rescue banks, he said.

His own organisation, UNITAID, has blazed the trail with a small tax on airline tickets, implemented by France and 11 other countries, that has provided drugs to prevent HIV infections from mothers to their babies.

"Global commitments, particularly around HIV, are really first in line when it comes to what the right beneficiaries would be for that financial transaction tax," Asia Russell of the US advocacy group HealthGAP noted.

The Robin Hood tax would not make countries any less subject to aid contributions however, warned Christoph Benn of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.