The poorest countries currently finance, on average, one-third of their immunization expenses. Immunization is a global public good and until these countries are able to take on a greater proportion of their immunization expenses, it is in the interest of resource-rich countries to cover some of the long-term costs. In an interconnected global community, there is increasing vulnerability to the spread of disease, making immunization even more critical.

In addition to providing protection to children from vaccine-preventable diseases, immunization programmes also serve as a platform to strengthen health systems and to deliver other life-saving interventions such as those against malnutrition, malaria and intestinal worms.

Today
"Extra $1 Billion Immunization Funding Could Save 1 Billion Lives In Ten Years"
December 12, 2005

Available at:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34794

If many of the factors responsible for the emergence of new diseases-such as international travel, intensification of agriculture and urbanisation-are likely to continue, how is the world to respond to the threat of new diseases? The answer seems to be to spend more money on animal and human health, as well as on the monitoring and surveillance of pathogens. With the world an increasingly connected place, achieving high standards in these areas would be a global public good.

The Economist
"Infection: The usual Suspects"
November 17, 2005

Available at:
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5165432

In Washington, DC, for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda emphasized the need for deeper cooperation among development partnersÄIn response to the issue of whether multilateral institutions like ADB should be lending to middle income countries, Mr. Kuroda stressed that international financial institutions should stay engaged. A large segment of poor people live in middle income countries. Middle income countries also pay a significant role in the provision of regional and global public goods. "The key will be for the multilateral institutions like ADB to be more responsive and relevant to the needs of the middle income countries," he said.

Harold Doan and Associates Ltd.
"Multilaterals Must Be More Responsive to Developing Countries' Needs, Says ADB P"
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad
September 27, 2005

Available at:
http://www.harolddoan.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6119

The decline of ODA is a most remarkable demonstration of the lack of adequate commitment to a truly international social agenda, as is the growing conditionality that is attached to international financial support in general.

In broader terms, it is increasingly recognized that globalization has made the need to provide some •global public goodsê (political, social, economic and environmental) more apparent, as many previously •nationalê (and, further back in history, local) public goods are increasingly becoming global. There is, however, an open contrast between the recognition of this fact and the weakness of international arrangements to provide such public goods and the funds allocated to them to fulfill that function.

These asymmetries obviously reflect basic political and political economy features of the world. The lopsided character of the current globalization process and agenda undoubtedly reflect the asymmetric weight of major countries and large multinational firms. It also reflects, however, the disorganization of actors, particularly developing countries, in the international policy debate. This is associated to the weakening of the historical mechanisms of concerted action by developing countries, e.g., the Group of 77, but also of the policy competitionê that globalization itself has generated: the great incentive that each country has to claim that it is more attractive for investment in an era of mobile capital and increasing footloose production.

The Tide Online
"Rethinking Development Agenda"
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad
September 15, 2005

Available at:
http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=09/15/2005&qrTitle=
Rethinking%20development%20agenda%20(1)&qrColumn=OPINION

A huge set of proposals has been presented for the UN system. Concerning the Security Council, Kofi Annanês report recommends an increase of members to make the council more representative. The Socialist International suggests enlarging the Security Council by giving a seat to regional organisations (including the European Union and the Organisation of African States).

More ambitious proposals from civil society, also sponsored by the Socialist International, address the key issue of the veto power, suggesting that it first be limited and in the long run abolished. The experience of the last fifteen years suggests, however, that the Security Council is the most sensitive area for reform and the least likely to approve changes, because of rivalries among member-states. It would, however, be wrong to focus on this proposal only, for many other aspects of the organisation are in urgent need of radical change.

The Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) is one. The Socialist International has rightly suggested a twofold reform strategy. In the short term, it recommends strengthening the role of the council as coordinator of policy dialogue among the different international economic institutions; in the longer term, it proposes the creation of a new Economic, Social and Environmental Council with equal status to the Security Council.

This renewed council would have a mandate for such action as strategic coordination and assessment of the performances of specialised agencies; supervision of global public goods; and management not only of economic and social problems, but also of environment, development and debt issues. It would clearly also require greater financial resources and to be open to regional and civil-society representatives.

openDemocracy
"What to do with the United Nations?"
Daniele Archibugi and Raffaele Marchetti
September 8, 2005

Available at:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/UN_2816.jsp

In most low-income countries, the domestic resources are limited, many are heavily burdened with foreign debt. Therefore, debt cancellation for the heavily indebted developing countries and increased official development assistance (ODA) need to be provided to all the poor and resource-constrained countries to enable them to implement appropriate policies and programmes to achieve the MDGs...As estimated by the UN Millennium Project, developing countries would need US$140 billion in ODA in 2005, made up of US$74 billion as budgetary support to finance the MDGs in the low-income countries, US$18 billion for non-MDG investments in the low-income countries, US$30 billion for the middle income countries, and the balance to meet international operations including global public goods such as scientific research. It has also been indicated that the MDG-related ODA would rise to US$108 billion by 2015, implying that the total ODA required in that year would rise to US$177 billion, assuming that ODA for various non-MDG purposes remains the same as in 2005. The total projected ODA for 2005 and 2015 would account for 0.51 per cent and 0.56 per cent of the OECD countries' estimated gross national incomes (GNIs) for the respective years, substantially below the target of 0.7 per cent.

The Daily Star
"MDGs: Some global perspectives"
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad
August 20, 2005

Available at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/08/20/d508201501107.htm

Professor Ichiro Kawachi (Harvard School of Public Health), believes it holds "high promise" in its quest to understand the subtleties of the social determinants of health...

"The failure to deal with poverty has global consequences, because poverty is a driver putting pressure on the environment in developing countries. It is the main cause of civil unrest and conflict, which in turn results in population displacement," Professor Kawachi said. "This boomerangs back onto rich countries because there is the further spread of communicable diseases."...

"The Geldof concerts [Live 8 concerts] seem to have done very well in raising global awareness of the urgent need for foreign aid. When it comes to global poverty, the evidence base is already there to support targeted spending of aid to alleviate problems like HIV, malaria, TB, which afflict the poorest nations of the world (particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa), condemning them to perpetual poverty.

"Poverty reduction must be seen as a global public good," he added. "The main problems with global poverty eradication are therefore lack of political will, and lack of public awareness of the plight of billions of people in the world. If the public became more educated about the situation (such as through rock concerts), there might be more pressure put on politicians to start allocating more funds to poverty relief," he said.

UniNews
"The Health Impact of Poverty"
Amanda Tattam
July 25, 2005

Available at:
http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/unarticleid_2582.html

The downside of globalization is its tendency to allocate costs and risks upon the poorest and the powerless. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in the global experience with AIDS.

Brazil demanded a price differential in accordance with its developing country status and its commitment to universal coverage.

Too often, the HIV virus has spread across borders while most of its victims remain locked in the poorest of countries with few prevention programs and inadequate treatment.

At the same time, globalization also creates unprecedented opportunities to advance human welfare, even for those marginalized and impoverished by many of its economic structures and political institutions.

This was precisely the globalization advocated by Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, at the 2004 Brazilian AIDS conference in Recife. "What we need is a globalization that is not only dealing with markets and profits, but also a globalization of access to global public goods for the benefit of all, for the benefit of the poor, for the least powerful."

Brazil's global leadership in the fight against AIDS demonstrates this promise of globalization. Based on its constitutional recognition of the right to health and its own battle with AIDS, this nation has ultimately managed to galvanize human cooperation and solidarity across borders and institutions.

The Globalist
"The Brazilian Model to Fight HIV/AIDS
Mark S. Langevin
June 28, 2005

Available at:
http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=4605

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised that the G-8 meeting on July 6-8 at Gleneagles, Scotland, which he will chair, will focus on two of the most important and longstanding global problems - Third-World poverty and global warming.

For a long time, these two issues seemed to be at odds. The developing world understandably does not want to sacrifice its growth for a global public good, especially when the United States, the richest country in the world, seems unwilling to sacrifice even a little of its luxurious lifestyle.

Led by Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica, a group of developing countries, a new rainforest coalition, has now come forward with an innovative proposal, not only offering to commit to greenhouse-gas limits, but also showing how this can be done in a way that will promote their development.

Developing countries have long provided a vital global public good: maintaining global environmental assets. Their rainforests are a vast storehouse of biodiversity, and forests are major carbon sinks, reducing the level of CO2 in the atmosphere...By maintaining their rainforests, tropical countries provide an invaluable global service, one for which they have so far failed to be compensated. But, especially after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, we can value at least part of these environmental services: carbon sequestration (that is, if they did not maintain their forests, the level of carbon concentrations in the atmosphere would be enormously higher).... A huge mistake was made (for a variety of reasons) at Kyoto. While countries can be compensated for planting forests, they cannot be compensated for avoiding deforestation. Countries like PNG would thus be doubly better off if they cut down their ancient hardwood trees and replanted. But this makes no sense economically or socially. These countries should be given incentives to maintain their forests. (There are, as always, technical issues to be resolved, concerning monitoring and measurement, but these can be overcome easily with modern technologies.) At the very least, markets like ETS should credit emissions reductions that result from limiting deforestation.

Without such a programme, unfortunately, developing countries have neither the means nor incentives to underwrite conservation. There are some 2.7 billion people in over 60 developing countries that are home to the world’s tropical forests. Cutting down the hardwood forests - even when they presently receive just 5 percent of the final price in, say, New York - is the only way people can make ends meet

The Economic Times
"Cleaning up Economic Growth"
Joseph Stiglitz
June 10, 2005

Available at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1137794.cms

Paul Wolfowitz, who starts work as the new president of the World Bank on June 1, should provide global leadership to the nations of the world in reducing poverty, according to a panel of international finance and development experts... The five crucial tasks are revitalizing the Bank's relevance for its big middle income and emerging market borrowers, greater differentiation across the poorest countries in the nature of its operations, creation of a grant fund for global public goods, taking the lead on independent evaluation of all aid spending, and reforming the governance of the Bank itself, including changes in the composition of the Bank's board and a more open selection process for future Bank presidents.

U.S. Newswire
"Expert Panel Urges New World Bank President to Provide Global Leadership"
May 26, 2005

Available at:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=48064

Since public goods have to be chosen and paid for by those benefiting from them, goods with a narrow benefit span should be voted on and financed locally while those with a nationwide spread provided nationally.

There are also goods whose benefits extend beyond national frontiers across countries and regions, and which need to be provided globally by nations joining together.

These are the global public goods (GPGs), which call for provision by nations acting together in common interests. Collective action by nations is required also to counter the harmful influence emanating from "public bads", like crime, violence, contagious diseases, and global warming" The need for cooperation among nations to provide GPGs has long been recognised, as is evidenced by the creation of the UN in 1945.

However, the need for concerted action to define and identify GPGs and devise appropriate institutional mechanisms for their provisioning has acquired urgency with globalisation breaking down national borders... While there have been several initiatives in recent years to organise collective action among nations to address the challenge of delivering GPGs for managing globalisation, progress has been tardy... Reflecting the recognition that GPGs are a key ingredient of globalisation and that no one nation can secure them on its own, the UNDP had commissioned a study titled "Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization", inviting some of the best scholars of the world drawn from various disciplines besides economics to contribute.

Edited by Inge Kaul and three others, the volume, published in 2003, contains an exhaustive account and incisive analysis of the challenges arising from the task of securing a better provision of GPGs...

The finding ... is that the objectives have been in jeopardy because of the failure on the part of developed countries to honour their commitment and their tendency to find excuses for discriminating against developing countries in the matter of trade by invoking stricter environmental and labour-use standards, and so on.

At bottom, the problem lies in the persistent imbalances in decision making in multilateral organisations entrusted with the task of providing GPGs... Given the power equations, it would be idle to expect in the foreseeable future any dramatic change in the institutional arrangements that are supposed to provide GPGs that a globalised world requires.

And so the protests of civil society, like in Seattle in 1999, will probably continue. Meanwhile, the developing countries would do well to get themselves better prepared to make their presence more forceful in the multilateral arena so that the GPGs designed at their conclaves truly serve the objective of tackling the challenges thrown up by globalisation.

Business Standard
"Providing Global Public Goods"
By Amaresh Bagchi
May 03, 2005

Available at:
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?
storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx=5&lselect=2&chklogin=N&autono=187767

The Director General of the OIE, Dr Bernard Vallat, was invited last week to a meeting convened by the World Bank on "Emerging Zoonoses and Pathogens: Global Public Goods Concern; implications for the World Bank".

Dr Vallat spoke to high level representatives of the World Bank, as well as distinguished guests from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the U.S. National Restaurants Association.

It was an opportunity to discuss and enhance mutual understanding of the importance of the early detection, prevention and control of animal diseases in regards to public health and global trade. It was also an opportunity to agree on the role of the Veterinary Services worldwide as a Global Public Good, as well as considering relevant veterinary infrastructures and their compliance with OIE international standards for their evaluation and quality as a public investment priority.

"Veterinary Services and laboratories of developing countries are in urgent need of support to be able to meet these new challenges" Dr Vallat said. "This meeting was another step forward in sensitizing partner organizations, such as the World Bank, that emerging zoonoses and pathogens are a global public good concern. Capacity building and strengthening of Veterinary Services in terms of surveillance, rural network of veterinarians, early detection and rapid response capabilities, and legislation will provide the basis for better crisis prevention", Dr Vallat added.

OIE Press Release
"Threats of emerging animal diseases transmissible to humans and actions towards poverty reduction: Dr Vallat addresses the World Bank"
April 27, 2005

Available at:
http://www.oie.int/fr/press/fr_050427.htm

A noble effort is underway to improve research and development into diseases that kill the poorest people in the poorest countries by offering guaranteed sales to pharmaceutical research companies that make breakthroughs. Healthcare spending is pitifully low in many developing countries, so efforts by the industrialized world to make up for lack of demand by creating markets for drugs and vaccines are to be praised. And last week the Center for Global Development (CGD), an influential non-governmental organization, launched its "making markets" initiative in Washington DC...

Nancy Birdsall, head of CGD, says that: "We are all aware of global bads like human caused climate change, but we are not aware of global goods like vaccines; that needs to change ... Just 10% of the world's research and development on health is targeted on diseases affecting 90% of the world's people. Of more than a thousand new medicines developed over the last 25 years, just 1% were specifically for diseases of tropical countries. There is not enough research and development because technological progress is a global public good [a good no private entity will develop because it cannot capture the benefit from the provision of the good]. In the case of tropical diseases, no single individual enterprise has an incentive to pay for the full costs of developing new medicines. As a result, we invest far too little as a global community."

But while it is sad that there is not more R&D into the diseases affecting the poorest, the only meaningful sentiment in Birdsall's remark relates to the lack of incentive to pay for the full costs of developing new medicines. We should be reminded that research-based pharmaceutical companies are businesses, not charities and as such have to generate their own income on the profits they make. It is not the fault of corporations that there is no effective demand for products in poor countries.

Tech Central Station
"Misunderstanding "Market Failure""
Roger Bate
April 14, 2005

Available at:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/041405F.html

Addressing the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) role on Wednesday [at the Preparatory event for ECOSOC 2005 High-Level Segment on Millennium Development Goals to held on June 29-July 1, 2005 and follow up to Conferences] Ambassador Munir Akram stressed the need for strong collaborative efforts by the world community to reverse the recent deteriorating trends in eradication of poverty and hunger...

Ambassador Akram stressed that the situation in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, home to the largest concentration of hungry people, was particularly acute and deserves the special attention of the international community.

Poverty reduction should not be perceived in the narrow terms of transfer of aid money from developed to developing countries but should also be seen as a global public good whose benefits will be widespread, positively affecting both the developed and the developing countries.

It is a realization of this truth, this interdependency and complementarity, which should lead all of us to seek solutions with sincerity and with commitment, he concluded.

Paktribune
Pakistan Calls for Strengthening ECOSOC role
March 17, 2005

Available at:
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=98083&

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