Activists reject capitalist, communal, criminal and corrupt politics

Activists reject capitalist, communal, criminal and corrupt politics

The activists have launched a 'chunaav par nazar' abhiyaan to reject politics which is based on capitalism, communalism, caste, corruption or criminalization.

The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has launched this 'chunaav par nazar' abhiyaan to mobilize public opinion to increase transparency and accountability in the forthcoming 15th Lok Sabha elections in India.

Election dates for the 15th Lok Sabha have been announced and there is again a huge challenge before us to ensure that the real issues of people are buried by political rhetoric. All the existing and newly forming political fronts, if anything, have a most striking similarity with amoebas - whether it is the 1st Front or the 4th Front. It is impossible for people to grasp where a front stands either on issues or vis-à-vis other parties/fronts, whether they are independent fronts or fronts within fronts! Whatever little difference did exist between so-called 'communal and secular' parties or 'capitalist and socialist' parties is visibly diminishing day-by-day.

It is, therefore, highly important, for us, people's movements and organizations to raise basic and burning issues on the one hand as well as enable an opportunity to link up local and regional issues and struggles with the national.

During the Meeting of the National Conveners of NAPM held at Nagpur on the 1st and 2nd March, we had discussed our role during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. We decided to organize the preparatory meetings at the earliest, as the poll dates are nearing and this process must be taken forward on a war-footing. The following key issues are being discusses during the state meet:

- Compliance with the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for candidates and political parties as defined by the Election Commission of India.

- Analyse the records of the present member of parliaments (MPs) by trying to identify MPs with criminal record, involvement in corrupt practices, involvement with casteist and communal organizations, working as the frontman of any corporate or builder group and bring these facts into the public domain.

- Monitoring the existing property of candidates, income, the number of vehicles, amounts spent on literature, campaign material, advertising and other propaganda.

- Group/ State Unit should prepare the list of general malpractices during elections such as distribution of cash, kind, liquor, booth capturing, delivering communal/ casteist speeches, rigging of votes, making false promises or allurements etc. It may be re-stressed that after announcement of elections, no declaration of new schemes can be made by the state/ central Government ministries or politicians.

- Use the right to information Act (RTI) extensively to find out how many complaints were received during the last Assembly/ Parliamentary elections and the action taken on the complaints.

- Prepare a format to make complaints to the Returning Officer of the Lok Sabha constituency: Election Observer, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Member-in-charge of the State from the Election Commission of India, Delhi and also the Superintendent of Police of the District

- Bring together a state level Committee to observe elections and distribute work amongst the Committee.

- You may send a list of the NAPM Election Observers (from each state) to the Election Commission of India along with a letter to the State Election Commission for associating these persons in the election monitoring process to ensure free and fair elections. A delegation of the NAPM (State) Election Monitoring Committee can meet the SEC and maintain regular communication with him.

Methodology during the pro-people election watch campaign:
-----------

i. Details of the announced candidates of various political parties must be compiled.

ii. Fixing up of a date with the candidates for open discussion with the electorate (Try to call the candidate for a public meeting in the area). Obtain the oral and written commitment of candidates on specific laws and policies/issues.

iii. Prepare few people with questions about the common problems issues and problems like: displacement and rehabilitation, social security to unorganized sector workers, right to housing, water, unemployment, need for health services, schools, public rationing, better public transport, commitment to ban liquor etc.

iv. Prepare a list of speakers who will address the gathering on behalf of NAPM after the Q&A Session is over with candidates.

v. We request people's groups in the state to send us a brief summary of national as well as local/ regional issues that must highlighted during the campaign at the meeting in your area, along with soft copies of the manifestos of the parties contesting elections there.

vi. Prepare a note for need of the various electoral reforms on behalf of NAPM state unit. Nationally, identify at least 10-15 candidates / black list them to demonstrate what kind of politics we reject. (Politicians like Kamal Nath, LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sharad Pawar and others are to be questioned – add to the names please)

vii. NAPM has its People's Resolve, which is more or less the NAPM manifesto which needs to be publicized and presented during our aforesaid programmes and meetings. Any of you can propose or add anything specific to the Manifesto and use it in the meetings / dialogues. Please do send your suggestions to the below mentioned emails.

'chunaav par nazar' yatra

At least one major city / capital is planned to be covered in different states, which shall include a meeting with representatives of people's organizations, a press conference and a public meeting.

We also propose to organize a travelling poster exhibition and also have documents already prepared by Election Watch plus comparative analysis of party manifestoes (2004 and 2009) along with a People's Manifesto by NAPM. The posters would also contain data on various unlawful and unethical antecedents of candidates/ parties.

We will have with us at different places, former Advisor to the Election Commission of India, Shri K. Jagannatha Rao, along with mass-based people's representatives, thinkers and conscience-keepers such as you to address the mass gathering of people and also the press, which certainly create a positive impact.

Justice (Retd.) Rajinder Sacher, Trilochan Sastry, Association for Democratic Reforms, Sharad Chadra Behar, Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, Prof. Ramdayal Munda, Senior adivasi rights activists, Former Vice Chancellor, Birsa Munda University, Ranchi ,Meher Engineer (West Bengal) President, Indian Social Science Academy,Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Economist and supporter of people's movements, Ulka Mahajan, Sarvahara Jan Andolan and NAPM , Arvind Kejriwal, Right to Information Activist, Parivartan, Gautam Bandopadhyay, Nadi Ghati Morcha, Medha Patkar, National Convenor, NAPM and some other Convenors and Members of NAPM have confirmed their presence at different places. Other special invites are yet to finalize.

It would undoubtedly strengthen the process if you can join this effort from one or two places at least and raise the people's agenda before the elections. It would also greatly help, if you can in whatever way, try to mobilize resources for the campaign, which would include travel expenses, amounts for stationery and poster material etc.

Attached with this Note is a tentative schedule of the list of cities / places to be covered in the coming few weeks of April before the Phase I of the Lok Sabha Elections. We look forward to your support and involvement.

Anand Mazgaonkar: anandpss@gmail.com; napmindia@gmail.com
Medha Patkar: phone - 09423965153 (nba.medha@gmail.com)

Activists reject capitalist, communal, criminal and corrupt politics

Activists reject capitalist, communal, criminal and corrupt politics

The activists have launched a 'chunaav par nazar' abhiyaan to reject politics which is based on capitalism, communalism, caste, corruption or criminalization.

The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has launched this 'chunaav par nazar' abhiyaan to mobilize public opinion to increase transparency and accountability in the forthcoming 15th Lok Sabha elections in India.

Election dates for the 15th Lok Sabha have been announced and there is again a huge challenge before us to ensure that the real issues of people are buried by political rhetoric. All the existing and newly forming political fronts, if anything, have a most striking similarity with amoebas - whether it is the 1st Front or the 4th Front. It is impossible for people to grasp where a front stands either on issues or vis-à-vis other parties/fronts, whether they are independent fronts or fronts within fronts! Whatever little difference did exist between so-called 'communal and secular' parties or 'capitalist and socialist' parties is visibly diminishing day-by-day.

It is, therefore, highly important, for us, people's movements and organizations to raise basic and burning issues on the one hand as well as enable an opportunity to link up local and regional issues and struggles with the national.

During the Meeting of the National Conveners of NAPM held at Nagpur on the 1st and 2nd March, we had discussed our role during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. We decided to organize the preparatory meetings at the earliest, as the poll dates are nearing and this process must be taken forward on a war-footing. The following key issues are being discusses during the state meet:

- Compliance with the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for candidates and political parties as defined by the Election Commission of India.

- Analyse the records of the present member of parliaments (MPs) by trying to identify MPs with criminal record, involvement in corrupt practices, involvement with casteist and communal organizations, working as the frontman of any corporate or builder group and bring these facts into the public domain.

- Monitoring the existing property of candidates, income, the number of vehicles, amounts spent on literature, campaign material, advertising and other propaganda.

- Group/ State Unit should prepare the list of general malpractices during elections such as distribution of cash, kind, liquor, booth capturing, delivering communal/ casteist speeches, rigging of votes, making false promises or allurements etc. It may be re-stressed that after announcement of elections, no declaration of new schemes can be made by the state/ central Government ministries or politicians.

- Use the right to information Act (RTI) extensively to find out how many complaints were received during the last Assembly/ Parliamentary elections and the action taken on the complaints.

- Prepare a format to make complaints to the Returning Officer of the Lok Sabha constituency: Election Observer, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Member-in-charge of the State from the Election Commission of India, Delhi and also the Superintendent of Police of the District

- Bring together a state level Committee to observe elections and distribute work amongst the Committee.

- You may send a list of the NAPM Election Observers (from each state) to the Election Commission of India along with a letter to the State Election Commission for associating these persons in the election monitoring process to ensure free and fair elections. A delegation of the NAPM (State) Election Monitoring Committee can meet the SEC and maintain regular communication with him.

Methodology during the pro-people election watch campaign:
-----------

i. Details of the announced candidates of various political parties must be compiled.

ii. Fixing up of a date with the candidates for open discussion with the electorate (Try to call the candidate for a public meeting in the area). Obtain the oral and written commitment of candidates on specific laws and policies/issues.

iii. Prepare few people with questions about the common problems issues and problems like: displacement and rehabilitation, social security to unorganized sector workers, right to housing, water, unemployment, need for health services, schools, public rationing, better public transport, commitment to ban liquor etc.

iv. Prepare a list of speakers who will address the gathering on behalf of NAPM after the Q&A Session is over with candidates.

v. We request people's groups in the state to send us a brief summary of national as well as local/ regional issues that must highlighted during the campaign at the meeting in your area, along with soft copies of the manifestos of the parties contesting elections there.

vi. Prepare a note for need of the various electoral reforms on behalf of NAPM state unit. Nationally, identify at least 10-15 candidates / black list them to demonstrate what kind of politics we reject. (Politicians like Kamal Nath, LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sharad Pawar and others are to be questioned – add to the names please)

vii. NAPM has its People's Resolve, which is more or less the NAPM manifesto which needs to be publicized and presented during our aforesaid programmes and meetings. Any of you can propose or add anything specific to the Manifesto and use it in the meetings / dialogues. Please do send your suggestions to the below mentioned emails.

'chunaav par nazar' yatra

At least one major city / capital is planned to be covered in different states, which shall include a meeting with representatives of people's organizations, a press conference and a public meeting.

We also propose to organize a travelling poster exhibition and also have documents already prepared by Election Watch plus comparative analysis of party manifestoes (2004 and 2009) along with a People's Manifesto by NAPM. The posters would also contain data on various unlawful and unethical antecedents of candidates/ parties.

We will have with us at different places, former Advisor to the Election Commission of India, Shri K. Jagannatha Rao, along with mass-based people's representatives, thinkers and conscience-keepers such as you to address the mass gathering of people and also the press, which certainly create a positive impact.

Justice (Retd.) Rajinder Sacher, Trilochan Sastry, Association for Democratic Reforms, Sharad Chadra Behar, Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, Prof. Ramdayal Munda, Senior adivasi rights activists, Former Vice Chancellor, Birsa Munda University, Ranchi ,Meher Engineer (West Bengal) President, Indian Social Science Academy,Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Economist and supporter of people's movements, Ulka Mahajan, Sarvahara Jan Andolan and NAPM , Arvind Kejriwal, Right to Information Activist, Parivartan, Gautam Bandopadhyay, Nadi Ghati Morcha, Medha Patkar, National Convenor, NAPM and some other Convenors and Members of NAPM have confirmed their presence at different places. Other special invites are yet to finalize.

It would undoubtedly strengthen the process if you can join this effort from one or two places at least and raise the people's agenda before the elections. It would also greatly help, if you can in whatever way, try to mobilize resources for the campaign, which would include travel expenses, amounts for stationery and poster material etc.

Attached with this Note is a tentative schedule of the list of cities / places to be covered in the coming few weeks of April before the Phase I of the Lok Sabha Elections. We look forward to your support and involvement.

Anand Mazgaonkar: anandpss@gmail.com; napmindia@gmail.com
Medha Patkar: phone - 09423965153 (nba.medha@gmail.com)

ELECTIONS 2009: Lok Rajniti Manch to field 3 candidates in UP

E L E C T I O N S 2009
Lok Rajniti Manch to field 3 candidates in UP

The Lok Rajniti Manch has decided to field S.R. Darapuri from the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency in the approaching general elections as part of its efforts to establish a pro-people politics. Darapuri, an IPS officer, retired as Inspector General of Police from the UP cadre and is a prominent social and human rights activist. He is part of the people's movements aimed at empowerment of common people. During service he was regarded as an honest and diligent officer.

Lok Rajniti Manch desires to build a new political culture which will be an alternative to the dominant money and muscle powered politics, which will bring the common people's issues to the core of politics, where the candidates will have a history of serving the people, where the politicians will not require armed security, where the candidates will strictly follow the code of conduct set up by Election Commission, where the election expenses will be made public and where the candidate will conduct himself/herself in a transparent manner and will be accountable to the people. The candidate irrespective of the result of the election will continue to serve the people.

This is a small beginning to challenge the stranglehold of crime and corruption over politics. We know that this is a long battle but we are into it for a long haul. The people, sooner or latter, will reject the corrupt and criminal candidates and elect honest and committed ones.

Until the dominant criminal and corrupt political culture is not challenged the true democracy can never be realized because the benefits of various social welfare and developmental schemes will never reach the people. To eliminate the conditions of poverty, unemployment, destitution, exploitation, crime from this society a new political culture will have to be nurtured which will build a pro-people alternative to the present anti-people system. This is India 's second freedom struggle. The majority population of the country which is yet to taste the benefits of freedom will wage this battle.

With Darapuri's joining the election fray now the LRM has three candidates from Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming elections for the Lok Sabha. Ram Sagar Verma is contesting from the Mishrikh reserved seat and Ram Naumi Yadav is the candidate from Salempur in eastern part of the state. Overall, about a dozen LRM candidates will be contesting natioanally.

Dr Sandeep Pandey

(The author is a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee (2002) for emergent leadership, member of National Presidium, People's Politics Front (PPF), heads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and did his PhD from University of California, Berkeley in control theory which is applicable in missile technology. He taught at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur before devoting his life to strengthening people's movements in early 1990s. He can be contacted at: ashaashram@yahoo.com. Website: www.citizen-news.org)

Contact mobile numbers of three Lok Rajniti Manch candidates from U.P.
(1) Ram Sagar Verma, Mishrikh, 9450503639
(2) Ram Naumi Yadav, Salempur, 9918631076
(3) S.R. Darapuri, Lucknow , 9415164845, srdarapuri@yahoo. co.in

ELECTIONS 2009: Lok Rajniti Manch to field 3 candidates in UP

E L E C T I O N S 2009
Lok Rajniti Manch to field 3 candidates in UP

The Lok Rajniti Manch has decided to field S.R. Darapuri from the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency in the approaching general elections as part of its efforts to establish a pro-people politics. Darapuri, an IPS officer, retired as Inspector General of Police from the UP cadre and is a prominent social and human rights activist. He is part of the people's movements aimed at empowerment of common people. During service he was regarded as an honest and diligent officer.

Lok Rajniti Manch desires to build a new political culture which will be an alternative to the dominant money and muscle powered politics, which will bring the common people's issues to the core of politics, where the candidates will have a history of serving the people, where the politicians will not require armed security, where the candidates will strictly follow the code of conduct set up by Election Commission, where the election expenses will be made public and where the candidate will conduct himself/herself in a transparent manner and will be accountable to the people. The candidate irrespective of the result of the election will continue to serve the people.

This is a small beginning to challenge the stranglehold of crime and corruption over politics. We know that this is a long battle but we are into it for a long haul. The people, sooner or latter, will reject the corrupt and criminal candidates and elect honest and committed ones.

Until the dominant criminal and corrupt political culture is not challenged the true democracy can never be realized because the benefits of various social welfare and developmental schemes will never reach the people. To eliminate the conditions of poverty, unemployment, destitution, exploitation, crime from this society a new political culture will have to be nurtured which will build a pro-people alternative to the present anti-people system. This is India 's second freedom struggle. The majority population of the country which is yet to taste the benefits of freedom will wage this battle.

With Darapuri's joining the election fray now the LRM has three candidates from Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming elections for the Lok Sabha. Ram Sagar Verma is contesting from the Mishrikh reserved seat and Ram Naumi Yadav is the candidate from Salempur in eastern part of the state. Overall, about a dozen LRM candidates will be contesting natioanally.

Dr Sandeep Pandey

(The author is a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee (2002) for emergent leadership, member of National Presidium, People's Politics Front (PPF), heads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and did his PhD from University of California, Berkeley in control theory which is applicable in missile technology. He taught at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur before devoting his life to strengthening people's movements in early 1990s. He can be contacted at: ashaashram@yahoo.com. Website: www.citizen-news.org)

Contact mobile numbers of three Lok Rajniti Manch candidates from U.P.
(1) Ram Sagar Verma, Mishrikh, 9450503639
(2) Ram Naumi Yadav, Salempur, 9918631076
(3) S.R. Darapuri, Lucknow , 9415164845, srdarapuri@yahoo. co.in

If G-20 agrees, health financing might come from Currency transaction levy

If G-20 agrees, health financing might come from Currency transaction levy

There is a growing public movement globally to put pressure on the Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors that will meet in London, UK, on 2 April 2009, to put a currency transaction levy of 0.005% to raise dedicated resources for funding health programmes. This currency transaction levy of 0.005% can potentially generate USD 30-40 billion a year.

It is vital to understand the health funding in these times of global economic meltdown. The single largest donor of AIDS, TB and Malaria programmes globally - the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) has just 37.5% of its estimated budget for 2009-2010. The donor countries haven’t kept their promises to fund the 'Fund'. The GFATM projected budget for 2009-2010 was USD 8 billion and it just has USD 3 billion in its kitty, falling short of USD 5 billion.

The donor countries that haven’t kept their promises include the United States of America that is also the biggest defaulter. It is not that US doesn’t have money, it gave about the same amount it owed to GFATM to Merrill Lynch as bail out money. It gave hundreds of times more to other private banks as bail out money. This was tax payers money of the people - which was handed over to the banks. The banks distributed this amount amongst themselves as 'holiday bonuses'. Outrageous? May be, but possibly the health advocates didn’t do a good job of convincing the policy makers that health investment is a smart investment, with promising returns.

Despite of African governments declaring tuberculosis (TB) as an emergency, Africa as a region, faces the largest funding gap of USD 10.7 billion to fully implement the Global Plan to Stop TB by 2015. This fact came in spotlight when the TB funding in Africa required to meet the TB-related targets of millennium development goals (MDG) by 2015 was analyzed, said Kenyan activist Lucy Chesire.

The countries in Africa had achieved a milestone by endorsing the African Union Abuja pledge of allocating 15% of national budgets to health, which was also reiterated at the 2008 African Union Summit in Egypt, the 2008 Conference of African Finance Ministers, and 2008 Special Conference of African Health Ministers. But they have bitterly failed to act on this pledge, said the activists. Only Botswana has kept the promise of allocating 15% of the national budget to health, the rest of the countries in Africa need to keep their promises.

"The current global economic crisis is all the more reason why high burden TB countries in Africa should invest in TB control. As per a report of World Bank and Stop TB Partnership (December 2007), high-burden TB countries are likely to recover 9-15 times of their investment in TB control" said Mayowa Joel of Nigeria. This report indicates that the economic cost of not treating TB to Africa between 2006 and 2015 would be USD 519 billion while TB can be controlled with USD 20 billion in the same period.

It is clear that health is not considered as a smart investment. Possibly imposing currency transaction levy of 0.005% can generate a pool of dedicated financial resources to strengthen health systems globally.

Trading volume in the foreign exchange (FX) market has now topped USD 1000 trillion a year. In this financial crisis, unlike most other areas of the finance industry, the FX market is still growing. This provides a very solid base from which the currency transaction levy can produce a sustainable and substantial income stream. As well, the market is fully electronic. Collection would be computerised with payment automatic every time a currency trade is settled. Thus it is efficient and inexpensive to implement with little scope for avoidance.

The proposed rate of 0.005% is too small to alter decision making in the FX market and yet high enough to yield a sizeable revenue stream. In recent work for the UN University, Professor Rodney Schmidt undertook the most detailed econometric modeling to date, showing this rate is too low to affect market structure whilst at the same time producing potential revenue of the order of USD 30-40 billion a year.

There are mechanisms like the currency transaction levy that have proven to work. Like the UNITAID. In 2006, France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and the United Kingdom decided to create an international drug purchase facility called UNITAID to be financed with sustainable, predictable resources. As an economically neutral tool the tax on air tickets was considered as the most suitable instrument. This mechanism seeks to fill a critical gap in the global health financing scenario: the need for sustained strategic market intervention to drive price reduction and increases in supply.

Potentially the currency transaction levy can radically change the global health financing landscape and bring in more sustainability but the world - for now the G-20 countries - need to be covninced why health financing is a smart investment.

- Bobby Ramakant

If G-20 agrees, health financing might come from Currency transaction levy

If G-20 agrees, health financing might come from Currency transaction levy

There is a growing public movement globally to put pressure on the Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors that will meet in London, UK, on 2 April 2009, to put a currency transaction levy of 0.005% to raise dedicated resources for funding health programmes. This currency transaction levy of 0.005% can potentially generate USD 30-40 billion a year.

It is vital to understand the health funding in these times of global economic meltdown. The single largest donor of AIDS, TB and Malaria programmes globally - the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) has just 37.5% of its estimated budget for 2009-2010. The donor countries haven’t kept their promises to fund the 'Fund'. The GFATM projected budget for 2009-2010 was USD 8 billion and it just has USD 3 billion in its kitty, falling short of USD 5 billion.

The donor countries that haven’t kept their promises include the United States of America that is also the biggest defaulter. It is not that US doesn’t have money, it gave about the same amount it owed to GFATM to Merrill Lynch as bail out money. It gave hundreds of times more to other private banks as bail out money. This was tax payers money of the people - which was handed over to the banks. The banks distributed this amount amongst themselves as 'holiday bonuses'. Outrageous? May be, but possibly the health advocates didn’t do a good job of convincing the policy makers that health investment is a smart investment, with promising returns.

Despite of African governments declaring tuberculosis (TB) as an emergency, Africa as a region, faces the largest funding gap of USD 10.7 billion to fully implement the Global Plan to Stop TB by 2015. This fact came in spotlight when the TB funding in Africa required to meet the TB-related targets of millennium development goals (MDG) by 2015 was analyzed, said Kenyan activist Lucy Chesire.

The countries in Africa had achieved a milestone by endorsing the African Union Abuja pledge of allocating 15% of national budgets to health, which was also reiterated at the 2008 African Union Summit in Egypt, the 2008 Conference of African Finance Ministers, and 2008 Special Conference of African Health Ministers. But they have bitterly failed to act on this pledge, said the activists. Only Botswana has kept the promise of allocating 15% of the national budget to health, the rest of the countries in Africa need to keep their promises.

"The current global economic crisis is all the more reason why high burden TB countries in Africa should invest in TB control. As per a report of World Bank and Stop TB Partnership (December 2007), high-burden TB countries are likely to recover 9-15 times of their investment in TB control" said Mayowa Joel of Nigeria. This report indicates that the economic cost of not treating TB to Africa between 2006 and 2015 would be USD 519 billion while TB can be controlled with USD 20 billion in the same period.

It is clear that health is not considered as a smart investment. Possibly imposing currency transaction levy of 0.005% can generate a pool of dedicated financial resources to strengthen health systems globally.

Trading volume in the foreign exchange (FX) market has now topped USD 1000 trillion a year. In this financial crisis, unlike most other areas of the finance industry, the FX market is still growing. This provides a very solid base from which the currency transaction levy can produce a sustainable and substantial income stream. As well, the market is fully electronic. Collection would be computerised with payment automatic every time a currency trade is settled. Thus it is efficient and inexpensive to implement with little scope for avoidance.

The proposed rate of 0.005% is too small to alter decision making in the FX market and yet high enough to yield a sizeable revenue stream. In recent work for the UN University, Professor Rodney Schmidt undertook the most detailed econometric modeling to date, showing this rate is too low to affect market structure whilst at the same time producing potential revenue of the order of USD 30-40 billion a year.

There are mechanisms like the currency transaction levy that have proven to work. Like the UNITAID. In 2006, France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and the United Kingdom decided to create an international drug purchase facility called UNITAID to be financed with sustainable, predictable resources. As an economically neutral tool the tax on air tickets was considered as the most suitable instrument. This mechanism seeks to fill a critical gap in the global health financing scenario: the need for sustained strategic market intervention to drive price reduction and increases in supply.

Potentially the currency transaction levy can radically change the global health financing landscape and bring in more sustainability but the world - for now the G-20 countries - need to be covninced why health financing is a smart investment.

- Bobby Ramakant

People with drug-resistant tuberculosis are neglected by governments

People with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) are neglected by governments

The countries that report high burden of tuberculosis (TB), particularly, drug-resistant strains of TB, are the ones not moving fast enough to provide life saving treatment. According to the International medical humanitarian organization, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or doctors without borders, less than one percent of those with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) get access to proper treatment as per the International standards of treatment and care guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO). Even the Stop TB Partnership agrees that about three per cent of those with MDR-TB might be receiving proper treatment.

"Only 3% of people who have MDR-TB have access to effective treatment. We have compelling evidence that we know how to prevent and treat MDR-TB and treatment success rate is 80% in low resource setting. Its intervention is complex but is effective, feasible and is cost-effective" stressed said Dr Ernesto Jaramillo, Medical Officer, Stop TB Department, World Health Organization (WHO) at the 3rd Stop TB Partners' Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO's Stop TB department, said that "the WHO Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2009 confirms the notion that there might be more than half a million MDR-TB cases every year. 54 countries have reported extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) to us."

As ministers from high-burden multi- and extensively- drug-resistant TB (M/XDR-TB) countries gather from 1-3 April 2009 in Beijing, China, for a high-level ministerial meeting on M/XDR-TB, MSF calls on them to commit to treating more people with MDR-TB, and to conducting necessary research to improve current treatment options.

The WHO reports that there are more than 500,000 new MDR-TB cases each year, but that under 30,000 people were detected and notified last year and only 3,681 are known to have started treatment according to international guidelines and with quality-assured medicines.

“The slow progress in treating people with MDR-TB is particularly striking because high-burden MDR-TB countries are definitely not the least developed in the world,” said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Director of MSF’s Access to Essential Medicines Campaign. “They have the capacity to act, and need to make this a priority and put people on treatment.”

MSF is concerned that many countries, particularly those that are classified by WHO as ‘high-burden’, like China, South Africa or India, are not doing enough to provide treatment to patients in need. In addition, not providing appropriate treatment further contributes to the spread of drug-resistant TB.

China, for example, has a quarter of the world’s MDR-TB cases. Answering to an initial request made by the Chinese National TB Programme, MSF then failed to obtain the authorisation to provide care for MDR-TB patients in inner Mongolia, despite two years of negotiations with national, provincial and regional authorities. MSF has now abandoned its attempts to open the project.

“Not being able to act when there are people that need life-saving treatment is extremely frustrating,” said Meinie Nicolai, MSF Director of Operations. “Because we did not manage to reach an agreement, we could not put a single patient on treatment. And because they can’t get treated anywhere else, many people will have died while we were stalled in meetings these past two years.”

“Crucially, high-burden countries have the skills and some of the resources needed to conduct the research to improve MDR-TB treatment,” says Dr. von Schoen-Angerer. “The Beijing meeting is an opportunity for high-burden countries to take the lead in addressing this crisis, by setting targets to put more patients on treatment, by agreeing to import quality-assured drugs, and by establishing a joint research effort to improve existing treatment.”

In 2007, MSF treated 574 patients for MDR-TB in 12 projects including in South Africa, India, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Armenia.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the countries with the highest burden of MDR-TB are India (131,000 cases), China (112,000), Russia (43,000), South Africa (16,000) and Bangladesh (15,000).

The High Level Ministerial Meeting on M/XDR-TB is being organized by WHO, the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This meeting is likely to bring together health ministers and other stakeholders from 27 high M/XDR-TB burdened countries, including justice and science ministry delegations and representatives from international agencies, civil society, research communities and the corporate sector.

"We have been able to convince the ministers of health of 27 high burden M/XDR-TB countries to come to the Beijing meeting and commit to achieve the targets of the Global Plan to Stop TB" said Dr Ernesto Jaramillo, Medical Officer, Stop TB Department, WHO at the 3rd Stop TB Partners' Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"The 2nd Global Plan to Stop TB which was launched in 2006 had laid out specific targets for MDR-TB, to provide universal access to diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB by year 2015" said Dr Jaramillo.

The 27 countries represented will be Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Pakistan, South Africa, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

The highest levels of MDR-TB ever recorded were reported by WHO in its 'Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance in the World' report in February 2008 with nearly half a million new MDR-TB cases emerging worldwide. According to the new WHO report (Global Tuberculosis Control report 2009), the levels of multi-drug resistant TB might be more than half a million as previously thought.

The threat of MDR-TB and XDR-TB can be halted but few of the 27 high MDR-TB burdened countries have response plans in place. Many of these countries are not even properly equipped to diagnose drug-resistant TB.

"We need political commitment from the countries. The XDR-TB task force had met in April 2008 in order to assess the progress we had made in response to MDR-TB and XDR-TB. The Task Force came up with lot of positive things, major progress in many areas. However the number of people on treatment was far below the target. One of the clear recommendations coming out of the XDR-TB Task Force meeting was to convene a high level ministerial meeting where we can get ministers of countries responsible for the 85% of the global M/XDR-TB burden, to achieve the target of universal access to diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB by 2015" explained Dr Jaramillo.

Countries with low resources are building their capacities to make things happen. Lesotho was able to make a state-of-the-art laboratory for diagnosis of MDR-TB in six months. "We have countries like Nepal, Philippines, Peru that despite of weakness in health systems are providing universal access to MDR-TB diagnosis and treatment" said Dr Jaramillo.

"So far the Green Light Committee (GLC) mechanism, which is an initiative of WHO, and has played an instrumental role in leading the response, began with only one country in the year 2000 - Philippines. Now 8 years later we have 58 countries that have 116 projects approved by GLC. However we have less than 20% of countries that are moving towards scale up country wide of these interventions" said Dr Jaramillo.

Dr Jaramillo expressed his concern that "Countries are not moving fast enough in order to prevent the death of 1000 people with MDR-TB every day."

Vice Premier of China, the Director-General of WHO and very likely that Bill Gates and ministers of health confirmed so far from 21 high burden M/XDR-TB countries will be taking part in the Beijing meeting opening next week.

"We are expecting that this will be a watershed meeting in response to M/XDR-TB" said Dr Jaramillo.

"After this meeting we will like to move towards a World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution. The resolution of WHA is powerful in the sense that countries really commit to do things. After the Beijing meeting, one month later, the Government of China has agreed to submit a proposal of a resolution to the WHA in order to accelerate the response to M/XDR-TB" shared Dr Jaramillo.

Investing in research is also necessary. Treating MDR-TB is complex, lengthy and involves the use of drugs that can cause severe side effects and are not optimally effective. There is therefore an urgent need to speed up the development of newer, better tests and drugs, and to conduct studies to optimise MDR-TB treatment.