"The World Solidarity Fund to eradicate poverty in the world" [3/3]
1- 2 Scope
The Fund's scope was clearly defined in President Ben Ali's 25 August 1999 speech: The Fund will act in "the most destitute areas in various parts of the world, most particularly in the poorest nations".
The nature of the Fund's activities should coincide with each state's poverty eradication strategy.
But the following objectives, enshrined in the Copenhagen Declaration and Program of Action, as well as in the declarations and programs of action of major conferences and UN Summit meetings held during the past few years, should be privileged.
- allow the poorest populations to gain access to amenities and basic social services, specifically health, education, drinkable water, decent housing...
- promote and upgrade human resources in such regions and encourage the generation of income sources and productive employment opportunities, so as to help concerned population integrate socially and economically.
- increase participation by target populations in decision-making in the areas that are of concern to them, and facilitate their access to new technologies.
2) FUND FINANCING
To deal with this issue, the Secretary General was invited to undertake the necessary consultations with member states and other parties concerned by this issue while taking into consideration the voluntary nature of contributions" (20 December 2000 General Assembly Resolution).
2-1 Experience of the 26-26 Tunisian National Solidarity Fund
The 26-26 National Solidarity Fund is mainly funded through two resource categories:
- voluntary contributions by individuals and businesses, accounting for nearly one quarter of the Fund's resources.
- allocated fiscal resources (duties, taxes, charges) such as the tax on travels abroad, additional duties on first registration of vehicles under the Tunisian system, contribution on local sales of coffee and tea...
2-2 For the World Solidarity Fund
As far as the World Solidarity Fund is concerned, resources should emanate from donor countries and multilateral organizations and, also, from NGO's and beneficiary countries, within the framework of national solidarity.
New resources were identified and made available to fund the debt alleviation program of most indebted poor countries: appropriations from the World Bank's benefits, revaluation of 14 million ounces of gold recorded in IMF's registers, appropriations from the reserve Fund, appropriations from the European Development Fund, etc...
Other ideas were also submitted: the Tobin proposal (appropriation of a tax on short-term financial transactions); initiating a tax on international air travel, sporting and cultural events, notably on Poverty Eradication World Day (17 October of each year); mobilizing revenue from taxes paid under the "pay-as-you-pollute" system defined in the Kyoto protocol for clean development, taxes on bytes and taxes on patents, etc...
therefore, we are all invited to be creative and imaginative in identifying and mobilizing the necessary resources for the Fund's activities.
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