Philippe Douste-Blazy

The New York Times, May 21, 2009, By DOREEN CARVAJAL

PARIS — Former President Bill Clinton, newly appointed as the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, announced Wednesday that he was joining a new international initiative to raise money for Third World medical aid through a unique financing campaign that harnesses the power of unlikely philanthropists: air travelers who buy electronic tickets.

“If we get broad-based support, there is no telling what we can do,” Mr. Clinton said at a small news conference at the Four Seasons George V Hotel in Paris, alongside Philippe Douste-Blazy, a development-financing adviser to the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

“If you provide a user-friendly, efficient way of giving, the contributors will use this system. There’s no question that large numbers of people will contribute if they know how little it costs and how many lives are saved.”

The U.N. is trying to tap new sources of revenue during the global economic crisis, turning to travelers who are willing to check off a $2 donation added to their ticket prices. The aim is to increase government aid for projects combating malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, according to both men, who are working with a newly formed group — Leading Innovative Financing for Equity, or LIFE — made up of eight different groups that are raising money to finance health aid.

One of those organizations is Unitaid, a Geneva-based organization that was founded in 2006 on the initiative of Brazil and France and that is financed by airline ticket taxes in 7 of its 35 member nations. Since it emerged, the group has raised and committed more than $900 million for treatment. Its aim is to buy medications in high volume in order to negotiate low prices.

The campaign to tap small donors will not be operating until January 2010, said Mr. Douste-Blazy, who explained that “the idea is that the citizens of the world are connected by the Internet and credit cards and can show their solidarity.” In the meantime, the groups have set broader goals to reach even more small donors — customers renting cars, booking hotels or buying train tickets.

Such measures will be coordinated by the group, LIFE, along with other financing arrangements like the sale of child vaccine bonds. The International Finance Facility for Immunization — backed by Britain, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway and South Africa — has already raised more than $2 billion since 2006 by selling vaccine bonds on the capital markets.