Taking the Next Step - Implementing a Currency Transaction Development Levy

As we approach the half-way point for the achievement of many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the spotlight is shining ever more intently on the urgent need for new sources of revenue to pay for them. With the first international development duty launched, in the form of the ‘pilot’ solidarity levy on air travel, the momentum needs to continue to the implementation in quick succession of a second such initiative to provide another long term predictable source of additional finance. Innovation is required not just in financing but also in delivery. UNITAID’s mission is to transform a situation of high cost drugs for the treatment of the few to low cost drugs for the care of the many. In so doing its potential value is exponentially greater than a simple addition of extra revenue. The choice of how and where the next new stream of finance is spent also needs to be to be similarly strategic. The Core Group1 Governments rightly pride themselves on an international development policy that has, as one of its pillars, the tackling of global inequality which has risen rapidly in the latest phase of globalisation. For example President Chirac opened the Paris conference held in February 2006 in Paris stating that ‘despite the continuous increase in global wealth, a third of humankind still lives on less than a euro a day’, and that ‘…globalisation, far from bridging the (poverty) gap, is widening it even further’. In this report, we offer some suggestions for tackling global inequality through concrete proposals for both raising substantial new revenue equitably and spending it in ways that strategically target the ‘weak spots’ in the international development effort. The financial services industry has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of globalisation. Annual turnover in the global market for currencies, has, for instance, expanded from about $4 trillion in 1973 to$40 trillion in the mid 1980s to more than $450 trillion now – a more than 100 fold increase.2 Profits at financial services firms are also at a record high with the top two most profitable banks, Citibank and HSBC, posting more than$40 billion of profits between them in 2005 alone. At the same time as industries such as airlines and financial services have benefited from globalisation, populations in many of the poorest countries, especially those in sub- Saharan Africa, have been left behind – or worse, harmed. Average life expectancy in these countries is in fact down from 50 years in 1990 to 45 years now, just over half the almost 80-year life expectancy in countries such as Norway. The health, education and productivity problems caused by a lack of access to basics such as clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, the added decimation wrought by global pandemics such as HIV/AIDS on the ability of the populations and systems in poor countries to cope, and the increased vulnerability linked to climate change, all threaten to undermine and, in fact, roll back the slow progress that has been made to date towards meeting the MDGs. In Section 2 we demonstrate in some detail how, by introducing a very small levy of less than a hundredth of one per cent on currency transactions, many countries can unilaterally generate substantial resources for development from those who can most afford to pay. Such a levy is simple and inexpensive to apply in this age of electronic transfers. Whilst this proposal is specific to the currency market, it can be generalised to apply to other financial markets many of which already pay some form of a levy. The possible uses for this revenue that we propose in Section 4 have been shaped by the need to lever maximum results from the resources generated. The three potential areas for immediate financing that we have identified would generate positive additional outcomes towards the achievement of several seemingly unrelated development goals. First, provision of clean water and sanitation, as it is a foundation stone that underlies the ability to make meaningful progress with the vast majority of the MDGs. Second, providing human resources for health, because without sufficient trained health workers, medicines and infrastructure are simply not enough on their own to contain the raging pandemics of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. Third, providing a long term predictable source of funds to an expanded UN Central Emergency Response Fund, to create a more robust response to the growing threat of natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies.currency tax; tobin tax; MDG; Financial markets; Financial Transaction Taxes

Ubiquitous robust communications for emergency response using multi-operator heterogeneous networks

A number of disasters in various places of the planet have caused an extensive loss of lives, severe damages to properties and the environment, as well as a tremendous shock to the survivors. For relief and mitigation operations, emergency responders are immediately dispatched to the disaster areas. Ubiquitous and robust communications during the emergency response operations are of paramount importance. Nevertheless, various reports have highlighted that after many devastating events, the current technologies used, failed to support the mission critical communications, resulting in further loss of lives. Inefficiencies of the current communications used for emergency response include lack of technology inter-operability between different jurisdictions, and high vulnerability due to their centralized infrastructure. In this article, we propose a flexible network architecture that provides a common networking platform for heterogeneous multi-operator networks, for interoperation in case of emergencies. A wireless mesh network is the main part of the proposed architecture and this provides a back-up network in case of emergencies. We first describe the shortcomings and limitations of the current technologies, and then we address issues related to the applications and functionalities a future emergency response network should support. Furthermore, we describe the necessary requirements for a flexible, secure, robust, and QoS-aware emergency response multi-operator architecture, and then we suggest several schemes that can be adopted by our proposed architecture to meet those requirements. In addition, we suggest several methods for the re-tasking of communication means owned by independent individuals to provide support during emergencies. In order to investigate the feasibility of multimedia transmission over a wireless mesh network, we measured the performance of a video streaming application in a real wireless metropolitan multi-radio mesh network, showing that the mesh network can meet the requirements for high quality video transmissions

An agent-based architecture for managing the provision of community care - the INCA (Intelligent Community Alarm) experience

Community Care is an area that requires extensive cooperation between independent agencies, each of which needs to meet its own objectives and targets. None are engaged solely in the delivery of community care, and need to integrate the service with their other responsibilities in a coherent and efficient manner. Agent technology provides the means by which effective cooperation can take place without compromising the essential security of both the client and the agencies involved as the appropriate set of responses can be generated through negotiation between the parties without the need for access to the main information repositories that would be necessary with conventional collaboration models. The autonomous nature of agents also means that a variety of agents can cooperate together with various local capabilities, so long as they conform to the relevant messaging requirements. This allows a variety of agents, with capabilities tailored to the carers to which they are attached to be developed so that cost-effective solutions can be provided. </p

Warrnambool exchange fire: consumer and social impact analysis

How can governments, communities, businesses and individuals prepare for a total communications blackout in the 21st century? Overview This report presents the findings of a research project which assessed the social impact of the Warrnambool exchange fire. The fire occurred on November 22, 2012 and caused a telecommunications outage that lasted for about 20 days. The outage affected about 100,000 people in South West Victoria, a region of Australia covering approximately 67,340 square kilometers. The social impact of the fire was researched by conducting focus groups, by gathering quantitative and qualitative data, and interviewing people affected. The research project findings call for an understanding of the need for government, communities, business and individuals to be prepared for future “extreme events” which result in telecommunications network failures. &nbsp; This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network

Accountability in Health Systems and the Potential of mHealth

The rapid spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) (and of mobile phones in particular) across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has generated considerable excitement in development circles regarding their potential to revolutionise service delivery in health systems. Broadly speaking, such innovations, widely referred to as mHealth, make possible new ways of collecting, collating and managing health and health service-related data, and novel means of communication between and among citizens, civil society, health service personnel and government actors. This can empower citizens to better understand, care and advocate for their own health; health workers to deliver improved services; and government actors to enforce or build health policies that uphold the health rights of all citizens, including poor and marginalised groups who are often systematically excluded from health systems. As mHealth is in its infancy, and most projects to date have been small in scale, this potential is still being tested. Furthermore, most research has focused on the extent to which mHealth has improved service delivery and/or health outcomes in the short term. There has been little explicit attention given to whether and how mHealth might improve accountability for public health services – that is, to what extent mHealth can enhance citizens’ abilities to demand improved services from providers and government in line with their rights, and/or augment the capacity and willingness of providers and government to respond to citizens’ needs and demands – both in the short and the long term. This Working Paper aims to begin to fill this gap by exploring literature on accountability in health systems and on mHealth and to build theoretical and empirical bridges between them. In so doing, we lay out a clearer understanding of the role that mHealth can play in accountability for public health services in LMICs, as well as its limitations. At the centre of this role is technology-facilitated information which, for instance, can help governments enforce and improve existing health policy, and which can assist citizens and civil society to communicate with each other to learn more about their rights, and to engage in data collection, monitoring and advocacy. Ultimately however, information, facilitated as it may be by mHealth, does not automatically lead to improved accountability. Different forms of health care come with different accountability challenges to which mHealth is only variably up to task. Furthermore, health systems, embedded as they are in diverse political, social and economic contexts, are extremely complex, and accountability requires far more than information. Thus, mHealth can serve as a tool for accountability, but is likely only able to make a difference in institutional systems that support accountability in other ways (both formal and informal) and in which political actors and health service providers are willing and able to change their behaviour.Future Health Systems Research Programme ConsortiumMaking All Voices CountUnited States Agency for International DevelopmentSwedish International Development Cooperation AgencyOmidyar NetworkUK Department for International DevelopmentEconomic and Social Research Counci

Interoperability and Information Brokers in Public Safety: An Approach toward Seamless Emergency Communications

When a disaster occurs, the rapid gathering and sharing of crucial information among public safety agencies, emergency response units, and the public can save lives and reduce the scope of the problem; yet, this is seldom achieved. The lack of interoperability hinders effective collaboration across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. In this article, we propose a general architecture for emergency communications that incorporates (1) an information broker, (2) events and event-driven processes, and (3) interoperability. This general architecture addresses the question of how an information broker can overcome obstacles, breach boundaries for seamless communication, and empower the public to become active participants in emergency communications. Our research is based on qualitative case studies on emergency communications, workshops with public safety agencies, and a comparative analysis of interoperability issues in the European public sector. This article features a conceptual approach toward proposing a way in which public safety agencies can achieve optimal interoperability and thereby enable seamless communication and crowdsourcing in emergency prevention and response