Robin Hood Tax Campaign

EG4H supports the Robin Hood Tax Campaign.

What is the Robin Hood Tax? The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on banks, hedge funds and other finance institutions that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and abroad.

It can start as low as 0.005 per cent – and average 0.05 per cent . But when levied on the billions of pounds sloshing round the global finance system every day through transactions such as foreign exchange, derivatives trading and share deals, it can raise hundreds of billions of pounds every year.

What can I do? Read more about the and pledge your support for the tax by signing the petition here.

What is economic governance?

Economic governance is about how economies are run. On a national level this is done by the finance ministries and central banks. On an international level, it is done by three institutions:

  1. The International Monetary Fund (IMF): works to prevent global economic collapse. It lends huge sums of money to countries in economic trouble, but only if the recipient countries adhere to a strict conditions about how they run their country.
  2. The World Bank: works to reduce poverty. It gives out grants for projects, but only to countries who have been IMF approved.
  3. The World Trade Organization (WTO): works to facilitate global trade. It pushes for things like protection of patent rights, and a world where there are no trade barriers.

How is this related to healthcare?

The amount of money a government can spend on healthcare is proportional to the wealth of the country. This may seem obvious, but less economically developed countries (LEDCs) have very few resources, and how they decide to spend it can have profound effects on health. While a 10% cut to the NHS may not influence our mortality that much, a 10% cut to the health budget of a LEDCs can literally kill thousands.

The conditions that the IMF imposes are designed to facilitate the short-term repayment of loans back to wealthy banks. The IMF asks for huge public spending cuts, which decreases immediate healthcare. Such cuts also entrench the social determinants of health, such as water, sanitation and nutrition. Secondly, the IMF encourages healthcare privatisation and asking patients to pay-per-service. These make it harder for poor people to access healthcare, thus widening health inequalities. Thirdly, all these IMF conditions are actually not that great for promoting long-term economic growth. Instead, they often widen national and international wealth inequalities by concentrating power and wealth to a small minority. This is another reasons why international health inequalities are widening. Fourth, IMF conditions ultimately lead to a state that is less conductive to health: psychosocial stress increases, tobacco availability and marketing is increased while tobacco prices fall, and alcoholism increases. This environment encourages unhealthily behaviours.

To summarize, global economic institutions decrease health spending, entrench poor social determinants of health, deepen inequalities in health and wealth, and create an environment that encourages unhealthy behaviours.

How can global economic institutions be so indifferent to health?

These global economic institutions were created early in the 20th century with good intentions to represent the interests of the majority. However, over time their leaders have become increasingly corrupt, so they have focused on serving the interests of wealthy minorities. The IMF officials are aligned to wealthy bankers, and the WTO officials are aligned to wealthy business owners. For example, some individuals have taken career paths that begun in Citibank, after which they work in the top-level IMF management, after which they are "rewarded" by a top-post at another investment bank. If top-level management are already so corrupt, it is of little surprise if lower-levels follow suit, and the entire institution's aims and operations are subverted.

How has corruption become so entrenched at global economic institutions?

The post-WWII world that gave birth to these institutions is vastly different to the world we live in now. However, the fundamental principles of governance have not changed. Voting rights still reflect the post-WWII power roles (USA is able to veto all IMF decisions), so LEDCs are not represented. Furthermore, officials are not democratically accountable – the people in the powerful countries like me and you do not know who is representing us at these global economic institutions, or what they get up to. This is all kept in a shroud of secrecy and transparency, to reduce the likelihood of someone asking questions that may rock their boat.

What is EG4H campaigning for?

1) Reform of the global economic institutions so that:

  1. Their policies become evidence-based, transparent and accountable. We want to see that X policy is better than Y policy because of Z evidence.
  2. Their officials are elected democratically and held accountable both nationally and globally. Just like in national governments, we want our representative at international organizations to demonstrate their competence – by reporting back on what they have individually pushed for and achieved. Voting rights should be distributed more fairly, to give more representation to LEDs, such as one per country or one per capita.

2) Promote research into the health effects of trade agreements:

  1. Educating the medical community about the importance of economic governance and fostering interest.
  2. Sharing research between medical and non-medical institutions and fostering common aims.
  3. Helping the WHO secure funding for such research so that it can be more assertive and speak out on the on trade decisions that impact on the social determinants of health.

What can I do?

1) Get informed

  • Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz
  • Global Health Watch 2 by the People’s Health Movement. Available at: http://www.ghwatch.org/ghw2/ghw2pdf/ghw2.pdf
  • Final report by the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. Available at: http://www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/finalreport/en/index.html
  • www.eg4health.org - click on "Get informed"

2) Add your name to our lobbying: Sign onto our ongoing open letters and petitions to. For example, we wrote to the G20 leaders at the last G20 meeting. Currently we are rallying support for The Director-General of the WHO, Margaret Chan, to be more assertive. Sign up on www.eg4health.org

3) Spread the word:

  • Become the EG4Health rep for your university.
  • Organise a talks and events at your medical school.
  • Join our Facebook page and invite fellow medics.
  • Push for it to become part of the syllabus of a global health SSU.

Arnoupe Jhass and Taavi Tillmann.

To take action in any of the above, or for more info, email our Medsin campaign co-ordinator: taavi@eg4health.org.

The Economic Governance for Health campaign exists at

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Last updated on Sunday 21 March 2010 at 18:35