Working Together To Save Lives –– A Foreign Assistance Proposal
FreeAfrica (June 7, 2005)
Editorial by: Dr. Keith Martin, M.P. and Jay Nathwani

Ottawa, Canada –– Coming from the comfort of Canada what strikes you in most towns in Africa is the preponderance of people with disfiguring disabilities. Some were injured through accidents or conflict, but many are simply the victims of an absence of basic medications. In Africa, a cut can easily become infected, and rapidly progress so that a doctor is often faced with a horrible choice: leave the patient alone with the great risk that the person will become septic and die, or amputate the limb and save a life. With good reason, the latter choice is usually taken. But for the absence of a few dollars worth of medication, these people would still have all their limbs intact. Instead, they are disabled in an unforgiving land that does not have the social programs and health care we enjoy. Thus, the disabled fall to the bottom of society, frequently live off the streets and often die an early death.

The sheer number of maimed people is grim testimony to one of the most pressing needs in developing countries: basic medical supplies. Although huge deficits exist in infrastructure and medical personnel, without medications there is little that can be done to treat the sick. Although it would cost only a few dollars to save a limb or a life, finding these supplies and getting them to developing countries has, until now, eluded the international community. But a new, innovative plan has been proposed by the dynamic, Montreal-based non-governmental organization, Health Partners International (HPI). Under their proposal, a relatively small tax deduction of $7 million to medical companies would generate $132 million of donated, essential medical supplies. These medications could be distributed by the World Health Organization or another NGO working in the recipient country. Excitingly, HPI has also started a parallel project in the United Kingdom, to which Prince Charles has recently given his patronage, and Prime Minister Tony Blair his ardent support.

This plan turns the mechanism of donation 180º. Donations would be driven by the needs of a recipient country, not by what drug companies wish to dump. Donations would be driven by demand, not supply.

The time is ripe to do this, for in the aftermath of the tsunami in Asia, Canadian medical companies embraced the act of giving, and donated some $19.6 million worth of medications. This gift, affectionately known in Sri Lanka as "The Big One", was what the World Health Organization needed during this crisis and clearly prevented the death of tens of thousands of people.

The heart of this proposal is that it will provide timely delivery of essential, high-quality medicines, vaccines and medical supplies to needy countries and save hundreds of thousands of lives in the process. However, it would be a fair question to ask, why not just donate the value of these supplies in cash to local agencies that can purchase what they need locally, thereby avoiding the cost of transportation? Indeed, foreign aid around the world has often suffered when donor governments have insisted on purchasing supplies at a higher cost in their own countries and then shipping them to recipient nations. But the case of medical supplies presents an exception to the rule. In many cases, they are of inferior quality or are simply not available in the recipient country. Using this tax incentive model, a dollar cost to the treasury, is leveraged to produce nearly twenty dollars worth of medicines. This is truly spectacular value for money. A ceiling on the value of donations could be used to limit the cost to taxpayers, and the individual companies could claim as a tax deduction a maximum of twice the cost of producing the supplies which is far below the selling price.

This proposal would benefit our international assistance efforts, both in response to crises, such as the tsunami in Asia, and in the context of longer-term development efforts. In our world, where every year almost 11 million children die before their first birthday, almost entirely from preventable causes, and 3 million people die of AIDS, much can be done with very little effort to save many lives.

Since a parallel process has been embraced by the U.K. wouldn't it be a remarkable if we worked with the Brits at July's G8 Summit in Scotland and challenged other developed nations to follow suit and provide the same incentives to medical companies within their own borders?

If this innovative collaboration on international development, which marries the reach of governments with the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the private sector, comes to pass, then this public-private partnership will save the lives of millions of the most impoverished people in the world. What an outstanding achievement that would be!

N.B: Keith Martin is Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, Canada.
Jay Nathwani is a Parliamentary Intern working in the office of Dr. Martin