Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – Cameroon and UNITAID, an innovative financing facility for global health, want taxes engaged by France and Germany on financial transactions to be quickly adopted by countries of the world in order to raise funds to finance access to medication for people of developing countries.

President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the Chair of the Executive Board of UNITAID, who is also the Special Adviser to the United Nation Secretary-General for Development Financing, Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy, made the proposal in a press release after discussions in Cameroon’s political capital city, Yaounde on Friday, August 26, 2011.

Cameroon World Bank / IMF Spring Meeting

Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy was in Cameroon from August 24 to 27 to inspect projects in the domains diagnosing and treating HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis financed by UNITAID.

Cameroon has benefitted from the facility’s assistance amounting to about FCFA 8.5 billion (19 million US Dollars) and the country also contributes to financing it through taxes on air travels. UNITAID was officially launched in 2006 and Cameroon joined it in February 2007 during the Africa-France Summit held in the French city of Nice.

Cameroon’s Head of State and the Executive Board Chair of UNITAID, called for G20 member countries in particular, to put in place innovative financing mechanisms to raise adequate resources to tackle health problems. Cameroon, the release states, already has a tax on financial transactions contained in Article 343 of its Tax Code.

In a press interview after discussions with Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang on August 26, Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy revealed that they discussed UNITAID programme for children and women with HIV.

UNITAID, its Executive Board Chair said, works with the Clinton Foundation for children with HIV and with the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) for pregnant women with HIV, adding that for Tuberculosis, the facility works with the Global Drug Facility of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“We think a lot of efforts are being made in Cameroon for AIDS patients”, he said. “But it is important to increase the health budget because the health of the country is the youth and hope of the country,” Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy added.