Participants at a two-day international meeting in Tokyo on "solidarity levies" such as taxes on air ticket purchases and currency transactions to pay for global development have called for new ways of mobilizing funds to meet the world's needs.
The 56 countries that joined the meeting of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development recognized the need to "explore innovative financing which is stable, predictable and additional to the existing resources," according to a chairman's summary released Friday. The meeting was chaired by Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.
The summary noted that the world only has five years to fulfill the U.N. Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty, set in 2000.
"Although the international community has been actively engaged in international cooperation, the world is still facing the severe reality in which many people suffer from starvation, diseases, climate change and other global challenges, and are unable to live in dignity," the summary said.