U.N. report calls for innovative ways to fund development initiatives

The U.N.'s annual World Economic and Social Survey, released last week, "says it is critical to find new ways to help the world's poor as pledged cash fails to flow" and "call[s] for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries," Agence France-Presse reports. "But the U.N. acknowledged that the idea is unlikely to get widespread support from the target group, saying that for now its tax on the unimaginably wealthy remains 'an intriguing possibility,'" according to the news service. The report provided several other ideas for international taxes to raise money for development efforts and "suggests expanding a levy on air tickets that a number of nations already impose to raise money for drugs for poor states through UNITAID," which has collected more than $1 billion since 2006, AFP notes (Witcher, 7/6).