The United Nations has long been advocating for a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). As a laboratory of innovative financing, UNITAID sees the FTT as a further step, after the airline tickets surcharge, towards the creation of new global solidarity taxes.

A political consensus has evolved in France in favor of a FTT and it continues to develop in a growing number of countries. Thus, mobilizing strong support for such a measure remains essential to ensure that the present political momentum can be translated into concrete results already during 2011, especially in view of the G20 summit to be held in France in November 2011.

Thus, at the invitation of civil society organizations, UNITAID has launched the preparation of a practical guide on the introduction of a FTT in France, aimed at mobilising funds for development activities.


The conclusions of this study will be presented during a conference to be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 14 September 2011. The event will gather, among others, Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO; Philippe Douste-Blazy, United Nations Under Secretary-General for Innovative Financing for Development; Chairman, Executive Board of UNITAID and Millennium Foundation and former Foreign and Health Minister of France; Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and House of France and Jean-Louis Borloo, President of the Radical Party and former Minister of State of France. This conference co-organized by UNITAID, UNESCO, The Life Organization, Stamp out Poverty, Oxfam France, Coalition Plus and Aides will address the following theme: "Taxing Financial Transactions for a fairer world: here and now".

The conference, which will be held on 14 September 2011 from 9 am to 1 pm in Room IV, is open for members of Delegations of Member States, UNESCO Secretariat Staff, NGOs, media, members of academia, business representatives and the public at large.

Simultaneous interpretation of the proceedings will be provided in English and French.