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Massive Good Sets Sights for $1.5bn
Friday, 15 Mar, 2010
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Just launched in the US – Massive Good at ITB seeks to utilize the power of the OTCs and the travelling public to raise $1.5bn
A couple of weeks ago, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Bill Clinton join with international recording artists Will.I.Am and David Guetta, celebrated South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and director Spike Lee, to launch MASSIVEGOOD, an innovative fundraising movement that will enable travelers to raise over a billion dollars for the MDGs.
Leisure travelers in the United States will be able to can now click on MASSIVEGOOD on commercial travel websites like Travelocity and Accor Hotels and through travel agents, and contribute $2 to fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and to improving the dismal state of maternal and child health in the developing world.
World leaders such as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg sent messages of support for MASSIVEGOOD, an initiative already backed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Created by the Millennium Foundation, with the support of the global travel and tourism industry, MASSIVEGOOD has the potential to raise millions more for global health. Funds will be distributed to UNITAID, an innovative funding mechanism for the purchase of drugs that has already saved millions of lives by lowering the price and increasing the availability of key treatments in poor countries and will be dispersed to partners, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
MASSIVEGOOD is designed to mobilize new sources of innovative funding to achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the UN in 2000: to treat and fight life-threatening diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; to reduce childhood mortality; and to improve maternal health.
US President Jimmy Carter, Founder of the Carter Center, stated: "I commend the Millennium Foundation on its ambitious and innovative efforts to address difficult global health problems that foster greater inequity between the rich and poor. Through the Foundation’s unique MASSIVEGOOD campaign, individual travelers can join a global movement to support the Foundation’s work to fight life-threatening diseases, such as malaria, that disproportionately impact the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. The Foundation has my best wishes for every success in this important endeavor."
Last September, industry leaders signed a declaration of principles committing their support to the Millennium Foundation and the launch of MASSIVEGOOD. Signatories included the World Travel & Tourism Council; Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport, airline reservation networks; American Express Business Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel, as corporate travel management supporters, Voyageurs du Monde as a leisure travel agent supporter, Mondial Assistance, as Call Center partner, and the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Since then, Travelocity, Accor Hotels, Delta Airlines, the American Society of Travel Agents, Club Med, the Travel Corporation, BCD Travel, and Europ Assistance Group have pledged their support.
Donors can rely on the security of Payment Service Provider (PSP) for MASSIVEGOOD, the Royal Bank of Scotland/Bibit.
“The individual contributions may be small. But the thinking is big. Through this partnership between UN agencies and the travel business, ordinary people will have the opportunity to do massive good for global health,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at today’s launch, at which he was joined by his Special Envoy for Haiti and former US president, Bill Clinton.
The idea is that this will be an easy way to give, making the shopper more likely to give. “A small box with a small click” at the bottom of a travel website, as described by Philippe Douste-Blazy, UN Special Advisor on Innovative Finance for Development, at a press conference in New York.
The MassiveGood Initiative is a programme of the Millennium Foundation, an independent not-for-profit that is helping the UN achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals which world leaders agreed to meet by 2015, which involve improving maternal and child health, and reducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
“Five clicks will save a life,” said Bernard Salomé, Managing Director of the Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health, noting that five clicks – the equivalent of $10 – were enough to buy a bed net which would curb exposure to malarial mosquitoes.
According to the Millennium Foundation website, it takes only $2 to treat two children against malaria, $24 to cure an adult of tuberculosis and $40 to provide life-sustaining treatment for an HIV-positive child.
The initiative will be launched in different countries in the coming months, including the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Germany.
Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the 2010 Sustainable Tourism Report Suite details at:www.travelmole.com/stories/1141006.php
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