Clinton Proposals Use KSG Think Tank Work

President Clinton announced his support for vaccination research and debt relief initiatives last week that were prompted in part by the work Kennedy School of Government think tank.

The Center for International Development (CID), a research-oriented institution headed by prominent professor Jeffrey D. Sachs '76, has been working on the initiatives for much of the past year.

In his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, Clinton called for full relief for highly indebted poor countries and also proposed a major initiative designed to spur new vaccine research and benefit the countries.

"In a world where over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, we also have got to do our part in the global endeavor to reduce the debts of the poorest countries, so they can invest in education, health care and economic growth," Clinton said.

"I also want to say that America must help more nations to break the bonds of disease," he added.

"The budget I give you invests $150 million more in the fight against this and other infectious killers. And today, I propose a tax credit to speed the development of vaccines for diseases like malaria, TB and AIDS. I ask the private sector and our partners around the world to join us in embracing this cause. We can save millions of lives together, and we ought to do it."

The proposals for debt relief and vaccine research stem in part from ongoing CID work, including a number of CID-authored studies and policy recommendations.

The first initiative would relieve 36 countries of all outstanding debt. The federal budget for the current fiscal year already provides money for debt alleviation, which officials call a "down payment."

Under the vaccine proposal, the U.S. would increase development funding for certain vaccines, including those against hepatitis B and other deadly diseases. It would then encourage the World Bank and other global organizations to follow suit. The U.S. would also increase its budget to develop vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Finally, the government would institute a tax-credit system designed to reward private companies that produce new vaccines.

"The value of creating and selling such a vaccine is twice what it normally would be," Sachs said.

Sachs said many scientists believe a malaria vaccine could be developed within 10 years.

"But the level of effort going into that is low," he said.

The people who need such vaccines tend to be poor, Sachs said. The initiative would create a "virtual market" for them.

Sachs, the former director of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), says he expects to trek to Washington this spring to support the effort before Congress.

"The center is putting a tremendous amount of effort into understanding what is happening in the very poorest countries in the world and trying to find useful policy responses," said Sachs, who is also Stone Professor of International Trade.

Sachs said he was pleased to hear Clinton's speech respond to CID's work.

"Not a lot of U.S. politics is focused on the problems of a lot of people in the world," he said. "It's pleasant when it happens. We're a powerful country and we can do a lot of good when we turn our attention to it."

CID, a research-oriented center started in July 1998, is one of the University's main institutions for international development studies. Its older sibling, the HIID, will soon be dissolved.

That decision followed an extensive review by a University-wide task force, who cited HIID's failure to adequately integrate its activities into Harvard's mission of teaching and research.

HIID has been the target of national media attention over the past few years as a result of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into a project in Russia. Two HIID team members there were accused of using their knowledge of and connections to the Russian economy to aid private investors.

The investigation has not yet concluded. Sachs was not implicated in the scandal.