Geneva - A senior United Nations official says the UN is talking to oil-producing African countries about levying 10c on every barrel produced to provide funds to help the poorest nations improve public health.
The proposed funding mechanism would follow two other schemes to raise money for development in unconventional ways - a levy on airline tickets in more than 90 countries and a tax planned by 11 European nations on share transactions.
Extraction
The UN under-secretary general for innovative finance for development, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said he hoped the new arrangement would be cemented by early 2015.
"In 2014 I will be working with African leaders for a tax on natural resource extraction, a very important development which we will soon be able to announce," said Douste-Blazy, a former French minister of health and foreign affairs.
Asked who would pay the oil levy, he said it would come via state budgets and "unfortunately" not from the oil companies, who he suggested were not so receptive to the idea.
The levy could also be imposed on gas and mining production, he said, without elaborating.
Malnutrition
It was launched in 2006 by the governments of Britain, Brazil, Chile, France and Norway and about 75% of its $300m budget is now funded by the levy on air tickets.
Douste-Blazy said 94 countries had introduced the air ticket levy. Morocco was the latest to sign up and he hoped Japan would follow soon.