Bob Geldof

Check out these great videos of Bob Geldof discussing the vast effects of climate change in Ethiopia. Bob recently returned to Ethiopia to 25 years after events like Live Aid that helped inspire millions of people around the world to take action in the fight extreme poverty.

Remember to keep checking the ONE Blog where we’ll be posting frequent updates from the climate summit in Copenhagen.

Yesterday Bob Geldof, advisor to ONE, appeared on the Canadian Television News segment “Power Play” to discuss Canada’s progress in meeting the 2005 Gleneagles Summit commitments and its role in hosting the upcoming G8 Summit. He had some very kind words for the Canadian peoples’ strong commitments (and strong follow-through) in ending extreme poverty.

You can check out the clip here:

Sunday’s special edition of La Stampa which Bob Geldof edited, also presented an opportunity for Geldof to interview Italy’s Prime Minister Berlusconi. In the interview, Geldof asks some very pointed questions about Italy’s failure to deliver on their promises to Africa, and the fact that Italy has only met 3% of what it had promised.

Full account of the interview, courtesy of Eloise Todd, below:

Silvio Berlusconi and Bob Geldof met each other in the courtyard of Palazzo Chigi. The Prime Minister was suffering from a stiff neck, but kept the promise to respond to the criticisms of the rock star famous for his public efforts for Africa. Geldof, straight in from London, wanted to go over the questions and data on Italian aid to Africa.

They found each other again a moment later outside the study of the Prime Minister. They sat in the centre, next to one another, their teams were on two sofas facing each other, the advisers of ONE, the NGO for Africa, on one side, and the men of the Foreign Ministry and Palazzo Chigi on the other, including Gianni Letta and Paolo Bonaiuti.

What followed was not a conventional interview, but an exchange which almost resembled a boxing match. I thought at times that first Berlusconi, then Geldof, would get up and abandon the meeting, but in the end they managed to get to the end of the interview and the encounter stayed gentlemanly.

Geldof: “Signor Presidente, let’s get straight to the point. You are the senior statesman of the G8. In 2001 in Genoa, you created the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, which made ARVs available for free for 3 million people in Africa. Then you participated in the Gleneagles Summit, where you committed to invest 0.51% of GNI in ODA by 2010 and 0.7% GNI by 2015: right now Italy has met only 3% of that promise. From the hope of Genoa to the delusion of Gleneagles: do you feel the weight of this responsibility?”

Berlusconi begins reading from a statement: “You are right. It’s a delay in payments. We, however, were out of government for two and a half years. When we returned, we found a deficit of 110% GDP. Now, because of the economic crisis, this deficit is up to 120% and the European Union will not allow us to stay at this level. When considering the budget law, the Parliament has decided to cut spending. Unfortunately they also cut aid to Africa, and we have started a debate on this. The Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti is committed to getting us back on track with our commitments in 3 years.”

Geldof becomes agitated: “The G8 is in 3 days, not 3 years, as President of this Summit, what are you going to do?”

Berlusconi: “Look, what has happened is absolutely the opposite of what I have been doing personally: this year I financed an orphanage in Thailand and a hospital for children in Brazil. I understand your worry and I very much appreciate the work that you have done for the poorest, but we have had external obstacles standing in our way.”

Berlusconi gives the floor to the diplomatic adviser of Tremonti “we have begun to repay the World Bank our outstanding payments, as well as other international financial organisations. In 2010 we will reach 0.33% of GDP to ODA, and we’ll get to 0.51% by 2015…”

Geldof interrupts: “Excuse me, I am aware of all this. Thanks for the explanation,” and he turns towards the Prime Minister: “I don’t believe you. In order to reach those levels you will have to do an incredible job. And we don’t need any more plans, right now we need action. I’m sick of plans, we just need to act. We must have more ODA. When we cut aid, we take food from the mouths of the starving. We literally take the needles from the arms of patients. Why must we behave like this? Africa is the second biggest emerging market after China. It’s got more democratic countries than Asia. We’re talking about tiny amounts of money: why is it so difficult to find this money for aid? The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel Prime Minister Brown, even President Sarkozy have increased aid, but Italy has cut by €400m. All these countries’ economies are a disaster, but all have kept their promise they made to the poor. Except Italy. How can you lead the G8? Where is your credibility? This is a human question, not a tactical question. We are tired of seeing people that die of hunger!

Berlusconi starts to nod, he has been struck by the image of starving children.

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Bob Geldof will be guest editing the Italian newspaper “La Stampa” this weekend as part of ONE’s campaign to encourage Italy to improve its record on Africa when it hosts the G8 summit next week.

La Stampa is a respected Italian newspaper based in Turin in northern Italy. Its editor has turned over Sunday’s paper to a dedicated Africa/G8 edition. It will feature stories on a wide range of African themes, and contributions from prominent African, Italian and global figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bono, Kofi Annan and Sophia Loren.

So far Italy has delivered just three per cent of the development aid to Africa it promised at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit. ONE is calling on Prime Minister Berlusconi to seize the opportunity of next week’s summit to turn around this abysmal record or forfeit all credibility as G8 host.

-Helen Palmer

The Huffington Post today features an article from Bob Geldof on the DATA Report launch and key findings. In the piece, Geldof has strong words for Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi stating, “Let us watch to see if the Italian Prime Minister understands his global responsibility. Let us see if Italy keeps faith with the world’s poor.”

Key excerpts below, full piece here

Poverty must go. Without removing it, we will not have a stable world. The global financial architecture collapsed and now must be rebuilt. One of the reasons this was a failure of the system rather than simply within it was because 50% of the planet, those who live on less than $2 per day, were excluded from it. You cannot live on less than $2 a day. What is more, by excluding them from the world economy, we excluded their creativity, their dynamism, their intellect, their ideas and their productivity. We did great damage to ourselves in doing so.

We mustn’t make the same mistake again as we rebuild a newer world economy. We must include the peripheral peoples in the marginal economies, we must include Africa and Africans if only so that they can buy our stuff and we can buy theirs. And then, as happens anywhere else, the aid question disappears.

We are not there yet. So, for now, aid stabilizes the poor of this world at a base level. It manages sometimes to get to some people so that they get to stay alive with a little bit of food, so they get to stay alive with a little bit of medicine, and so they get a little bit of education. Then with a coherent state they can begin to get going. And to help with that, we look primarily to the G7 — the world’s richest economies, the countries of plenty.

-Chris Scott

Thanks to the handy work of our Weldon and Kimberly, we now have videos from this morning’s launch of the ONE DATA Report 2009 in London.

Here’s a 6 minute highlight reel of all of the speakers.

[Panelists: Bill Gates, co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bob Geldof anti-poverty activist and ONE adviser, Dr. Francoise Ndayishimiye, Senior Gender Adviser, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Arunma Oteh, Vice President for Corporate Services, African Development Bank, Archbishop Desmund Tutu, ONE's International Patron and Jamie Drummond, ONE's Executive Director]

And below, a video of the whole event.

This Thursday, we’re releasing the 2009 DATA Report, our annual report on the G8’s delivery on their promises to Africa. At that launch the panelists will answer questions, including one submitted and voted on by ONE members, and Bob Geldof is here to explain why:

In just a short amount of time, ONE members all over the world sent in hundreds of thoughtful questions to be asked at the launch of our 2009 DATA Report. We narrowed down the options and picked out five of the most important questions, and now you get to have the final say on which question will be asked.

Check out the questions and vote for which ONE will be answered on Thursday. Act quickly though, voting closes at 7:00a.m. EST and noon GMT on Wednesday.

-Weldon Kennedy

The Africa Progress Panel (APP) is an independent body whose members currently include Tidjane Thiam, Muhummad Yunnnus, Kofi Annan and Bob Geldof. The Panel works to track the commitments made by African governments and their international partners especially in terms of good governance.

They publish a regular newsletter which is full of information related to Africa, including policy news and a calendar of key upcoming events. As you can see below, their latest newsletter has an editorial on the importance of business:

Business: doing well by doing good

Most people agree that economic growth depends upon a vibrant private sector. But when it comes to Africa, there remains a degree of schizophrenia about the role of business.

Investors outside Africa hear about the opportunities but are put off by the negative image of Africa as risky and unsafe. And others remain suspicions of business – as exploitative, unethical and motivated only by financial profit.

Africa is vast, and diverse. Headline-grabbing instability in one place has little bearing on conditions elsewhere. The biggest constraints to investors are mostly mundane: red tape and high costs, poor infrastructure, limited access to capital, underpaid officials and weak law enforcement, fostering uncertainty and corruption.

Many governments are trying to do their part. According to the World Bank, more business-friendly reforms were implemented over the last year than in any previous one.

Business can add social value. At a minimum, this means doing no harm, paying taxes, not partnering in corruption and implementing codes of good practice, including the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.

But much more is possible. Healthy, educated and connected people are essential for market growth, and stability. Corporations can work with authorities and civil society on both policies and their implementation, and on projects that both attract investment and create social and environmental benefits.

This should now become standard. There are many best practices to draw upon, and more business-oriented advocacy groups springing up, both in Africa and internationally – including the Business Call to Action, the newly formed ‘Frontier 100’, Investment Climate Facility, Business Action for Africa, the APP’s own Business Advisory Group and many others.

Good business is good for Africa.

Click here for access to the full newsletter.

-Jessica Gomez-Duran

The IMF is about to make a decision at its annual Spring Meeting this weekend that will impact millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world. This weekend, there is an opportunity for the IMF’s governing body to decide what to do with the proceeds from a planned sale of a small portion of their gold reserves. Will they use those funds to build up their endowment to pay their staff? Or, will they use the lion’s share of the money raised to help the global poor weather the current financial crisis?

ONE members have a strong opinion, and in just one week, more than 60,000 have signed our petition to the Managing Director of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The petition reads:

Dear Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
Please use the revenue from gold sales to create as much funding as possible for developing countries and ensure that this doesn’t create new debts or have harmful conditions attached.

Yesterday, anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof met with Strauss-Kahn and delivered the petition. Afterward, he took a moment to record this message:

Earlier today, ONE held a press conference with the African Development Bank at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington D.C. The panel was an interesting mix of distinguished African development advocates and officials, including ONE supporter and activist Bob Geldof; African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka; Tanzania Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo; and New York Congressman Gregory Meeks.

The meeting was held in anticipation of the IMF and World Bank annual Spring Meetings. Both institutions will be making critical decisions to follow up on the details of the G20 commitments and determine what will be delivered and with what conditions. The press conference was focused on how the Spring Meetings can provide low income countries – particularly African countries – with the resources they need to get through this financial crisis as well as build on recent development successes, without creating a future debt crisis.

At the event, Bob described how the economic crisis has continued to marginalize the poor peripheral parts of the world. Interesting, Bob remarked that $5 billion (the amount ONE is asking the IMF to provide to developing countries in grants and loans) is a tiny amount compared to the bailout given out in developed countries. Bob referred to a study commissioned by ONE that shows that by injecting $50 billion to Africa now will would increasing global output by as much as $250 billion. He called for aid to Africa to continue and challenged the group to think about how relatively small change can make a big difference.

Mr. Kaberuka described how Africa, in the past several decades, has been a story of progress and setbacks. He questioned the idea of a “banking crisis.” Rather, Africa faces an economic crisis. Mr. Kaberuka emphasized that the amount needed for developing countries is relatively small – the international community pledged $50 billion at the last IDA replenishment and $9 billion for the African Development Bank. Doubling these could have a significant impact.

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