During the Africa Century guest edit on Saturday, Bono said he was meeting U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House recently, and had his upcoming stint at The Globe in mind. “Obama was walking out the door of the Oval Office and I said ‘by the way...’ Poor guy,” Bono said. The meeting prompted the following exchange.
What’s your most vivid memory from your last trip to Africa?
Stepping off the plane in Accra and being met not just by the sitting President, John Atta Mills, but also by the political opponent he very narrowly defeated in Ghana’s last hard-fought but peaceful and fair election. Their presence there together was such a powerful symbol of Ghana’s pride in its own democracy. Governments that are accountable to their citizens, and that accept the important role of peaceful opposition parties, are essential ingredients of any solid and sustainable development plan, and to any effort to build lasting peace and stability.
You’re going to be in Canada in June for the G8. It’s not straightforward to get eight people to agree on anything, let alone eight countries. What do you think you can achieve?
It is one hallmark of the G8 in recent years that, collectively, we have put issues of global poverty and development at the centre of our agenda. This is a sign of how far we’ve come and makes clear that one of the issues that the world’s largest economies agree on without reservation is that development is a priority.
At this year’s summit, we need to recommit ourselves to making serious and sustainable progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. We can, and should, celebrate the progress we’ve made, but we also need to be frank about where all of us – developed and developing countries alike – have fallen short.
The MDGs provide us with the goal posts; the challenge now is to make sure that we honour the aid commitments that are critical to development, and that we also look at:
- how we can bring additional sources of capital to the table;
- how we can foster the innovations that can be the game-changers in development;
- how developing countries can seize the moment by putting in place the right policies and institutions;
- and how, together, we can find new ways to accelerate progress in the years ahead.
The U.S. Food Security Initiative takes a new approach to providing development assistance. We’re very excited about it. What impact do you think it will have and what are the roadblocks you are coming up against?
One of the important facts about the Food Security Initiative is that it was shaped by developing countries. The African Union’s Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program calls on its members to invest their own resources, develop comprehensive country plans, and then to engage those of us in the donor community. We and our partners in the G8 – and other donors – have agreed to follow that model. Our food security initiative builds on the principles endorsed by the G8 last year in L’Aquila – principles that position donor countries to be far more supportive and effective partners. The challenge now is to translate principles into action. It’s still early, but we expect that by the time the summit kicks off, we’ll be able to say that we’ve allocated resources to country plans and to research and development, that we’ve launched a new trust fund headed by the World Bank, and that we’re at the table with resources, technical advice and support, and the willingness to invest as partners.
These are tough economic times at home. What do you say to people who question whether the U.S. should be investing time and resources in helping people in other countries?
