Bono and Bob Geldof influence G8 for poverty reduction and Africa

Mega rock stars Bono and Bob Geldof have pulled off another international campaign for the developing world. It included their talks with the world leaders at the G8, their Live8 concerts all over the world with the largest ever global TV coverage, the Make Poverty History march, and press conferences.

Their campaign triggered concrete action from the world leaders assembled at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, early July 2005:

• debt cancellation for 18 countries
• doubling of aid to Africa
• massive publicity for Africa and poverty reduction, see for instance permanent coverage on Africa by the BBC and CNN.

The stars and the media were happy with these results, as a first step in the right direction. But development agencies from the UK were quick to point out that there is still a long way to go before all OECD nations live up to their promise to spend 0.7 percent of their GNP on development co-operation. Others stressed that opening European and American markets for products from the developing world and reducing subsidies is still being blocked.

Read what we reported on the G8 results in Source Weekly, 27-28 (13 Jul 05) and on how WaterAid reacted:

G8: agreement on US$ 50 billion aid boost, but how much for water?

On 8 July 2005 in Gleneagles, the G8 pledged to increase overseas development assistance by US$ 50 billion (EUR 41.4 billion) a year by 2010, compared to 2004. Half of this amount, US$ 25 billion (EUR 20.7 billion) will go to Africa, more than doubling aid to the continent compared to 2004. Despite this pledge, WaterAid says “there has been no news whether this deal will stop the silent emergency caused by dirty water and poor sanitation, which has resulted in the death of over 17,000 children during the summit”.

See also Geldof’s Band Aid/Live Aid/Live 8 section on his web site.

Source: various TV shows, newspapers, 14 July 2005