Published: April 30, 2010
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Stuck in a meeting
Bono advises Obama on poverty
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Bono should feel free to count himself as one of President Obama’s unofficial foreign policy advisers.
The U2 frontman joined an Oval Office meeting with the president and his national security staff on Friday to discuss the White House’s “development strategy” ahead of G8 and G20 meetings in Canada, according to a news release from One, the campaign Bono founded to fight poverty and AIDS. During the 30- to 40-minute meeting, Bono shared experiences from his trips to African countries.
Bono urged Obama to concede that “not enough has been done – north or south of the equator – for and by the world’s poorest economies” to reach goals set by the U.N. to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.
"With the first BlackBerry president, we discussed the power of new technology to empower activists and entrepreneurs across Africa, part of a new rising generation that’s boosting growth and governance and defying stereotypes,” Bono said in a statement. “A recurring theme was innovation. We agreed that there are simple technologies that need to be made more available to transform not only public health, but also agriculture, helping farmers check prices and weather patterns. While acknowledging these are difficult times for donor economies, we discussed the President’s food security initiative and agreed to encourage other countries who signed up to keep their commitment to invest $22 billion over 3 years.”
Bono was in town just for the meeting and won’t be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, said a spokeswoman, Kathy McKiernan. Obama had not met with Bono since the rock star performed at the president's inauguration last year.
A National Security Council spokesman, Ben Chang, provided this readout of the meeting: “The President met with Bono this morning and discussed Bono's recent trip to Africa, ways to make sure our foreign aid is effective, and the opportunities for innovation and technology to change the development landscape in Africa. They also talked about the importance of meeting our commitments to food security at the upcoming G8 Summit, and of building momentum to the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals in September.”
Here’s Bono’s full statement:
"With the first blackberry president, we discussed the power of new technology to empower activists and entrepreneurs across Africa, part of a new rising generation that’s boosting growth and governance and defying stereotypes.
“A recurring theme was innovation. We agreed that there are simple technologies that need to be made more available to transform not only public health, but also agriculture, helping farmers check prices and weather patterns. While acknowledging these are difficult times for donor economies, we discussed the President’s food security initiative and agreed to encourage other countries who signed up to keep their commitment to invest $22 billion over 3 years.
“The President and his team are preparing for the UN development summit in September where it will have to be admitted that not enough has been done - north or south of the equator - for and by the world’s poorest economies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which have as their target a halving of extreme poverty by 2015.
“We also discussed the real results American aid is achieving -- malaria deaths cut in half across the continent of Africa, 3 million Africans on life-saving AIDS medication and 42 million more children going to school. This is momentum that can be built upon now.”
The U2 frontman joined an Oval Office meeting with the president and his national security staff on Friday to discuss the White House’s “development strategy” ahead of G8 and G20 meetings in Canada, according to a news release from One, the campaign Bono founded to fight poverty and AIDS. During the 30- to 40-minute meeting, Bono shared experiences from his trips to African countries.
Bono urged Obama to concede that “not enough has been done – north or south of the equator – for and by the world’s poorest economies” to reach goals set by the U.N. to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.
"With the first BlackBerry president, we discussed the power of new technology to empower activists and entrepreneurs across Africa, part of a new rising generation that’s boosting growth and governance and defying stereotypes,” Bono said in a statement. “A recurring theme was innovation. We agreed that there are simple technologies that need to be made more available to transform not only public health, but also agriculture, helping farmers check prices and weather patterns. While acknowledging these are difficult times for donor economies, we discussed the President’s food security initiative and agreed to encourage other countries who signed up to keep their commitment to invest $22 billion over 3 years.”
Bono was in town just for the meeting and won’t be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, said a spokeswoman, Kathy McKiernan. Obama had not met with Bono since the rock star performed at the president's inauguration last year.
A National Security Council spokesman, Ben Chang, provided this readout of the meeting: “The President met with Bono this morning and discussed Bono's recent trip to Africa, ways to make sure our foreign aid is effective, and the opportunities for innovation and technology to change the development landscape in Africa. They also talked about the importance of meeting our commitments to food security at the upcoming G8 Summit, and of building momentum to the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals in September.”
Here’s Bono’s full statement:
"With the first blackberry president, we discussed the power of new technology to empower activists and entrepreneurs across Africa, part of a new rising generation that’s boosting growth and governance and defying stereotypes.
“A recurring theme was innovation. We agreed that there are simple technologies that need to be made more available to transform not only public health, but also agriculture, helping farmers check prices and weather patterns. While acknowledging these are difficult times for donor economies, we discussed the President’s food security initiative and agreed to encourage other countries who signed up to keep their commitment to invest $22 billion over 3 years.
“The President and his team are preparing for the UN development summit in September where it will have to be admitted that not enough has been done - north or south of the equator - for and by the world’s poorest economies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which have as their target a halving of extreme poverty by 2015.
“We also discussed the real results American aid is achieving -- malaria deaths cut in half across the continent of Africa, 3 million Africans on life-saving AIDS medication and 42 million more children going to school. This is momentum that can be built upon now.”
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