Jamie Drummond

Budge up Bono and Bob – Bill’s the Big New Activist for This G20

Oct 25th, 2011 3:28 PM UTC
By Jamie Drummond

This blog  originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

While Bono and Bob Geldof have long been banging away, pressing world leaders for progress to help the poorest with debt cancellation, more money and better policies to fight hunger and disease, there is a tough new activist in town: Seattle’s finest, Bill Gates Jnr.

In a remarkable twist of political theatre, the billionaire philanthropist – who’s foundation gives away $2.5bn a year – has been asked by President Sarkozy to present his vision on how to finance the fight against poverty to the mixed bag of G20 leaders when they meet next week in Cannes.

To those who don’t know him, it will seem a surprisingly radical vision. Bill will call for a new partnership of revolutionary innovation between the developed world, the emerging powerhouses of the BRICS, the developing world and the private sector. Mr Gates has a devastating deadpan data-delivery style.

Bono calls it the “Kill Bill” manoeuvre. We trust it will go down well with world leaders.

It is essential we all pay serious attention to his proposals because they may shape the fight against extreme poverty for a generation to come. So if you don’t like his proposals, you should feel free to shout out. If you do like them – well, let’s shout even louder.

Even before the report has been published, much attention has been given to Gates’ support for a financial transaction tax. There are clearly huge opportunities here and those countries that are willing to do so should adopt such a levy, but with one key proviso: a significant portion of the proceeds must go towards fighting global inequalities and helping those in extreme poverty.

But this step alone is not enough. Not even its biggest supporters will argue that an FTT can singlehandedly finance the fight against extreme poverty. Fortunately there are many other big and wide-reaching proposals in his paper which also deserve urgent attention and action.

First up is Mr Gates’ push for legally binding measures to enforce transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector. Africa’s natural resources were worth $246 billion in exports in 2009. The proportion of this wealth that was spent on public services and helping people to pull themselves out of poverty should have been much larger than it was.

But without the transparency that shines a light on the contracts that governments sign with big business, money goes astray. He may not know it but in recommending this he has thrown his weight behind the “Publish What You Pay” coalition that ONE is part of, which has been campaigning on this issue for years.

The campaign helped push the USA to lead on this issue, and indeed just today the European Commission is presenting its proposals for legally binding rules to force companies extracting natural resources to make public their payments to governments. So just as Bill’s proposals on a financial transaction tax takes on the Big Banks, so his proposal on transparency takes on Big Oil.

This is why Bill is shaping up to be such a fascinating evidence-based activist. By just following the hard data his empirical process is leading to some very big ideas.

Gates’ proposals will get to the heart of the issue around the future financing of the fight against poverty. Ultimately the largest source of money for fighting poverty comes from within developing countries. The more our aid – resources given by European and American taxpayers – is used to leverage their aid – resources raised by African and other developing country taxpayers for their priorities – the smarter our aid will be and the sooner we can get out of the aid business altogether.

This is similar to the point Tony Blair made in his speech to the Overseas Development Institute last week. It’s not an argument for ending aid prematurely, rather it’s a case for scaling aid up smartly as promised until it is dwarfed entirely by the resources African citizens raise for themselves to fight poverty and promote growth. Then the aid industry exits stage left, job done.

And the job is already half done. Africa has come a long way in the last decade or so since debts were dropped and aid became bigger and smarter. Here are just some of the numbers.

46.5 million more kids started going to school in Africa between 1999 and 2008. In 2009, nearly 4 million Africans were receiving antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS, up from only 50,000 in 2002. Measles deaths in Africa declined by 92% between 2000 and 2008. Remarkable stuff, but more to do.

That is why Bill is also eyeing the huge sums sitting in the coffers of the emerging powers. 1% of sovereign wealth funds may not seem like a lot, but when you realise they currently are currently worth just under $5 trillion, that’s a decent sum.

Applying that kind of money to investments in agriculture and infrastructure can quickly reduce the marginalisation that blights vast regions and put them in a position where they can function fully in the global economy. That is in the interests of all. Current global growth is just about creeping along only because of the arrival of the Chinas and Indias. Africa will be next and the sooner African growth surges even more to help prop up the global economy, the better for us all.

So the future of development finance is about unlocking the capital of emerging economies – but Bill argues it’s also about unlocking their creativity. Their recent experience with rapid development gives them a wealth not just of cash but of knowledge which, if used wisely and mixed with the dynamism of entrepreneurs in developing countries, will unleash job-generating growth not just for their economies but for the global economy.

There remains a real risk that the Cannes G20 summit will go down as the moment where we failed to not just get the Eurozone sorted, but also failed to spot the surging opportunities in this changing world. To world leaders I would say only this: pay heed to Bill Gates’ modest proposals – they could well be the best way to figure out the future not just of financing the fight against poverty, but also the fight for global growth.

Fight the famine – feed the future

Jul 28th, 2011 3:53 PM UTC
By ONE Partners

Joint blog by Jamie Drummond and Marieme Jamme:

ONE and Africa Gathering today co-hosted a meeting at ONE’s London offices to share information and discuss both short and long term solutions to the current crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Discussion focused on how to ensure there is a platform for African voices to be heard on this issue, including those from the Horn of Africa, and especially from Somalia, to advocate for solutions that will stick.

Often in the past the international community has not listened sufficiently, nor acted with a sophisticated understanding of cultural issues or the local situation. As a result opportunities for progress have been missed. We are determined to do our part to ensure these mistakes are not repeated.

Attending were a cross section of representatives from the African entrepreneurial community,  international development community including Muslim Aid, Disasters Emergency Committee and other development groups, diaspora communities, artists and Somalian grassroots groups as well as members of the media.

Amongst many views expressed, we discussed the following action items, and many of the attendees agreed to act together to:

1. Encourage the media to interview local experts and voices from the region about short and long term solutions.
2. Campaign aggressively that the short term and long term financing gaps are met. ONE has launched a petition calling upon world African and world leaders to do just this.
   - Short term: the short term financing gap for the famine and crisis appeal must be urgently met. So far a short term need of $2bn has been identified, about $1bn has been contributed, a further $269m has been pledged but not yet contributed, and a gap of $739m for which no pledges have yet been made by the international community. You can follow the latest in appeal pledges and contributions here
   -Long term: the long term financing must also be found for sustainable solutions especially through often-promised investments into agriculture and food security in the Horn and indeed across Africa. African governments have promised to spend 10% of their budgets on agriculture through the Maputo Declaration – yet only 6 governments so far have met this promise. Similarly the international  community promised many times, including at the L’Aquila G8, to fund long term agricultural development in the developing world especially sub-Saharan Africa. Yet so far donors have only met 22% of their promises according to a recent report on Agriculture Accountability by ONE.
3. Advocate for a political solution and roadmap for Somalia out of this entrenched crisis. It is appropriate that regional bodes like the OIC and others, for example the Qatari government, show leadership on this issue and work with Somalian civil society to come up with a lasting solution.
4. Further encourage African leadership in civil society and the diaspora, both cultural, policy-making and private sector leaders, to step up and raise their voices more on this issue with practical actions in mind.

Attendees included:-

Saif Ahmed CEO MADE in Europe
Mark Tran Journalist Guardian
Hadeel Ibrahim Executive Director Mo Ibrahim foundation
Kingwa Kamencu President Oxford African Society
Kath Hindley Deputy Chief Executive DEC
Andy Shipley News Editor Plan UK
Mustakim Waid Public Relations Manager Somali Relief and Development Forum
Jonaed Afzal Emergency Response Manager Muslim Aid
Marieme Jamme Spontone Global Solutions Africa Gathering
Sol Guy Co-founder 4REAL Manager of K’naan
Bunmi Olurantaba African Blogger
Lilly Peel Features Editor Panos.org
Katheleen Bomani Africa Gathering
Belinda Otas African Blogger/Journalist
James Birch APPG on Agriculture
Tolu Ogunlesi African Blogger for 234NEXT
Dean Ricketts Watchmen Agency
Hussain Abdullah Frontline SMS
John Morris Journalist
Bernard Aryeetey Save the Children
Mark Galloway The International Broadcast Trust
Dawda Jobarteh Africa Progress Panel
Amber Rudd MP for Hastings
Molly Mattessich National Peace Corps Association
Nii Simmonds The DAIN Network

UK Prime Minister Cameron in Nigeria

Jul 19th, 2011 6:15 PM UTC
By Alexander Woollcombe

As UK journalists and politicians prepared for a Parliamentary inquisition of the Murdochs, Prime Minister Cameron laid out his 3 priorities for Africa – aid, trade and democracy. The last time David Cameron was in Africa his constituency was underwater with flash floods; this time his Government is engulfed by its biggest political firestorm since taking office.

This makes drawing attention to what he actually said even more important.

“Getting aid right – that’s the first thing we have to do”, he said. The UK’s commitment to keep its aid promise to Africa “says something about Britain and its people. And it is something we are right to stand up for in the world”.

He also pointed out that there are (at least) 2 Africas co-existing – ‘Africa Starving’ and ‘Africa Booming’. In addition to helping those suffering from famine in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, aid should be spent “in a catalytic way to unleash the dynamism of African economies [and] move people from dependence to independence…the aid-sceptics are wrong. Aid is essential. It can work – and we’re making it work”.

ONE agrees with him on this: as our own Jamie Drummond said, “countries can only prosper if they have a healthy and educated workforce. We see this now as aid can help both get food aid through to those in desperate need, as well as help build up conditions whereby food aid won’t be needed in the future”.

In addition to the Prime Minister’s positive message on trade, ONE welcomed his calling for Europe to match the US by “introducing legally binding measures to require oil, gas and mining companies to publish key financial information for each country and project they work on”; telling his Nigerian audience “we want to disclose the payments our companies make to your governments so you can hold your governments to account for the money they receive”.

David Cameron cut short his Africa trip because of political upheaval at home. Some said he was wrong to go abroad at all. However, as the dust and foam settles on the phone hacking scandal millions of lives will be changed, in part by the UK’s continued leadership on international development.

David Cameron speech is now available on the No10 website.

DATA Report Launch Videos

Jun 11th, 2009 4:42 PM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

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.