Ending African Poverty

By Niall O' Dowd

It was standing room only at New York University’s Skirball Theater last Wednesday night as over 500 of New York’s movers and shakers came to hear Bono and his mentor on Africa, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.

The event was the first annual Daniel Patrick Moynihan lecture, hosted by Glucksman Ireland House and its founder Loretta Brennan Glucksman. It was a spectacular occasion, one of the best Irish events I have been at in some time, and it was a real tribute to Loretta and the event organizer, Financial Dynamics and its CEO, Declan Kelly.

On this occasion Bono was the first to point out that the night was not about him. Instead it was about how to tackle famine, disease and death in Africa and he was merely the messenger, not the message.

Dr. Sachs, an economics professor at Columbia University, was the star act, a man who knows more about how to tackle the crisis in Africa than most governments put together. The quiet, soft-spoken professor hardly looked the type who could help change the world, but Bono and many other leading figures absolutely believe that he can.

Sachs has a simple but revolutionary plan to tackle the horrific reality that 8 million people die every year in Africa of preventable diseases.

In fact it sounds so simple that you wonder why world governments have not embraced it. He certainly convinced his audience on Wednesday night.

Also there were huge numbers of the New York media anxious to catch pictures of the rock star outside his usual stage act. U2’s lead guitarist The Edge was on hand for moral support, as was writer Frank McCourt, director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) and a host of other dignitaries.

Bono is a Dr. Sachs pupil, a fact the rock star readily acknowledged as he introduced Sachs. “It’s a long time since I’ve been the warm-up act,” he told the audience, “but on this occasion I am happy to say I am.”

Bono referred to Dr. Sachs as his mentor and noted that he had plagued and bothered the former Harvard professor until he understood exactly what was going on in Africa.

Once Sachs started speaking it was easy to see why. He doesn’t speak in economic jargon, just a series of personal anecdotes, illustrated by photographs on a huge screen about the poor and desperate people he has met all over Africa.

Sachs said that he was driven by the personal stories, saying that once you become familiar with the people you can feel your anger rise that so many of them have to die needlessly.

For instance, Sachs says the solution to stopping the hundreds of thousands of malaria deaths is very simple — provide mosquito nets for the sleeping quarters. They cost $7 each but he cannot get any government to agree to supply them free of charge, yet they would save thousands of lives.

Sachs also says that governments should buy vast quantities of the drug that can stop malaria. “We are talking about a totally curable disease,” he notes.

Famine and starvation? Easy, Sachs says. Provide the fertilizer and ground nutrients that will allow people to grow their crops on their land. Again, a pittance would provide life to millions.

Sachs pointed out that most aid comes to a country after famines happen and the world sends food, but that is soon consumed. His point is that aid money is being spent very poorly.

In America we spend only three cents in every $100 on aid to Africa. Just raising that to seven cents, Sachs said, would save up to eight million lives. It seems simple, of course, but it isn’t.

Sachs praised Bono because he more than anyone has helped bring the message to the powerful. And it was clear after listening to Sachs that what the rock star had accomplished on Africa will far outlive any recording he ever makes.