AIDS is wake-up call for rich nations - Bono

Irish rock star Bono has warned that the AIDS epidemic is the wake-up call rich nations need to become aware of the plight of Africa.

The singer made an impassioned plea to western governments on Wednesday to shed their old prejudices and start injecting massive amounts of money to avert a meltdown.

He made history by becoming the first ever rock star to speak to international bankers at the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (ADB) in Addis Ababa. He made his comments at the end of a 12-day fact finding mission on the continent with US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.

“The AIDS epidemic is acting as a wake-up call for all of us around the world, to put excuses and old attitudes behind us,” he said.

In Ethiopia, Bono added, three million people “are walking around with the death sentence of HIV on their heads. That’s as many people who live in my home country of Ireland.”

“We need to put billions more in, and we must see it for what it is: value for money, smart money for the United States and Europe, because the chaos that will ensue if we don’t, will cost us a lot more in the long run," he warned.

He said it was symbolic that his trip should end in Ethiopia – where his interest in development aid was sparked 17 years ago following the 1985 famine. “We raised US $200 million dollars and we thought we had cracked it,” he said. “Then I discovered that Africa pays US $200 million every five days repaying old debts.”

“This trip has raised hopes," he added. "It would be scandalous to raise hopes without delivery.” But, he stressed, African governments must also play their part. “African leaders must heed the calls of their own people for democracy, accountability and transparency,” he said.

Closing the ADB annual meeting on Thursday, its president Omar Kabbaj said rich nations should "practice what they preach" when it came to aid and trade in Africa.

He warned that trade barriers and massive farm subsidies were having a crippling effect on African economies. Developed countries hand out some US $350 billion each year for agriculture – equal to Africa’s entire debt and six times the amount of aid to the continent.

“This has a tremendous effect on Africa,” Kabbaj told a press conference. “On this point the industrialised countries are preaching what they are not doing.”

He said there had been two major themes during the four-day ADB annual meeting which he described as "fruitful": the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (a framework aimed at ending poverty in Africa) and the effectiveness of development.

“We are in a position now to do things in a more effective way,” he added.