Bono for Le Monde

Bono has  written a column  for  the daily newspaper ,Le Monde, France.

 M. le Président, get things done !

M. le Président is not lacking in energy. This week he will sprint from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa without breaking his stride or, one imagines, even breaking a sweat. There is some strange fuel that drives him… could he himself be a nuclear power? Is this fission that's happening inside his reactor?? Should the IAEA send a delegation to the Palais d'Elysee?

Whatever its source, a fair bit of President Sarkozy's energy—as we'll see again this week—has been directed at the developing world, particularly sub-Sarahan Africa. He's had plenty to say on the subject since becoming President in 2007. I remember meeting him at the G8 summit back then—his foot tapping and knee bouncing as we brainstormed with Youssou N'Dour about better ways to beat extreme poverty. To his credit, Sarkozy made clear he was willing to meet with the activist community, and he had a head full of fresh ideas to share. He wanted to examine what worked in development and jettison the rest; to move beyond the old vertical, France-Afrique relationships and get horizontal; and to build partnerships motivated not by guilt about the past but, instead, by optimism about the future.

So far, the transformational talk hasn't turned into transformational action.

These words won't surprise or offend him. He is the first politician—certainly the first head of state—who has given me express permission to, in his words, “torture” him. In a private moment he encouraged me to make noise and blow the horn to draw attention to these issues. “I know you have to torture me”, he said. “I know you have to raise the alarm.” Well, I'm not one to turn down a challenge; especially when those much better placed to make the case than me—Africans themselves—are putting forward an agenda that France needs to hear and heed.

So here I am. With their permission, I pass on these thoughts.

I do so as a big believer in what this President could do.

After all, he's at the helm of the G8 and the G20. He is still bursting with energy. He has some not-so-secret-weapons to deploy. Like Christine Lagarde. And Carla. The president's wife is the force behind France's major commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Sarkozy also champions clever ideas, like innovative financing, and better global governance. And he gives great speeches.

But “it's not a matter of making speeches; it's a matter of deciding.”

I didn't say that. The president himself said that—at the UN's Summit on the Millennium Development Goals last September—and he's certainly right. It's decision time for France's man in a hurry. It's opportunity time for Sarkozy, for France, and for the world. If you listen to African leaders, entrepreneurs and activists—there are at least three big areas where France needs to lead right now.

The first is governance. Africa is rich in natural resources yet it is rarely Africans (save some corrupt officials) who get rich off their extraction. Meanwhile the missing cash risks fueling conflict across the continent. Transparency could change that. It could re-route revenues to kickstart economies and invest in jobs, health and education. The United States—prodded by activists like the ONE Campaign and visionaries like George Soros—recently passed historic legislation requiring energy companies to “publish what they pay” to officials. This is big. Could be even bigger than debt cancelation, in terms of the money it frees up for Africa's fight against poverty. It doesn't cost the US a single dollar, and it wouldn't cost France or Europe a single Euro to enact the same law and make it binding.

Second, vaccines. This could be a big year for medical science. Two new vaccines, just ready to launch, are the best hope we've ever had to stop a couple of mass murderers: pneumococal, which kills about 800,000 children a year, and rotavirus, which kills another half million. This I've got to make some noise about, M. le Président, and it won't sound like cheering. As aid levels drop and promises slip - in France and beyond - African clinics are running out of life-saving drugs, death sentences are being reinstated, and the promise of new immunisations is at risk of being lost. Bill Gates thinks you should match France's generosity to the Global Fund with renewed support for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations. I think Bill Gates is a very smart man.

And third, agriculture. World leaders are right to be concerned about food prices in the developing world and about commodity speculators. Reforms there will help. But as the President has rightly pointed out, and affirmed in 2008 at L'Aquila, investment in agriculture is the thing. Africa doesn't just need a fair price for food from other countries. It needs to build the capacity to grow more of its own. This region has the potential to feed not only its own people, but millions of others around the world—if we form the right partnerships with and for Africa's farmers.

Action on these three fronts—corruption, health and hunger—would get President Sarkozy a lot closer to the realm of transformation.

The president is a man in motion—bouncing, flitting, ever circling round like a boxer. This kind of motion may be thrilling to watch, but if in the end it does not win the day (and leaves its opponent, the ugly face of extreme poverty, still standing), well, that is a waste. A waste of this most talented politician's brainpower, and of this historic opportunity to transform the lives who live in the wake of decisions taken or not. What is needed now, I think, is not speedy kinetic energy, but movement—steady, determined, and purpose-driven—that knocks over obstacles and proceeds toward the prize of a new 21st century partnership with the developing world that leaves the 20th century patronage behind.

That is what I've heard Africans asking France to help provide—that sort of movement. It is what Europe and the world need from France, too. And, I might add, a bit audaciously, it is what France needs from France. Poverty, hunger, and disease in Africa—these are shared burdens, shared risks to our security and economy, shared affronts to our morality. And the opportunities in Africa—these are shared as well.

We know where Sarkozy's head is on all this. We know where his heart is.

It's his feet we'll be watching.

Bono, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of ONE

 Bono is going to participate in the World Economic Forum again on Friday 28 January 16.00 - 17.00 CET, at least he appears in the Livestream Programme of the Annual Meeting 2011 in Davos. he will be in the panel "Raising Healthy Children"  where the  following dimensions will be addressed:
Access to medicines and vaccinations
Maternal health and nutrition
Social and cultural factors


Other speakers:

• Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva
• Melinda French Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
• Muhtar A. Kent, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, USA
• Lars Rebien Sorensen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novo Nordisk, Denmark

www.lemonde.fr///www.forumblog.org