27 January 2005
Tony Blair joined businessman Bill Gates and rock star Bono at a press conference on poverty in Africa held at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Parts of this transcript may have been edited
Read the transcript of the press conference:
Prime Minister:
… the other half from the developed world, so that we don’t simply try to tackle these issues in a discreet way, but we try and tackle them together. Those are aid, and debt relief and trade, and obviously the main killer diseases, but also conflict resolution and governance. And the purpose therefore of what we are doing is to bring all these things together, to set out a comprehensive plan for Africa based on a partnership with the African countries, and then a mechanism for taking it forward.
Now to say one very specific thing, this is an illustration in a way of some of the problems, but also some of the potential solutions. Around a million people die every year in Africa from Malaria. The World Health Organisation has been very clear about what the solution is. The solution is the provision of bed nets for people, it would make a major huge difference. In the parts of Africa where there is provision for such bed nets, the rate of malaria is considerably reduced. It costs, according to the World Health Organisation, around about £300 million in order to provide this. Britain today has set aside £45 million as our contribution towards that goal. We look at the G8 to try and get other countries to come in behind that, in order that we meet the World Health Organisation’s goal and in order that we can try and help people in the way that I have described. That is just a small but incredibly important example of what we can do if we have the political will to help people in Africa.
So this is something I know many people in Britain feel and care passionately about. We have got an opportunity to take this forward in the world today through the G8. I hope the Africa Commission gives us the opportunity to do that, but we need the strong support of civic society, of business leaders, of people who are in different ways helping to make this happen. And the two people on either side of me have played such a leading role in achieving them, and I would like them both, if they would, just to say a few words.
Mr Bill Gates:
Well I want to thank Prime Minister Blair for his leadership in bringing this focus to Africa, and the incredible inequity that exists in how we treat the value of lives. Millions of children die in Africa who shouldn’t die, who it would be very easy to save, and particularly within this area where we have these great advances in science, the fact that we don’t apply the resources to the known cures, or coming up with even better cures, is really I think the most scandalous issue of our time.
As we bring visibility to these issues, they are very solvable. And malaria in particular, as the Prime Minister mentioned, kills over a million people a year, and that is a number that is going up, as drug resistance has increased, malaria is getting worse. There are three interventions, all of which we need to put more resources into: bed nets would make a fantastic difference, and that is why the announcement today is a big thing; better medicines coming along that use drugs that there is no resistance to or require further … research; and finally eventually there will be a vaccine, we can’t give a timetable for that, the UK has talked about its commitment to help fund the purchase of that vaccine, and we had some very good results this year of a vaccine trial that shows that we are making progress towards creating that.
Overall there are a number of institutions that are allowing the rich countries to come together to deal with these health issues. The Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI), one that just yesterday my
foundation renewed its commitment to that. The UK has been a great participant in that. In particular they talked about the possibility of a substantial increase in the money going into GAVI, it is an approach
called the International Finance Fund, can be put together, and so I am very optimistic about that. There are also global funds, there is a push to have what is called the Aids Vaccine Enterprise, that is under Prime Minister Blair’s leadership of the G8, we can push that forward and get that going. That is really at a very early stage.
And so the ability to make a difference here is really quite dramatic and it is very exciting to see the progress. Thank you.
Bono:
Well I suppose my job as rock star and activist is to bring applause when people get it right, and make their lives a misery when they don’t. Today I am in the lucky position of being able to talk here with two men who I think are really getting it right. Bill Gates, I don’t believe there is any single man on the planet who has done more to impact poverty and the sort of degradation of that all around the world, and I think he is a strategic thinker. And I think that what he has done in the areas of immunisation and now in the wider field of development will equal his success in Microsoft. And he is a brainy man and he thinks extreme poverty is stupid and it is not necessarily the way things have to be.
I appreciate his intellectual rigour, and I can tell you from first hand experience, he is as demanding in his philanthropy as he is in his business, and he wants to see measurable results, he wants … and I think
that is good.
The Prime Minister last night was joking, looking around at all the well heeled at Davos, about maybe having made the wrong career choice, and I would say that in 2005 we are going to find out if he did or he didn’t, and we are expecting a lot from this Prime Minister and I think we are right to. His leadership of the G8 and Presiding over the EU I think presents us with an historic opportunity. I truly believe that the Africa Commission offers the Prime Minister the chance to touch more lives than he can do in anything else while in office, I really believe that. More people’s lives would be affected by what is going on with the Africa Commission than perhaps anything else he could do as Prime Minister. I know that is hard to believe, but a billion people are living on less than a dollar a day, and some of the ideas that are being discussed in the Africa Commission could really make an impact on that situation.
Questions and Answer session
Question:
President Chirac made a series of proposals for international taxes to fund an increase in the aid budget yesterday. In view of likely US opposition to such proposals, does the Prime Minister think it is remotely possible that a consensus could be built around those ideas, and does he agree with them given that we have hardly any … taxes in the UK as things stand?
Prime Minister:
I think it is important to leave everything on the table and discuss it. But let’s be clear what the overall purpose is. The overall purpose is to make sure that we raise the commitment to Africa, and there can be all sorts of different means of doing so, the International Finance Facility is one of the things that we have put forward. I have not had the opportunity yet to study in detail what President Chirac said yesterday, but obviously there are others too. There can be straightforward aid increases that people make. For example Britain has actually trebled our aid to Africa, or will have, so there are all sorts of different ways of doing it. I think it is important to leave everything on the table and debate it and discuss it, but the objective is the key thing, and the objective is to get more resources going to Africa.
Question:
Which developing countries are you inviting for the G8 meeting … and can you talk a little bit more about this mechanism for taking it forward that you are going to be discussing in the G8 meeting …
Prime Minister:
We certainly will appreciate the attendance of Brazil, not just because of the issues to do with development but of course on the issues to do with climate change as well, and there will be a number of other countries that we will hope to engage in the process. In respect of the mechanism for taking it forward, that is something, if you will allow me, we are having further discussions on at the moment, but what I think is very necessary is that you can come out with a great plan, and the Africa Commission could come out with a good and sound report, and the G8 can agree it. These will be great advances and important, but unless there is a mechanism for them making sure that it is taken forward, and in a sense that we are held to account on the commitments that we give, then there is a danger that it falls back again, and that is one reason why I think we need a very clear mechanism, with clear leadership to take it forward. But the precise nature of that, that is something, if you will let me, that has to be discussed at the moment between ourselves.
Question:
Mr Blair, as a former … in Britain, I know what happened … I too am very concerned about Africa from the point of view of Africa, could you help me understand exactly what happened to many of these African countries that at one time were colonies of Britain, and that are now members of the Commonwealth? How did what happened happen in Africa, where are the solutions to …
Prime Minister:
I will send you a reading list so that you can get into all that. I think what is more important actually is to work out what we do now. And I think the other thing that it is important to realise, because this is part of what is different about this Commission and this discussion we are having, and we began this really with what is called the Nepad process, which is the new partnership for development for Africa which we began a few years ago. There is a real desire amongst the new leadership in Africa to take this forward themselves. They don’t want to be in a donor-recipient relationship, they want to be in a situation where there is shared responsibility, and they know and can tell you better what has happened in the past than me, but what they want now is in a sense to put that to one side, whatever the relationships were with countries in the years gone by, and get beyond that to a situation where in an entirely different and changing world today they are able to give their people the benefit of the possibilities of technology, and trade, and employment, and decent healthcare which we all take for granted and which their people are deprived of. So I just think we have got to look forward. I am sorry, that is probably not the answer you wanted.
Question:
A question for Bono. First of all, what is your view of President Chirac’s proposals that he outlined here yesterday? And secondly to ask you why you chose to come here this week, as opposed to for example
going to Porto Allegro?
Bono:
… see the President of Brazil … and Aer Lingus didn’t fly direct, so I was in a bit of trouble there. I think other parts of the movement have Porto Allegro covered and I think I have some use here to encourage
people to take unpopular decisions perhaps at home to do the right thing on the global stage. These are expensive choices that people have to make if they are to take on some of the problems of Africa. One thing that I wanted to say was that it is not the usual bleeding hearts debate that is going on here, there are other levels of debate. I have for instance … to see Africa right itself. Africa is 40% Muslim and we have seen with Afghanistan what can happen when extremism enters the fray of a collapsed state. I have had discussions with all kinds of people at the highest level about how dangerous it is to leave Africa in this situation where there are 10 or 12 potential Afghanistans there. I also think Africa affords us an opportunity to remind the world what are our values, what we stand for, at a time when I am not sure that people are clear about that in the developing world. From a purely commercial point of view, here at Davos I have been talking about grandiose, grand United Kingdom, grand Europe, because if we are honest just here, and you are commercial people, I am not so much, but the grand are … So I have been arguing that, that the neon is crackling and fizzing a bit, the store front is a little grubby, somebody has just thrown a rock through it. So I think accompanied for instance with America in the name are … badly outside of the United States. So on a commercial level I think we have an argument here, a self-interest argument. I can and will get emotional about these people, because I have met a lot of them in Africa, the statistics are actually mothers, children, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, but as well as all of that I want to make a strategic argument as well.
Question:
All three of you have said that 2005 is going to be a crucial year for this process. What do you think will constitute success when you all gather here in a year’s time?
Prime Minister:
I think for us, we have set the bench-mark, it is about the Africa Commission and gaining acceptance of it, with a mechanism that can take it forward, and a real sense on the continent of Africa that there hasbeen a shift, a real shift, a fundamental shift, and that these issues are now going to be taken forward with the urgency and the determination that the inhumanity of what happens in Africa requires, and that is what we want to do. And as Bono was just saying a moment or two ago, the reasons of enlightened self-interest for us to do this are also very powerful. I think all of us feel the moral force of what happens in Africa, but it isn’t sensible that we let a continent stay in this state, it isn’t sensible from our own point of view, quite apart from the appalling deprivation and loss of human life, preventably, which I think if we don’t tackle, people will look back on at a later time and ask some very serious questions about the leadership of this generation.
Mr Bill Gates:
I would say this is a year where we have momentum going into it and we are talking about the success of the vaccine fund, the lives that have been saved there, and we are talking about the global fund and what it … can do, we are talking about the need to get scientists working together on an Aids vaccine. And these issues, if they don’t move forward, they move … and it is a challenge here, and many governments, including the United States, have tough budget situations, we know they prioritise these things and talk about these things as a contribution of the rich world, the developed world, to the world at large. And I tend to be very optimistic about what will happen this year, but I certainly agree that it is a turning point year.
Bono:
Yes, I agree we have some clear targets. We want to finish out debt cancellation. You know we often wonder what happens at these G8 meetings, does anything really happen? Well actually in 1998 in
Birmingham in the UK something started, it was finished out in 1999 with another important phase in 1999 in Cologne, the bilateral debt issue was taken on and it is something to be proud of. The G8 accomplished a lot there. And I visited Ugandan schools and three times the amount of children are going to school in Uganda as a result of debt cancellation and the Prime Minister should be very proud of his part in that. However, in Tanzania you still have people paying back more to us in debt servicing the financial institutions, the World Bank and the Fund, than they are on health and education. So I think they have to finish that, the multilateral … of debt is that it has to be finished this year with the Bank and the Fund. I think there has to be a doubling of aid, at least. I think again the Prime Minister, what he has done in committing the UK to .7% by 2013, that is serious and significant, the doubling of aid is going to have to happen, and support for the Global Health Fund. One of the things that I get very excited about is hearing Bill Gates talking as a person who comes through the science field about vaccines, about immunisation, about the transforming effect of a bed net. I think it is important for us here in the next few days to remember that this can be described as an adventure, it does not have to be described as these 8 leaders carrying a rock up the hill. Our generation actually wants to be remembered for something, other than the war against terror, or indeed the internet, which is extraordinary, we actually want to perhaps be the generation that is remembered for ending extreme poverty … extreme poverty is what I call stupid poverty, and I think that is an adventure, it would be something to look back on to and we did that. This is not the 60s, you have had your moment.
Question:
I was wondering if I could ask Bill and Bono, what would you specifically want to see the US government do? Prime Minister Blair has spoken about the British government, what would you both like to see the US government do specifically to advance this …?
Bono:
I will start, if you like Bill. This administration came up with a one-two knock-out punch to poverty with an historic aid initiative which promised $15 billion over 5 years, and a thing called the Millennium Challenge which was $10 billion over 3 years. The Millennium Challenge was a breakthrough, a kind of … shift in this whole business, because rather than just an increase of aid flows across the panorama of Africa and the developing world, it just targeted countries that tackled corruption, that had poverty reduction programmes in place, the ones that were doing the right thing already, hot-housing that, circling around and creating examples of good government in the region. This was really, really smart, and at the moment we hear that they are slipping back on their commitment. It would have been $5 billion this year and we hear that the number is going to be lower. That would be really disappointing, and I think that President Bush should be very proud of what he started with the Millennium Challenge and I think it could be a fantastic model for others to follow. I think the US should stand by those two initiatives and go further, not retreat under this crushing budget deficit, because in terms of value for money - which is what American people want - they won’t find better value for money than these monies. And again, just a sort of salutary point, the United States in the list of the 22 richest countries in the world are as a percentage, per capita, are number 22, they are at the bottom of the class as percentage giving to the poorest of the poor. So I don’t think this is a time to cut back.
Mr Bill Gates:
I would definitely echo what Bono said. The US did start two wonderful initiatives that if carried through in full will raise the percentage of giving that the US does, and the US needs to move up the table there. We are the furthest from the .7% of any of the rich countries. … which is the Aids initiative, that got going very quickly and there are already some good results coming out of that, the cooperation with the Global Fund has been very good there, and the US has energy in joining into the Vaccine enterprise, which we think is very important and also very good. So there are some things that started and need to be carried through, and then there are some things relative to trade and debt that the US could also step up and join other countries in leading there as well. So this will be a very important year because the pressure to ignore these issues when there are so many other things going on, particularly with the financial pressures, will be quite strong. And yet the ability to take the world’s richest country and say we are sharing our science, we are directing our science towards these problems, I think it is crucial for global cooperation.
Bono:
Actually Tom just on that trade point that you mentioned, that is actually a really important component of this year. It doesn’t really cost money in the obvious sense, but it is an extraordinary thing that the poorest of the poor are not allowed to put their products on our shelves. That is kind of mad, and again I think we have got to stop arguing here about charity and start to think more as justice and what is fair, and I think trade is an area that the United States can lead on.
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