23 May 2006

Bono in Africa

I'm just back from an incredible few days in Tanzania with Bono and his team, part of his current tour through Africa.  Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News is joining him in Ghana this evening, for the show's first live broadcast from Africa.  I'm sure it's worth watching. (6.30pm ET, 5.30pm PT, and also online, but check local listings.)

They shot some great footage this week. And the agenda has shifted, even since Bono's inspirational talk at TED last year.  It's no longer just about Africa's woes.  There's a lot of very cool stuff happening on the continent,  and Bono has been visiting some of the more promising projects. For example, this efficiently-run factory in Arusha creates longlasting insecticide-treated anti-malaria bednets (partly thanks to a loan several years ago by Acumen Fund.) The factory employs more than 3000 people and is now at a run rate of more than 4m nets a year, each of which provides upwards of five years of protection.  As Bono remarked, a great example of Africans working to solve one of the continent's biggest, but also most solvable, problems. I was really impressed with his serious intent, genuine desire to listen and understand, and determination to get to real solutions.

TED will be back in Arusha early next summer for the first TED conference ever held in Africa. Watch this space.

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