Irish rock star Bono began a new African tour on Tuesday in Lesotho where he will unveil a new initiative to fight AIDS in the ailing textile industry.
"In a small African country the three issues -- debt, aid and trade -- come together in an unholy trinity," the U2 frontman told Reuters as his plane landed in the capital Maseru with a delegation of activists and private sector executives.
Billed as "Measuring Success and Promises Kept" Bono plans to highlight the progress in the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the search for economic growth and rich nations' pledges to cancel some debts and more than double aid to Africa by 2010.
The 10-day trip also marks four years since he traveled to Africa with then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to urge wealthy nations to do more for the world's poorest continent. On this tour Bono hopes to show that even more needs to be done for countries like Lesotho, where a once-vibrant textile sector has been hit by low-cost Asian producers and uncertainty over duty-free access to the U.S. market.
Bono will announce a new initiative to fight HIV/AIDS in Lesotho's textile and garment industry with U.S. clothing maker Gap Inc., which has signed onto his Red Products branding plan to raise cash to fight the epidemic. Gap is contributing 50 percent of its profits from the sale of GAP Red products to a global fund for AIDS in Africa and has committed to produce some of the Red Products in Africa.
His current visit to Africa will take him to Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana, where he is expected to push wealthy countries to keep their promises to Africa on increased financial assistance and debt relief.
Reuters
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