Posted on September 24, 2008 - by Frank

Bono Blogs with the Financial Times

For those looking for the inside scoop in the goings on of the High-Level Event happening at the U.N headquarters this week, I’ve got just the thing for you.

The event, focussed on progress and plans to move forward with the U.N Millennium Development Goals, has attracted high level leaders and activists from around the world, with development as the central theme. Live blogging from around the events would be awesome, but alas I can’t be there, nor do I have the connections to have offered anything worthwhile, but there are two people who are there and do have the connections - Bono and Jeffrey Sachs. For those who don’t know, Jeffrey Sachs is a development economist guru - the man is a legend.

This week, Bono and Mr Sachs are blogging from New York with the Financial Times, so you can get the inside word from the world’s most well known activist and one of the world’s most respected economists.

For those who may scoff at a celeb such as Bono being involved in this stuff - let me just put this in perspective a little. How many celebrities do you know who would sit down with spreadsheets open to study the EU budgets before meeting with the French President (currently Chair of the EU) in order to find angles to talk about development? This is a man who has developed a working knowledge of the financial systems of all the major players to such an extend that he can carry worthy conversations about ways to adjust budgets to include funds for development. This is not a celebrity who simply wants to bolster his public image - this is a man sparking change… and it’s working.

I think he is also keenly aware that the solution to the current western financial crunch may well lie in the long term approach of global development. Clearly we have a system that needs to change rather than simply being injected with a shot to the arm of almost a trillion dollars - a shot that will wear off again at some stage if the global scene doesn’t change somehow.

You won’t get much closer to this massive event, so click here to follow Bono and Mr Sachs during their time in New York.