ONE Campaign - Controversy

Controversy

ONE has been criticized for its response to a book by African economist Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa, which was published in January 2009. Moyo accused ONE of mischaracterizing her views. She says that she is against only government aid, not "their kind of aid". However, ONE argues that governmental development assistance "plays a critical role in the fight against extreme poverty and disease". In June 2009 Dambisa Moyo told former U.S. presidential Republican speech writer Peter Robinson during a Hoover Institute sponsored Uncommon Knowledge interview that "the harshest thing that has happened, Bono's and Bob Geldof's organization, called One, who I had tried to have a number of meetings with before the book came out, about what the theses of the book were, launched a very vitriolic attack against me. To the point that they were calling organizations ahead of my meetings and media appointments and sent a letter to African NGO's claiming, basically, painting me as a genocidal maniac trying to kill African babies. In other words, trying to get Africans to be against me. To me, that was not really fostering dialogue."

In September 2010, it was reported that ONE used only 1.2% of their funds for charitable causes. However, according to a spokesperson, ONE does not provide programs on the ground but instead is an advocacy campaign for their funding. It was also stated that the organization does not fundraise or accept donations, and receives most of its funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.