Pro Bono

Sir, In your report (“Bono out of tune with poverty campaigners on branding plan”, Jan 27) Phillip Stevens asserts that Product RED, the new private sector initiative championed by Bono, will add to corruption and waste in Africa.

In fact, by channelling this funding through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Bono and his colleagues are contributing to a new standard of accountability in development finance.

Global Fund money flows only to programmes that demonstrate performance, and private accounting firms keep watch over the funds once they reach developing countries.

In this regard, Mr Stevens’s example of Uganda is apt — the Global Fund recently suspended $200 million of grants to that country after its systems detected misuse, prompting investigations and restructuring within the Government.