DATA Co-founder Bobby Shriver and Bono to Join Board of New Organization

10.29.07

DATA and (RED) co-founders Bobby Shriver and Bono announced today that DATA is merging with the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History. The merger was voted in by the boards of both organizations. Bobby, as Co-Founding Chairman of DATA worked hard to recruit Tom Freston to be chairman of the board of the new organization. Bobby and Bono will also join the new board.

Among its primary goals, the new organization will continue to press for policies that will advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  These eight goals, approved by the United States and 188 other nations in 2000, include commitments from the global community to halt and reverse the spread of HIV and malaria, eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and provide access to universal primary education. Much of the world is on track to achieve the MDGs, but the poorest countries in Africa are not, in part because the wealthy nations of the world have not kept their commitments to Africa. ONE will continue to build political momentum in the United States and other G8 nations to ensure governments around the world do their part to help ensure the MDGs are reached.

DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) is an advocacy organization founded in 2002 by
Bono, Bobby Shriver, Jamie Drummond and other activists from the Jubilee “Drop
the Debt” campaign to fight AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. DATA also
advocates for increased democracy, accountability and transparency in governance
so that Africa’s citizens have a greater voice in how resources are being used.
In 2005, DATA and partner campaigns from around the world helped to persuade the
G8 to reach an unprecedented agreement on Africa that included broad debt
cancellation, universal access to education, AIDS treatment and more effective
development assistance. DATA continues to work to ensure these promises are
kept and built upon. For more information, please visit www.data.org.

ONE: THE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY is an effort by Americans to rally Americans -- ONE by ONE -- to fight the emergency of extreme poverty and preventable global disease. ONE is a coalition of more than 2.4 million people and 150 of the nation's leading relief, humanitarian and advocacy organizations. For more information, please visit www.ONE.org.