In a desperate plea to action, musician and humanitarian activist Bono has called for a new ‘Marshal Plan’ to address the global refugee crisis through sustainable economic development prospered by humanitarian aid and support.

World powers need to “act smarter, think bigger and move faster” to deliver much needed economic and humanitarian relief and security for desperate refugees, Bono wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times this week.

Titled ‘Time to Think Bigger About the Refugee Crisis,’ the U2 front man says that the idea that the crisis is temporary is a fallacy and that concerted international action is needed.

“I keep hear calls from a real gathering of forces – Africans and Europeans, army generals and World Bank and International Monetary Fund officials to emulate the most genius of American ideas, the Marshal Plan,” Bono said.

“Trade and development in service of security – in places where institutions were broken and hope had been lost,” Bono suggests such an initiative would deliver. Similar to the original Marshal Plan enacted by the US to help Western Europe recover in the aftermath of World War Two.

After firsthand experience with refugees in the Middle East and East Africa, Bono further formulated a three-point plan that would actively work hand in hand with a new Marshal Plan towards amending the global refugee crisis.

Primarily, refugees and the countries they are seeking asylum in need “more humanitarian support, according to Bono.

This need is emphasized by conditions such as housing, which often consists of merely sticks and plastic sheets desperately patched together to provide shelter, seen by Bono in places such as the Dadaab complex in Kenya.

While Bono commends the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for their “noble and exceedingly hard work,” he asserts the UN is struggling from being “chronically underfunded by the very governments that expect it to handle this global problem.”

Bono’s second recommendation highlights the importance of transforming negative connotations and attitudes towards refugees, to be seen as a benefit as opposed to a burden by their host countries.

Perceptions can be shifted “through development assistance and trade deals” that “encourage businesses and states hosting refugees to see the upside of people’s hands being occupied and not idle,” Bono writes.

Refugees must be given the attention and development opportunities they deserve, according to Bono. “Development that invests in them and empowers them – that treats them not as passive recipients but as leaders and partners,” asserts Bono.

For Bono, reentrance into the workforce could be made possible through “education, training and access to the labor market.”

“Long-term benefits of education, training, jobs and financial security” need to be coordinated by linking humanitarian efforts with development efforts by separate bureaucracies, writes Bono.

Finally, “the world needs to shore up the development assistance it gives to those countries that have not collapsed but are racked by conflict, corruption and weak government,” according to Bono.

Bono calls upon Western governments to prioritise overseas aid. “It is less expensive to invest in stability than to confront instability,” he argues, urging Western governments to invest in countries in danger of collapsing.

“Transparency, respect for rule of law, and a free and independent media are also crucial to the survival of countries on the periphery of chaos. Because chaos, as we know all too well, is contagious,” Bono writes.

While hope has not yet been lost in the Middle East and North Africa, Bono pleads for action, stressing that “hope is getting impatient. We should be, too.”

Chloe Tucker
AMES Australia Staff Writer