With global conflicts spurring refugee crises around the globe, a widening shortfall in funds needs to be remedied immediately, said Bono and humanitarian experts on Capitol Hill this week. “Aid can no longer be seen as charity, a nice thing to do when we can afford it,” Bono, lead singer for the band U2 and co-founder of the ONE Campaign, told the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee at a Tuesday hearing on global violent extremism and the role of international aid in fighting it. “Aid in 2016 is not charity. It is national security,” he added.
Bono was joined by representatives of the State Department and the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR in testifying about the importance of international aid in not only tending to humanitarian emergencies, but in preventing extremist violence from festering and creating these emergencies in the first place.