Money and PCs Donated to Fight Hunger and Disease

Published: January 30, 2008

by Alex Woodie

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Microsoft and Dell announced they will join the global effort to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa, called (PRODUCT) RED, by contributing money whenever a (PRODUCT) RED PC is bought at Best Buy or through Dell's Web site. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also pledged $306 million to help poor farmers around the world.

The (PRODUCT) RED campaign was started in 2006 as a way for corporations to help in the fight against AIDS. As part of the campaign, companies make financial commitments to the Global Fund whenever one of their RED-branded products is sold. So far, about $57 million has been raised through the sale of products from partner groups, including Apple, Converse, Gap, Emporio Armani, Motorola, and Hallmark. The money has gone to programs in Rwanda, Swaziland, and Ghana.

Now that Dell and Microsoft have joined the cause with Windows Vista and a line of Dell XPS notebook computers, the fund is likely to experience a big boost. The companies will contribute at least $50 for every XPS purchased; $80 will be contributed when an XPS notebook loaded with Vista Ultimate is purchased, while a Dell printer will yield a $5 donation.

Bono, the U2 front man and spokesman for the poor, also got in on the action in Davos, posing with Gates and Michael Dell for pictures with the new (PRODUCT) RED computers. "It's a truly beautiful idea that the purchase of a stylish PC can put someone on lifesaving ARV [antiretroviral] treatment for six months," Bono stated in a press release.

Meanwhile, Gates took his charity a step further when he announced he will give $306 million in grants to develop farming in poor countries, as part of his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money will go to small farmers (who are mostly women, Gates said) to help their businesses, including improving seeds, soil, and creating new markets. The payoff will not only be measured in full bellies for children and lives saved, but more income and an improved quality of life for poor farmers, he said.

The contribution was a demonstration of what Gates calls "creative capitalism." Gates explained his concept of creative capitalism during a speech at Davos last Thursday.

"There are roughly a billion people in the world who don't get enough food, who don't have clean drinking water, who don't have electricity, the things that we take for granted," he said. "In a system of capitalism, as people's wealth rises, the financial incentive to serve them rises. As their wealth falls, the financial incentive to serve them falls, until it becomes zero. We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well."

The challenge, he says, is to design a system where there are market incentives, including profitability, that benefit the poor. "I like to call this idea creative capitalism, an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities."

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