Press Release
Americans Doing Good in Tanzania
May 19, 2008
Ambassador Green met with Ed Scott, co-founder and board chairman of the Center for Global Development, associates and family members, during their May 16th trip to the U.S. Mission in Dar es Salaam. Mr. Scott is an experienced and successful business executive, a former Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Transportation, and an active supporter of several philanthropic initiatives. A strong supporter of a number of HIV/AIDS programs, he is the founder and chairman of “Friends of the Global Fight,” which, with the assistance of the Gates Foundation, provides support in the U.S. for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria.
Following their meeting with Ambassador Green, the Center for Global Development (CGD) delegation held separate meetings with heads of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to discuss areas of mutual concern and possible opportunities for collaboration in Tanzania.
Since withdrawing from direct management of BEA (a company which he co-founded in 1995), Mr. Scott has become involved in a variety of philanthropic initiatives, including the funding and support of several orphanages and child development centers in Central America. Mr. Scott also has provided substantial financial and advisory support to Compassion International, a faith-based children’s development group that aids over 850,000 children in 23 countries including active HIV/AIDS programs in five countries in Africa.
In 2001, Mr. Scott founded and provided funding for the Center for Global Development. CGD is an independent, not-for-profit think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality by encouraging policy change through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. The Center's research and analysis have contributed to a growing recognition of the need for deeper and faster debt relief, and for more and better quality development assistance.
Mr. Scott is also a co-founder, along with Bill Gates and George Soros, of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an advocacy organization dedicated to eradicating extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa. Bono, the rock musician and anti-poverty advocate, is a principal spokesperson for DATA and has visited Tanzania before, along with other celebrities including Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. There are several non-governmental relationships established between the people of the United States and the people of the United Republic of Tanzania. The U.S. Mission encourages these relationships to continue and strengthen so that we may build upon the already close friendship between our two nations.