U2’s Bono and United States treasury secretary Mr Paul O'Neill have arrived in Ghana to highlight the need for effective spending on development.
Over the next 10 days the two will travel through four African countries - Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia - to try and spark interest in a topic that each feels much of the world tries to ignore.
Simply appearing together draws attention, with Bono in wraparound blue-shaded glasses and casual dress and Mr O'Neill in the buttoned-down garb of a former corporate chieftain.
"I'm the messy one, I don't have a very tidy room and I eat pizza," Bono joked with reporters as he and Mr O'Neill flew from Frankfurt yesterday, where they met up after the US treasury chief attended annual meetings of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Budapest.
The trip comes as the Bush administration has committed to substantially more foreign aid spending, provided Congress approves it, of up to $5 billion a year.