Early December 2018, Alexander De Croo, Young Global Leader, Agenda Facilitator of the World Economic Forum and, at the time, Minister of Development Cooperation of Belgium, flew to Johannesburg (South Africa) with a Belgian check of 43 million euros for promoting gender equality and, on top of that, a Belgian check of 5 million dollars ( ? ) for fighting tropical diseases ( through vaccines ), amount that would be doubled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Alexander spoke with pride about the collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a private foundation that needs no further explanation.
"We cannot tolerate women and girls being left behind," De Croo spoke at the Global Citizen festival. "That's why we launched 'She's Equal,' with one goal: to invest more than 500 million in gender equality. Belgium is (again) adding 43 million to that." In addition, our country is also releasing 4.4 million euros to fight tropical diseases.
HLN newspaper headlined " Alexander De Croo plays huge audience as a rock star in South Africa"
The national broadcaster VRT was a little more discreet : " 43 million euros extra for women's rights, De Croo has stadium in Johannesburg chant along"
Since then we have heard nothing more on this topic. We do not know what has been done with the 43 million euros and 5 million dollars. Any accountability is completely out of the question.
What we do know, however, is that the project " She's Equal " is not a government initiative but a private initiative of Global Citizen that has exclusively private companies as partners.
The Board of Directors is also composed exclusively of CEOs and representatives of private companies.
Global Citizen is headquartered in New York with offices in Canada, South Africa, Nigeria, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom. The organization was founded in 2008 by Hugh Evans, Simon Moss and Wei Soo. The Global Citizen platform was co-founded in 2012 with Ryan Gall and Riot House.
Belgium is not involved with Global Citizen in whatsoever way. Not then and not now. In 2008, De Croo was not yet active in politics. In 2012, he was chairman of the Flemish liberal party Open-VLD. "
How is it possible that a minister of development cooperation in 2018 could take 43 million euros + 5 million dollars ( ? ) from the Belgian treasury and give it as a gift to a private organization ?
The Ministry of Development Cooperation has a certain budget but that does not mean that this budget can be thrown around at the Minister's discretion for private initiatives which, moreover, died a silent death after De Croo's rock & roll action. .
Global Citizens' press releases show that it is not at all concerned (anymore) with "She's equal." The organization is a money machine that sticks its tentacles into everything without focusing on anything precise and then realizing it.
This is an inexcusable fault and can even be qualified as a criminal offense : the deliberate withdrawal of wealth from the Belgian State with the aggravating factor that this wealth is tax money from the citizens
Has the fate of South African dark-skinned women improved thanks to the generous donation of De Croo and the Gates Foundation to Global Citizen ?
No, nothing has changed and nothing will change. It is claptrap.
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