Jobs Selasie , the head of the African Aids charity has strongly criticised the actions of the ‘celebrity-philanthropists’ such as musicians Bob Geldof and Bono. He accused the campaigns that the musicians fronted, Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 of increasing African dependency on foreign aid and handouts.

According to figures from African Aid Action the number of people surviving on charity since the 1984 Band Aid campaign has risen 500%, while governments across Africa have seen the proportion of the budgets financed by aid rise from 20% to 70%.

Selaise argues change in Africa need to come from within in order to be sustainable and that foreign aid invariable come with conditions that exclude input from local Africa organisations.

This is not the first time this argument has been raised, famously at the 2005 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) forum which bring together leaders of thought from across world, Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda presented a paper on this same issue and in particular how aid has distorted governance in his home country Uganda.

On that occasion Bono was present in the audience and spent a significant part of the time heckling, in an ungracious but ultimately failed attempt to discredit the journalist in front of the conference.