Re:

senegal said it was a failed idea. they will not even entertain it, they think that the foundation suffers from the thinking of the colonial masters telling us what we need and not really listening.

Sorry it's taken a while to get back online. Sometimes tough out here in Africa. Well I can certainly sympathisize with that sentiment and I hate the thought of any of our foundation work being anything but demand driven. So hopefully your friend(s) would be willing to take the time to discuss their wants/concerns etc with me so that we can put that whole thing to rest - I am happy to hear any and all ideas. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't find a fit for ideas since we do have strategic constraints laid out by Bill. I think Bill would be sad to hear that anyone thought he was a colonialist!

There are some things that I am not sure you are aware of, and I only note them as a caution in interpreting statements by the son of the president. First, the son of the president hates the mayor of Dakar and has tried multiple times to push him out or at least really shred his reputation. Your friend ran for mayoral office against him and lost in a landslide election. Big time. The current mayor is the only elected opposition leader in the whole country and there are serious rumblings from the streets that your friend and his father are the next African government to be toppled. Folks think it is the mayor of Dakar that is fomenting this. So anything viewed as successful in Dakar is typically quashed or at least threatened. Finding a balance between doing what is right by the people and avoiding politics is challenging.

I think your friend may also be speaking out of both sides of his mouth also since he has accepted and welcomed nearly $50 million in foundation dollars so far - one to deal with urban health and one upcoming to deal with sanitation/water. The foundation has rallied other donors around these two issues so you can imagine that the numbers skyrocket.

It sounds like from our brief conversation last week, that he really wants an academic institution and I think that is legit and an interesting idea. To date he has a terrible track record there, (allegedly) "stealing" money from multilaterals and from the French that was intended to support higher education. So donors are nervous about that.

All that aside and trying to think proactively and together about this, I am proposing something that would help generate revenue from the capital markets for his city (that they can control) rather than depending on his money or donors. It's kind of the "anti-colonialist" vision - so hopefully we can discuss in more detail. What might be an interesting way forward is that we could think together about how to use a muni finance option that would support an academic institution of higher learning (if that is truly the right priority). If they are amenable I have also had some success elsewhere (Asian U for Women) in convincing the World Bank to reduce some of their TA requirements and reprogram some of that money to endow national academic institutions of higher learning through the concessions within the loan packages. So if there are any ongoing loan negotiations we might be able to structure them together. I can see a West African College of Engineering or something like that potentially having broad appeal. So I can try, but I need your help.

Sometimes with politics and the threat of regime change, people get nervous and discount good ideas.

I would hope that an open-minded and forward-thinking government would want to listen. You know that I am only interested in getting this right for the people. I have no ulterior motives.

Please ask your friend to give me a chance. Then he can say no or yes or find a way forward together. In the meantime let him know that he should also do homework because he's taking a lot of colonial money that he can't control and that will topple him. He needs to provide good things for his people in a way that works for them. I think I can help, maybe a little.

Oh and I'm in Cape Town now, staying at a rooftop trailer park http://www.granddaddy.co.za/sleep/airstream_rookop_trailer_park/ Very fun place. Classssssy.

Should be back in the USA Thursday night or Friday morning. Have a board meeting for my carbon finance thing.

Miss you and sorry to be so long!!