Rock activist Bono began a ten-day tour of Africa yesterday, where he plans to examine the achievements of his Make Poverty History campaign. The U2 frontman intends to highlight the progress the continent is making in the treatment of Hiv and AIDS as well as unveiling new plans to unite developing nation Lesotho's textile industry with US clothing giant Gap, to allow citizens to work their way out of poverty. The Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS (ALAFA) project will give textile workers free and unlimited access to drug therapy and HIV/AIDS treatment. Arriving in Lesotho capital Maseru, Bono said, "In a small African country the three issues - debt, aid and trade - come together in an unholy trinity. It's an important moment because what you see here and the reason why we have people with us, we're attempting to gang up on the continent's problems from many angles. It's a swarm of bees." Jamie Drummond, executive director of Bono's advocacy group Debt Aids Trade Africa (DATA), says, "We're going to look at foreign assistance working on the ground in Africa and see what is working and what is not. Effective aid backing good African leadership can get results, so let's do more of it. Why would you not do more of it? The timing of this is extremely important, not just because you can see all the results on the ground, but because at this very moment top policymakers in all of the G8 countries are looking at whether they can afford to keep their promises - whether in Germany, Canada, Italy, or France, and above all in the US Congress." Gap has also pledged 50 per cent of profits from the sale of products launched in conjunction with Bono's Red initiative to Africa's AIDS fund.