What a difference a year can make! Davos 2005 had Bono and Sharon Stone among other glitterati talking about global poverty and global health, and featured at least three crowded plenary sessions on Africa, aid, AIDs, malaria and more -- with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Bill Gates and Jeffrey Sachs. It was 2005: the year of development announcements and commitments.Davos 2006 was quieter and calmer on the development front. Indeed there was a sense of complacency about the glories of globalization and global markets, and relatively few sessions (compared to and perhaps in reaction to last year) on global poverty and inequality, and the limitations of market-led globalization alone for meeting these challenges.On the other hand, on development issues Davos 2006 was much more about action. A good example: Bono was back, this time announcing the RED initiative -- an innovative public-private partnership under which American Express will issue RED credit cards, and a share of the revenue from this and other RED-branded products will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Behind this initiative?, Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA – Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), along with Global Fund head Richard Feachem and the One Campaign. Meanwhile, a celebrity couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, were there listening and learning, and thinking about how to help influence for the good such global challenges as free and fair trade and children's rights.
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