 Recording in progress. I'm the president and editor-in-chief of DevEx and I am delighted to be with all of you from around the world. And I know that this is virtual, but I know many of you who are joining this session, of course, are panelists who are leaders in the humanitarian space and many humanitarians around the world, I'm sure, are tuned in, but also lots of people beyond the humanitarian sector. And that's important because the traditional humanitarian space has been something of a niche and the purpose of this session today is to talk about expanding, to talk about how we bring in many new actors, especially private sector and investors. And that's critical because fragility is not a niche topic. The OECD figures suggest that one in four people on this earth live in some kind of a fragile setting. And yet the funding going to these most fragile places from overseas development assistance is that it's the lowest level since 2016. And all of that is happening at a time when we all know wherever you live in the world, rich country or poor, there's one headline which is around prices, right? You see it in your energy bill, you see it in the supermarket, prices are high, and that's increasing for you. It's making life much more challenging. For many parts of the world, those that are in conflict, certainly, but even those that are not, those that are kind of living on the edge. And this is billions of people who are living on the edge. So the moment for this conversation is critical. And the idea that we open this conversation to more people and especially the private sector is essential. And it's something the World Economic Forum has been doing for a while. And since 2019, it has helped to push forward this idea of humanitarian and resilience investing. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that today. What does it actually mean? How is it going? We're gonna hear some examples from leaders working on it. And then we're gonna hear about a new announcement, a challenge to try to really spur the sector to go forward. And it's essential, because if we don't bring in that private sector funding, if we don't bring in these new actors, if we stay niche, we cannot address these core issues around fragility in a world that's becoming more fragile. So it's a really important discussion and I just thank all of you from around the world who are joining us. I don't wanna mention who's on the screen with me. We have Jorge Brande, who's, of course, the president of the World Economic Forum. I'll return to being shortly. We have Sarah Pantoliano, who's the chief executive of ODI and has been a leader on these conversations of the forum for a long time now. Bernard Cowich is the head of the Innovation Accelerator at the World Food Program. Ziad Hussami is the founder and CEO of Emruna. And Mads Hansen is the CEO of Cube Energy. And we're gonna have a fast-paced conversation today to get into this idea of humanitarian and resilience investing. I wanna turn it over, if I can, to Borges. Just to get us started on this idea of why HRI, humanitarian resilience investing, is so important now. Why is it and why should it be high on the humanitarian agenda? Borges? I think you already touched on it. The humanitarian challenges are huge. We know that more than 200 million, close to 300 million people, rely on humanitarian assistance in the world today. But also, one billion people are in very vulnerable situations. And for the first time in three decades, we see more people moving into the category of extreme poor, extreme poverty this year. So what we know we have to do is to build more resilience in many of these vulnerable communities where there is war, where there is conflicts, hit by climate change. And we know that there are limited resources available. So on top of the humanitarian assistance, the overseas development assistance, the so-called ODA, we also need to mobilize private sector to become a partner. Or we will not be able to support and get growth and development and prosperity in these regions in the future. One thing is that we have to bring also the private sector on board, investing in resilience. But we also need new ideas and thinking out of the box how to really invest in the local community so they can deal with these challenges themselves. So that's really what this initiative is about. It is really fulfilling the core sustainable development goal, eradicating all poverty by 2030. There were two key sessions in Davos just in May on this book. And I just very quick follow-up question to you. You work with the private sector very directly. Maybe you have your finger on that pulse better than anyone. Do you see a real appetite in the private sector, in the investment community to invest against these issues? In other words, if the people who are part of this conversation today can develop the right kinds of projects, is there investment that can really come in this space? I think there are investments available, but we just have to make it clearer what it means or where it is needed. And also we have to make it attractive and we have to mobilize the private investors. And that's what we're trying here today, saying that it is possible also to invest in these communities. And the price of not investing is of course much higher. So this is also awareness racing and that's why we also launched this in Davos as you referred to in 2019. And we are seeing some momentum, but this today on uplink, I think hopefully will create also increased interest, especially among then smaller, medium-sized investors all over the world like entrepreneurs that also think out of the box when it comes to what they can contribute with. Yeah, you're absolutely right. There is some real momentum, there's real interest at the same time the challenges are getting worse in a way and Sarah, as I turned to you, as I mentioned at the beginning, you and ODI have been working on how do we rethink the humanitarian sector, reframe it? You're trying to bring new actors to the table. Why is this focus on HRI important and why do we need to reframe kind of the traditional humanitarian space? Hi Raju, we've been working on this for a long time and I think it is important because what we have is just not meeting the needs of people and more than that is not meeting the needs the way they want. There's enormous frustration with the models that we have at the moment that actually not always really unlocking the best opportunities for people. They are too focused on what I call a model of cultural paternalism. It sort of makes us sort of give to people out of a philanthropic charity-based model and what people want in crisis that are very often protracted and gone for years and years is actually opportunities for their children to return to proper education opportunities for themselves to work or have possibilities to develop entrepreneurship. They want what we would want if in our rich sort of world would be affected by crisis. As we are seeing with Ukraine and we've seen also in the middle income countries but this is what people want all over the world when they face a crisis. So it's really time to stop thinking that humanitarian assistance can be satisfactory in terms of addressing the needs of the aspirations I would say, not just the needs of people in crisis. They want to be able to access opportunities the way we do and work better than unlocking the investment, the creativity, the energy that the private sector has to offer to deliver for people in some of the most difficult parts of the world. Yeah, to get out of this constant cycle of crisis especially with how the climate is changing you're gonna have climate emergency after climate emergency people will be in crisis they'll get that really needed emergency aid that the traditional humanitarian sector provides and it is critical. But then go right back into the next crisis if we don't build a resilience and we don't invest in sustainable models. One of the exciting things about the conversation today, Sarah is that we're gonna be launching this new challenge to get ideas from the whole uplink community. So I wanna see if we can cue the video to learn a little bit more about that challenge and we'll come back and have more of a discussion on what these opportunities really are. But back to Sarah in a moment the first I wanna bring in Borges. I noticed in the video it's talking about challenges that are commercially viable not something everybody would automatically associate with emergency response or humanitarian work but commercially viable and scalable. There were a number of images of people with solar panels so my mind immediately goes to off grid solar. What are some of the sorts of things you're expecting to come out of this challenge? What do you want the uplink community to know as they think about responding to this challenge? As we know in many humanitarian crisis situations of course when you have an immediate emergency you have to support with all things necessary but there's also a phase that coming very fast it's when you have to start building back and building back better. And there I think we need to think so much more out of the box. Some of this work has to be done by traditional humanitarian organizations but that could also be in collaboration with also private sector. When you for example have to build better housing more secure housing that is also better withstanding climate change, hurricanes and et cetera that could be done with the private sector. I think also we need to think out of the box when it comes to keeping up the markets. I saw myself when I was Secretary General of Red Cross after the earthquake in Haiti it was brought in a lot of food that killed the local market. Maybe it would have been much better to give cash to people so they could buy their own food that could then be upholding also the local capacity for producing. Of course in the immediate crisis there was maybe not an opportunity but we have to also think how to make sure that these crisis are not protracted but the investments are done in a way that you aim for getting out of the crisis. And today unfortunately as you said also at the introduction there is so much lack of resources and financing. So many people are there without any kind of support. Here I think also the private sector with thinking differently but also with additional resources is a prerequisite for really helping all those that have great needs. Being refugees, being internally displaced people, being people living in crisis situation, war but also natural disasters that we see more and more of because of climate change. You know this so well from being Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross and you're right there. We often try to separate the emergency response from the rebuilding effort and there is no natural clean line. You know in the same way we talk about humanitarian and development as though there's a simple moment when you switch from one to the other and if we don't begin planting the seeds of that building back better right from the start it's really easy to fall into the trap of building houses that don't last or as you say providing food aid that destroys local markets. So all of those considerations I feel like we've learned those lessons at some level in the humanitarian sector but turning them into new approaches that private sector investors can get behind is a real challenge. And Sarah I know you're still with us and people who are watching this and are thinking about what challenge they can provide here, what idea they can provide. I wonder if you have any advice for them what you would like to see from social entrepreneurs, from the private sector from investors that they respond to this challenge. Any thoughts from you? Look there's such a wide variety of things that people could put on the table but they need to think from the perspective of countries where we would be really useful would be things that unlock the benefits of tech. That's something that the humanitarian sector really doesn't do well or doesn't do at all in some cases and this is something that people are really after because like us they would like to be either better connected or use the opportunities that technology offers either to be able to access money, access remittances more easily, really use those opportunities. Think of ways of this massive paralysis in terms of working in these countries around the whole digital identity question. So getting around how you can help people overcome this blockage when it comes to transferring money using opportunities that involve digital identity but it goes on to all sorts of things what blocks people often to unlock their own entrepreneurship is making sure that they can have access to using their legal documents and so those are the kinds of things and then there is a massive array of opportunities in the infrastructure space or in the agriculture space. Again, a lot of these places are places where we could bring some of the best innovations from a hydroponic agriculture for low intensity cultivation that people can do even when they are displaced or maybe able to, I don't know, kind of do small entrepreneurship locally. Borges already talked about the infrastructure. There is also a lot to be done in terms of how digital health could be a lot for people to be again more able to access that medical help, not necessarily to the presence of people on the ground but by accessing those resources more easily through technology. It's a wide range. It's just moving away from the mindset that we have in terms of how we approach traditional humanitarian crisis and thinking more, putting ourselves at the center if I was in a crisis, what would I want to see and what can be the response that I can help unlock? Thank you so much. And so much of this is that mindset and Bernard Kowatch from World Food Program. I feel like the World Food Program has really changed its mindset over the years and has moved in directions. Maybe people aren't as familiar with it. I know you're a key partner of this humanitarian and resilience investing initiative and you're leading an impact innovation accelerator there. How has the World Food Program changed and what are you looking for when you think about these kinds of investments in the humanitarian space? Yeah, so it is really one of the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Like as Morgan and also Sarah have pointed out, like when you look at the food space, it is really, really drastic what's happening right now. So there's 50 million people who are on the edge of famine and starvation and 345 million people who are marching towards starvation. And it's a staggering number like that has gone up more than doubled since 2019. So if we're thinking about like what we need to address like as World Food Program, just governments alone cannot address all of this. Like right now we're looking at the funding need for the whole organization of $24 billion to reach 150 million people across the globe. So which means like we need to look into different types of innovative approaches, sustainable approaches that can also help to grow sustainably with private investors. And this could be for instance, innovations that help in an emergency response like in some of the worst crisis, but also lifting people out of hunger more sustainably, like lifting small-holder farmers or vulnerable populations out of hunger. Yeah, and that of course 24 billion would be almost the entire official humanitarian aid budget for the whole world for every agency. It just shows you the scale of the problem. Every agency is operating with much less than they need to do their basic emergency work. And so we have to find a new way of working to get there. We've got two social entrepreneurs who are with us today speaking of a new way of working. I wanna bring them into our conversation and get their sense for what opportunities they see and when they're thinking about the ecosystem of people following along how they might be able to participate in this. Maybe I'll go to you first Ziad Nusamni. Tell us a little bit of what you're doing and what opportunities you see for HRI. Sure, so Maruna we specialize in products which promote urban resilience and Maruna actually is a transliteration of the word resilience in Arabic. So our core product is Biome Web and Biome Web is a onsite wastewater treatment system which harnesses the power of SMEs, nature and emerging tech to treat wastewater and reuse it for irrigation. So we have two problems. We have a technology problem and we also have a business model problem and I was listening to Sarah about changing the model and that's very important. So right now, we operate technology, the infrastructure and discussion about infrastructure it's a very linear model. So bringing for example, the Cloudcom Maximum which is where you are, Bernard and Rome. Pliny the Elder called that, Rome's greatest architectural achievements and it's a sewer which is remarkably still in use today and what is even more remarkable is that we continue to use the same strategy which is send the water underground and send it as far away as possible, as quickly as possible. And that might have been okay when Rome is 5,000 people but today that leads to a whole range of problems and in a place like Lebanon which is very mountainous, you have these small villages you've got massive amounts of displaced people all throughout the country. You can't keep up with this sort of model. So we want to go to a nature-based decentralized model nature-based systems which are very easy to operate, right? And which more importantly, offer a business model innovation where we incentivize the beneficiaries to continue to operate the systems, right? So Lebanon is littered with well-intended investments in waste water treatment plants which are centralized but never see a day of operation and that's because we don't have the energy or even the budgets to operate the systems. We barely have energy to operate our fridges. Mine broke down, I didn't even fix it. So what we need is to find a way to create value from existing chains where we can actually bring that value to the beneficiaries and somebody was mentioning also how the humanitarian sector comes in and then we need to transition to a development phase because eventually that humanitarian funding is going to go somewhere else. Like in our case, it's gone to Ukraine. So now we need to find a way to keep to make sure our projects continue to have legs and to be economically sustainable in the future. And I think that's where the HRI company is very handy. Absolutely. I think you brought two really key points just to underline for the audience. One is the idea that investing in an irrigation system and a sanitation system, that's often not something you would consider as humanitarian aid. You'd say, well, it's an emergency. We're going to do other things. We're going to bring in food aid and medical assistance. But in cases like Lebanon, you have millions of people who are going to be displaced for many years. And so you have to think about these longer range solutions. And the other key point is what a shame how many development projects that are around the world, water points and sanitation systems that break down once and never get fixed because they weren't designed in the way that the people who are going to use them can sustain them. And that's a really key difference. And it gets to the point of the challenge around scalability and commercial viability. Mads, let's bring you to the discussion. Tell us about cube energy and what are some of the opportunities you see here for HRI? Thank you so much, Raj. So cube energy basically provides renewable energy to some of the most fragile countries in the world. Typically Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic. And in our experience, there isn't a conflict between having emergency response and having pockets of prosperity or investment opportunities in very small confined geographical locations. And we see this from our work in Somalia. While war, climate change, extreme poverty has displaced a lot of the populations in the rural areas. Some of the cities are doing really well. One place is Baiduwa, where you've had, the population has grown threefold in the last two decades. You've had consistent double-digit economic growth in the city. To make up for some of the increase in demand for electricity, you've had local businesses running diesel generators to power makeshift grids. The problem is that these local businesses, they don't have access to technical expertise on investment capital. So these grids are inherently unreliable. They only connect part of the population in the cities. And you have some of the highest prices of electricity in the world. But for a power producer, that's an opportunity for us as well. And we're currently building a renewable power plant in Baiduwa. So the project, it represents one of the largest international investments in Somalia to date. Then it will be the largest plant that is connected to a UN facility worldwide. And I think for us as a private company, going forward with these type of investments, sort of to be successful, you have to be very conscious about thinking about risk and be quite creative in mitigating. So the political risk is obviously a big thing in Somalia. I think we've overcome that by working very closely with the local government and making sure that they have long-term interests in the project. We've also been able to work with the MIGA in the World Bank Group to get political risk guarantees for the project. On the commercial and security side, we've been able to sign the UN up as an anchor client to the project where they guarantee to buy electricity from the plant for 10 years and include the plant in their security parameters. So those are some of them, I think they have the key elements in making these type of investments go forward. So we're currently... I'm so glad that you brought up the idea of risk and how you're planning for it, right? As opposed to saying, well, this situation is just too risky. We can't work here. You're thinking about how do we plan around those risks, mitigate those risks as part of the business model? And then I'm also glad you brought up the point of growth. We may think of fragile countries. In fact, when I moderated sessions like this at the web, there's always some sensitivity around if we want to label a country fragile, right? Is that going to make investors say they don't want to go there? And we need to change that dynamic to say even within the most fragile setting, there's growth, there's opportunities, right? And so if we can think about that in a different frame, which has been a theme throughout our discussion today, I think there's a lot we can do to go forward. Now we are sadly just out of time, I think. So I will have to bring us to a close. It's been a really rich discussion. We could talk much more. The main thing I want to emphasize to everybody who's following this is the opportunity to submit your ideas if they are tested, if they are proven, if they are ready to scale, and they just required that boost that the World Economic Forum and this community can provide, and ultimately the investment to take it forward. Like the two great examples you just heard from Cube and from Enruna, this is your opportunity to bring those forward. So I encourage you to present your ideas as part of this challenge. I want to thank our fantastic group of panelists for their contributions, and especially when I gave it to the president of the World Economic Forum and for bringing us this challenge and for furthering the issue of HRI. It's been a real pleasure to be with all of you today. Thank you. Thank you.