 Good morning. Good afternoon. Wherever you are in the world. This is my immense pleasure to welcome you all to a conversation where we will discuss the importance of enabling equitable, inclusive vaccine distribution and highlight the need for continued global contribution and collaboration. A few facts, maybe. This session is co-organized between the platform I lead, the healthcare one and the mobility platform, in particular the supply chain and transport communities of that platform. Those communities have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in engaging the private and public sectors on initiatives that serve to create a good. And this is not new. When it comes to those organizations that have been instrumental in the response, I think in particular about the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization, or CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemics Preparedness Innovation. Actually, those organizations were born at the World Economic Forum, launched in Davos, respectively in 2000 when it comes to Gavi, and 2017 when it comes to CEPI. CEPI has done remarkable progress in supporting a number of vaccines, some of which are currently approved. We wish them well with Novavax, where results seem promising, and Cuovac, which they are also supporting. Additionally, CEPI and Gavi have co-led an instrument that is unique, that is the Covax Pool Procurement Facility. A procurement facility that is meant to allow access to vaccines to the world's poorest nations. This is important that we support Covex. Covex is an indispensable element part of the access to COVID-19 tool accelerator, and we are proud to support Act A. During the pandemic, the central role of transport and logistics organization has been made very clear. To deliver on the inclusive goals of Covex, I would like to mention that the chief executive officers from leading, shipping, airlines and logistics industries, along with UNICEF and the Forum, signed a charter whereby private sector companies committed to make available to UNICEF their assets and capabilities in support of distribution up to the last mile. Vaccination to the world in an inclusive and equitable fashion is not only a moral imperative. A recent study has demonstrated that when poorest nations would be delayed in the vaccination program, the world could lose up to $9 trillion, and half of that loss would affect higher income countries. I would like to also mention from conversations with my dear friend Peter Pio, this eminent virologist, that any delay in reaching herd immunity in the poorest nations, say 85 of them, would allow for the vaccine to circulate, further mutate, which in turn could defeat the global vaccination campaign if a variant would emerge that would resist the vaccines. With this, it's my pleasure to introduce James Harding from Tortoise Media to moderate this very esteemed panel as we consider the challenge of vaccinating the world from mass production to the last mile. Over to you James. Thank you for that extremely pithy account, not only of the background drop to this, but the position that we're now in. We're extremely fortunate today, exactly as you say, to have people who really are at the very front line of this. And I think the point that you make at the very start, which is look, this is not just a moral imperative being inclusive and equitable. It's an economic and a healthcare one for all of us with an eye to the potential of this virus to mutate is something I know that's on the minds of everyone. One of the odd things about this year has been we faced a global pandemic, but we've never been more acutely aware of the problems facing us in our backyard. And I join you from London, or from the UK, I should say sorry. And where I am, one of the big arguments is about the distribution, the production of vaccines within the European Union and the UK. We're all facing different versions of this. We're lucky to have a group of people from all over the world joining us to discuss it. You started on a nice deal by saying good morning or good afternoon. I start with Henrietta for the Executive Director of UNICEF. And to you, Henrietta, I think I don't know whether to say good morning, good afternoon or good night, because I know you're joining us from the west coast. Of the United States where the sun hasn't risen yet. So thank you so much for joining us. Stanley Bergman, Stan Bergman is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Henry Shine, one of the largest suppliers of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals in the world. And so I'm really grateful, Stan, that you're here to join us. Not least because people who know you will know that you've been involved in thinking about responses to pandemics long before the rest of us started thinking about them. I'm grateful to that Sultan Ahmad bin Suleiman is here. Sultan, as you know, many of us had never thought seriously about distribution issues, supply chains, and now we can think of little else. So we're extremely grateful. And I hope that also joining us is Jack van der Mayen, the Chief Executive of the Port of Antwerp. I think, Jack, you're you're here too. And likewise, I suppose I used to have a boyish in ports, sort of saw them as a place of wonder. You now realize that they're critical to what's happening in response to this pandemic. So thank you all for joining us. Just to tell you just very briefly, the way this works is this is a conversation that we're going to stream for the next half hour. It goes out globally. And then the second half hour of the hour, we're going to open up to Q&A from WEF members. So please don't hold back on those questions. I know this is subject of enormous interest to an enormous number of people. But Henrietta, now start with you. As I said, I'm keenly aware that in the UK, we're looking at this at the moment, you know, close to home. I know I made a point of saying, look at it in terms of the needs of those 85 countries. Can you just start with telling us what you think are the biggest challenges that the world is facing in terms of vaccinations from production to delivery? So thank you, James. Well, you have begun with your experience in the UK. And I think for many of the developing world, it's a bit different than it is for the developed world. But everyone has as their number one supply. So have we manufactured enough? Do we have the test data, the trial data in for the vaccines that wish to be approved by WHO? So supply is number one. Number two is timing. What has happened in our world is that we now have a crush of demand here in the first half of the year. And yet what it looks like from a manufacturing and availability point of view is it's the second half of the year when we're going to have the supply available. So timing is a big problem and a big issue, but it gives us time to plan. So the whole comment about supply chain and logistics that Sultan and Jacques are very familiar with along with Stanley, it gives us time to get ready. And the most difficult part as I look around the world is the developing countries. Are they ready? It is very hard to be ready as a nation. You can see it in our developed countries, James, at home. But if you're in the developing world, it's even harder. You have to prioritize. You have to approve the vaccines. You have to make sure that you have trained your health care workers. You have to be able to get them out and all the supplies that go with them, the PPE, the syringes, the safety boxes, all of that has to be ready. We've been buying refrigerators to help the coal chain, which our know had mentioned Gabi with Gabi. We have strengthened coal chains in each one of these countries. So the challenge is enormous. It is a massive undertaking as the world. And as a result, the readiness, I think, is the hardest for our world. There's one other issue James said, I'll just mention there is this chasm between the developed world and the developed world. And the developing world. There's a lack of investment in the developing world. So we as a world are going to need to help the countries in the developing world for their readiness if we are really going to reach everyone. If this is going to be safe, fast, equitable and reach everyone and affordable. Can I just ask you about that third one, the planning phase now, partly with an IT unicef's role, but actually in the preparation for this conversation. You know, the web provided me with a lot of information about the scale of operation. That's not related to the vaccine. That's all of the medical equipment that's needed to enable the distribution of the vaccine and the delivery of the vaccine. I just wondered what you think needs to get done in the next six months before you see that spike in supply. So, you know that UNICEF for the past 30 years has been the largest single buyer of vaccines in the world. So every year we buy around 2 billion vaccines and this is for childhood diseases. So we've vaccinated more than 760 million children in the last 30 years and it has saved lives. So one of the issues is sheer volume. What we are anticipating for 2021 is that we will double that number. So 2 billion of our usual childhood vaccines, but another 2 billion in COVID vaccines. Currently we distribute to 100 countries. We are their procurement agent. Now we will have 190 countries to distribute to. So what is going to be extremely important is that we have what the forum has organized, this agreement, a charter with logistics and supply companies so that we can move these vaccines safely to every corner of the world and fast and safely. So we need freight forwarders and logistics. It is our responsibility as UNICEF for the COVAX facility is the chief procurement center, but also we are to freight, we are to move these vaccines and then the readiness in the country. So the training of the healthcare workers, the strengthening of the supply chain, the mass programs about talking about the importance of getting a vaccine so that there's no hesitancy by the public that they realize that vaccines save lives. So all of that is UNICEF's responsibility, but we need lots of partners and the WEF and the forum have really helped us. So we need everyone. Henry, I'm going to come back to you if I might a little bit in the sort of nitty gritty of the detail on, and particularly that big point about the chasm between developed and developing nations. But I want to just hear from Stan if I might. Stanley Bergman, you have seen, you know, healthcare systems really working well, and also I know you've seen healthcare systems that don't work so well. And I'm just like first to just pick up on the question I asked Henrietta, which is what you think are the real problems here? What are the challenges that you're seeing up close that the rest of us might not be? It was good to be with everyone. First of all, let me just emphasize what I think Arnaud said and I think what Henrietta said. I think it is critical for us to ensure that the whole world gets access to the vaccine. The pandemic doesn't carry a virus, doesn't carry a passport, doesn't carry a visa. We can't stop the virus from spreading. So yes, on the humanitarian point of view, the world should get access to the vaccine from an economic point of view. The world needs to ensure also the developed world that access to the vaccine is provided. To me, I would like to add one other dimension. We need to make sure that we have adequate PPE to support the inoculation programs that Henrietta spoke about. It is not good enough to only have the cold supply chain work and we of course need to make sure that that works. There are people on this panel that can address that. But transforming a vaccine into actually an inoculation requires a sustainable supply chain that delivers the ancillary products as well. The gloves, the masks, the needles, the syringes and the sharp skin payments. We saw at the beginning of the pandemic a jump all where the wealthy countries were going to the developing world countries that were manufacturing these products with wads of money. And the net result is some countries got access to PPE and others didn't. So I just want to make the point right up front that it is important to have the cold chain supply chain work. But we need to make sure that the ancillary products that are needed for the vaccine are there as well. And Stan, without tiptoeing around it, what we saw in the first six months of the pandemic was those rich countries snapping up huge amounts of the supply on PPE. When Henrietta says, look, there's a timing issue here between supply in the second half and demand in the first half of 2021. I inwardly think to myself, well, we're going to see the same thing. You're going to see the rich countries once again buy up both the vaccine and the ancillary products. Is that just a fact of life? Or is there any way that that can be resolved, do you think? Well, James, I'm extremely fearful that we're heading in exactly that direction because it's not only about the vaccine and about the ancillary products, but it's logistics as well. And so if you have money, you can buy the logistics. The capacity of logistics around the world is fine. The number of planes to some extent ships are used, but also ports. And what we found is that during this March, April and May period, the worldwide supply chain from a transportation system was only available to those that had money. And I am fearful that the best plans can be made to secure the vaccines. The best plans could be made to obtain the ancillary, but if you can't make it move because you don't have that space book or because others are jumping in the queue because of money, this thing will fail again and will have people eat all over again with vaccines. I'm going to come to Sultan in one moment, but can I just ask you one thing? I said at the top that you've been thinking about these pandemic issues for some time. And in fact, I think it was the weft, or maybe at the weft, you can tell us a fair few years ago that there was a whole discussion about pandemic supply chains. And it's one of those cases where you get to ask whether or not the thing that was discussed four or five years ago actually came to pass in reality. Was it an idea or did it actually inform what happened? Well, James, one of these kinds of sessions on a Friday afternoon, right at the end of the weft, by coincidence, a group of people got together. President Kim at the time from the World Bank, the chair of the head of the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, the number of CEOs the companies got together, and we gave birth in 2015 to the pandemic supply chain network, which is an informal group of public-private partnership activities that relate to moving of or obtaining information on where PPE is manufactured, where it's available, what supply chain capabilities exist, what logistics exists, and figuring a way to deal with these issues of shortages. And the pandemic supply chain network group was quite effective in March and April. My concern is we're not a government, we're a country group of people, and I'm concerned with a lack of collaboration. And sometime in the second quarter or third quarter, this is going to play out again with vaccines and PPE. Thank you. I'm going to come back to that point about where the glitches are, the ancillary products. But I wanted to bring in, when you think about planes and ships and as the chairman chief executive of DP World, you must hear what's Stan saying and think, yeah, this is exactly where these issues are going to be. And I wonder whether you could, if you like, answer the issues that both Henrietta and Stan have in effect raised, which is how the logistics operation is going to deliver something that is fair and inclusive globally. Thank you very much. I totally agree with Stan. And I wish that eventually he will also not distribute equipment and medical equipment, but also vaccines worldwide, with his expertise, we need it. People talk about logistic about fair smile and last mile, but I tell you in our experience, both fair smile and last mile are important. A few years ago, in our business, we noticed that we need to be involved in logistics. In the last four years, we invested a lot of money in logistic ability, not just in people, but in facilities. And today, we're the largest in India, we're largest in Peru, in Chile, in UK, we're big in London Gateway, in both ports. And we acquired many, many companies that are in the logistics. Sometimes we don't have a link, we even have to charter a plane or charter a bus. We own buses now, which is a new thing for us. Collaborative offers to distribute is very important. And I don't want to repeat what Stan had said, because today, what I read is 9 million vaccines have been already reserved by the wealthy countries. That's only 14% or 15% of the world population. This pandemic, we need to make sure it's reach everybody. For the first time in the world, in our business, we find it is difficult to find empty containers. Can you believe it? I mean, empty containers in our business is a cost for us. They sit in the yard with no air and anything. Today, all the BCOs, the business, the benefit of the cargo owners, you will talk about, IKEA, Walmart and others are looking for empty containers. And many countries like China acquired many twos for their own. So we have to help the collaborators. Even if we have vaccine for everybody, we cannot distribute everybody. We need a collaborative effort. We manage to really fill every part of supply chain so that we can do our own. And Sultana, two questions come to mind. One is about the security of the distribution system. And by that, I mean something very practical, which is how do you get the people who are running all of those supply networks themselves vaccinated so that you have the security of the system to deliver the vaccine? Absolutely. That's very important. Very important for us. I tell you, when this pandemic came, one of the big issue was for us is how do we continue to have our operation open? It's very crucial to make sure cargo is moving. And so the person we did is immediately, we started to comply with every regulation regarding sanitation, regarding wearing masks. And we adhere to it. We told our people, it's a must. We have to protect our people there first. And we managed to do it very well. We never closed. So vaccinating people, you know, in the UK, for example, they will vaccinate only people who are elderly. And we're telling them, please include us in the port because we're having cargo. We need to make sure we can get them vaccinated. And we met with the transport minister very on Zoom. And we spoke about this and they promised us they will. What I fear is that many wealthy countries will reserve the vaccines and will not be available for the other countries. In Africa and Latin America, you have two problems. They can't afford the vaccine. And even if you have the vaccine, it's very difficult to get it to them. In Africa, you have 800 million people who have no seaports. It's the most difficult to get product to them. We are investing in us. We invested in a logistic park in Rwanda, which is a landlocked country which can supply Borundi, Malawi, part of Congo, even Tanzania, even Kenya, even Uganda. And we're doing another one in Mali. And we're looking at another one in Chad. And we're looking at another one in other countries in there, Borukino, Faso, and so on. Because you need to have logistic parks that has equipment, that has the facility to keep these vaccines in a cold or cool soil. Very important. And sort of, I'm just going to pick up on the port's point because I'm going to go to Jean. I want to come back to you in a moment, if I might, in the conversation to get broader about what happens when you have, you know, basically all containers. There's demand for all containers and how you get fairness in that system. But Jack, would you mind just picking up on the point that Sultana was making, you know, as the chief executive port of Antwerp, I'm imagining you're seeing exactly this question, which is, you know, a huge demand now for effective distribution, but quite a few issues around supply and a big issue around global fairness. And how do you think about it sitting where you are? Well, thank you, James, for having me and hi to everyone. Well, for sure, this is probably the most challenging issue for distributing here a vaccine throughout the world where you have to combine lots of things in a very short time. So this will, for sure, I'm fully agree with what Sultana require collective action from every possible stakeholder in this process because we have to combine the distribution of billions of vaccines on top of the current business because we will have to continue to move goods, fruits, vegetables, but also every other possible good throughout the world, which is already a very challenging thing to do, especially in COVID times. But here on top of this, we have to find ways to distribute in the most remote places in the world under very difficult circumstances. I think the cold chain is a very challenging thing, especially in Africa or in South America or in India. So it's something that we will not be successful in if we don't collaborate intensively with lots of players. UNICEF has, of course, lots of experience in distributing vaccines and then Vietta was mentioning the two billions every year in 100 countries, but now two billion extra in 90 more countries. Well, if we don't collaborate, we will not be successful. And for the time being, we are in the midst of a COVID crisis, which is disturbing the supply chains since March. Having consequences on empty containers that you have to find prices that are galloping, so it's already difficult and this comes on top. But luckily for us and for the world, I believe we have leading companies like DP World, the Port of Antwerp and many others, prepared and willing to take up the challenge and to allow the collective an appeal for action and to bring all the possible expertise and experience on this kind of challenges together. Jack, I just wonder whether you can help us. Some of the things that have been surprising in the last year are the things that have worked. Actually, if we had sat here in January of 2020 and said we're going to be hit by a global pandemic, people would have predicted some huge disruptions, for example, to food supply. And in some ways, actually, supply chains have worked. That's not to minimize some of the pressure points, but overall, they seem to have worked. When we're identifying what you consider to be the pressure points here, Stan made the point about ancillary products. Do we need to worry about ports and containers? Or do you think the system overall is going to work? I'm just going back to Henrietta's point. It's much more around actual supply of the vaccine and actual production of the logistics around the last mile than it is going to be around the infrastructural transport. Well, the COVID crisis proved, especially for the port of Antwerp and many other ports in the world, that we were successful in managing the crisis. The port of Antwerp, for instance, remained 100% operational throughout the crisis, even when we didn't have mask or hand gels or other rules and regulations on how to keep the safety of the workforce. But we managed to remain completely open, and especially when it came to fruit and vegetables, it wasn't, for instance, an increase of more than 10% on the demand side for bananas here in the west part of Europe. And we managed to bring this to the consumers, like the supply and demand worked perfectly. But indeed, in this distribution of vaccine and the vaccination process, the big challenge will lie on the last mile. That's for sure. And especially in the low and middle income countries where loads, barges, rail infrastructure, warehouses, energy, because we need cold, the so-called reefers or the cold containers, and cold warehouses requires a lot of energy, where already in some parts of the world it is, in normal circumstances, already a challenge to have them on a reliable basis. This comes on top of this. And so it's for sure the last mile that is the most challenging. One of the things in this whole process has been learning, hasn't it, the scale complexity of the pinch point, suddenly thinking more about glass vials or, as you say, energy for refrigeration that we've needed to think about before.