 Good morning, good afternoon and good evening for wherever you're joining us from. Thank you all for making the time to be here and a very warm welcome. Today we're here to see how fast-tracking progress on plastic solutions, more specifically how our leaders can maintain momentum to pursue a closed-loop approach to plastic despite setbacks created by COVID-19. My name is Edith Kimani. I'm a journalist with Deutsche Welle. That's Germany's international broadcaster and I'll be taking you through this session, which begins right here where we are, the plenary. And we'll hear a few remarks before going into breakout discussions and I will be giving you more details about this shortly. But first, please remember to observe the digital house rules and you're going to be seeing them displayed on your screens just now in case you forget. Cameras on whenever possible. We want to have a look and feel as though we're in the same room. Keep your microphones muted unless you absolutely have to. And if you'd like to participate by leaving a question or a comment, you can do so very easily by a slider. That's an app. And there'll be information right now to show you how you can familiarize yourself with that. And I actually want you to take a moment to just go through it and see if you can download the app and use it, because I want to open this discussion with a question to you all, the participants. I don't know if you can tell from the sunny background behind me, but I'm in a tropical location. I'm in Nairobi, otherwise known as a green city in the sun and the capital of Kenya. So our opening poll today, ladies and gentlemen, is because I want to find out where are you joining us from today. Please let us know on Slido and I'll be sharing the results shortly. In case you missed the question, where are you joining us from? From all over the world it would seem. And I think you can all see where people are writing into us from Geneva. I've seen United States of America, obviously Ireland. You've been very specific Karachi in Pakistan, Egypt, absolutely the world coming together through a screen. Thank you all so much for participating. Now, in my country, Kenya, we were brought up using bags that I'm going to show you right now. They're called Kyondos and they're actually made from CISO. This is an example of them and they were traditionally used by women who would go to their farms and put their harvest in here. But as you can see, this is a very modern take on it. And what we use them for is as handbags and sometimes as shopping bags. But what I noticed is that over time and with pollution increasing in my rural area, what all women would do was substitute the CISO for plastic bags. And so what would take five minutes of use has now be converted into a lifetime bag. Now, it sounds like a really simple story, but that is at the core of the global plastic action partnership that it is possible to stop plastic pollution from source to sea and achieve the transition to a global circular economy. Now, of course, we all are sitting here through a screen because of COVID-19. And we can't ignore the fact that this pandemic has created unforeseen setbacks and challenges for the environmental sector, including the movement to transition away from single use plastics, improving our ability to collect and recycle plastic waste and prevent plastic from leaking into our oceans and waterways. So the ongoing impact is what you're seeing represented on the screen really. How is this plastic moving over time? And I'm very tempted to look at the region I'm in, East Africa, Kenya. That red dot is just growing bigger and bigger. And you can see where the waste is coming from and where it will continue to be. So we'll share a little bit more on this to ensure that, you know, you're able to process what we're seeing on screen and also listening to the speakers who will be hearing from. But today we will... If I may, I'll just jump in whilst the screen is frozen. We have a very rich discussion ahead of us today. We're going to hear first and foremost from one of our esteemed leaders who has been one of the first to take forward the National Plastic Action Partnership. From there we'll have a series of breakout sessions which will lead us to talk about behaviour change, innovation, inclusivity and international trade. We're very thankful for all of you participating today. We look forward to your discussions as we break into those sessions and hear from those groups. In the meantime, however, if I could turn over the discussion, oh yes, sorry, as a reminder, you can actually put into your name the number of your breakout group. And I found that it was also in Slido asking me which group I wanted to be in. So if you'll take the time to also put the breakout group in your name and you can do this in the Zoom under renaming, then we'll know which group to assign you to. Number one for behaviour change. Number two for policy creation and action through trade. Number three, zero waste business model innovation. And number four, gender inclusive solutions to tackle plastic waste. So again, number one, behaviour change. Number two, international trade. Number three, innovation. And number four, inclusivity. So thank you. So if you just add that to your name, and Matt will go take appreciate that as well, but you can also reply in the chat if you need additional support with this. So I think that then without further ado, if we could turn to our keynote speaker to kick off our session today. A great leader who's done many, many wonderful things in Ghana, taking the lead as the first African nation to develop and launch a national plastic action partnership. He's the Minister of, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation in Ghana, the Ministry of Masthi, the Honourable Frippong Boateng. Minister, if I can turn to you please. Thank you. Thank you very much, Christine. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen across the world. This is my personal to be part of your discussion on fast-tracking progress on plastic pollution. I wish to thank our friends from the World Economic Forum and the Global Plastic Action Partnership for organising this important event. Working with you through the Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership, we have brought our nation to the centre of a global discussion on effective approaches to fast-tracking progress on plastic pollution. Ghana understands the challenges of plastic pollution on health, well-being and the economy. We see firsthand the disastrous impacts of plastic pollution on our marine resources, agriculture and traditional ways of life. However, Ghana also knows the promise of comprehensive plastic management as a vehicle for sustainable development. We are using the power of partnership to transform commitment to action. Our country, like many others, faces an enormous stretch of global pandemic that is stretching the lives and livelihoods worldwide. We are working to keep our people safe and our economy resilient. We join hands with civil society, development partners and the private sector to understand unique challenges that we imagine. For example, waste workers who are among the most essential workers in society were identified as a highly impacted sector. They are exposed to infections and injuries. For this reason, we and our partners have developed training programs and education material to inform households and the general public on proper ways of disposing of face masks, gloves and other waste. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Ghana acknowledges the important support that our partners have delivered at this critical time. But we are not done yet. The enormous increases in plastic waste must be halted. We will ensure that our waste management industries overcome COVID-19 related economic downturn and emerge stronger and drive the secular economy. We need new industries, new businesses, new business models and new innovations. Our call on each one of us, coming from all corners of the world and all sectors to contribute your valuable knowledge and resources to us achieving this universal goal. Thank you for joining us and I look forward to a conversation that is focused on commitment, impact and action. Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you very much for those words. Minister Phuong Boateng, it's been an honor to work with you as we've launched the Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership almost one year ago. One of the first governments to adopt this approach to tackling plastic waste and pollution and we appreciate so much your leadership in not only adopting a secular economy, but helping move the topic from a mere discussion of enabling action and driving impact. As part of the approach to the Global Plastic Action Partnership, we've developed six impact areas on which to focus and four of those are going to be led through our discussion leaders today and two in partnership with our colleagues across the forum. We are very pleased and honored to welcome these distinguished leaders and we thank you for your time. Mr. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Acani, who's joining us as one of the, as the new CEO and chairperson of the Global Environment Facility. The Jeff has done tremendous things to help shepherd the space for global action on plastic waste and we're very thankful for your partnership. Beth Bovis, a partner for the Global Leader, Social Impact, Organization and Transformation Practice of Kearney. Kearney, apologies. And Beth will be leading us in the conversation around innovation, the zero waste business model that it will take to get there. Malak Sukar, CEO of Everda, is also discussing with us an understanding what it will take for us to develop the proper international trade policies to break through these plastic waste and pollution barriers. And finally, Jenna Jambak, professor at the University of Georgia, leading on gender inclusive solutions to tackle plastic waste. Thank you to the four of you discussion leaders and we know there are also fire starters who are going to be coming to the forefront to help these discussions take shape. So thanks to each of you for the roles you'll be leading. As I know, each one of us has chosen a breakout group for the day. Please think through these questions that are on the screen. So we can come back after a rich discussion. I think we have 50, five zero minutes. So we should have a very rich conversation and then we can bring these topics back and have a bit of a report out. And then from there, the global plastic action partnership will be distilling the information you discussed today to help us take your vision forward in 2021. So no pressure on you, but thank you for helping us develop the next steps in our process. As you see here on the screen, quite a lot of discussion around what we should do in light of the pandemic and how can we challenge these, how can we address these challenges? Are there solutions that we can try to uncover to remove the bottlenecks in these processes? Again, a reminder of the four different groups. If you can please put a number by your name. We can assign you otherwise others have put your name into the chat. I think that's it. We'll go to the breakout sessions. It will take about a minute or two to get you into those groups. Please let us know in the chat. In the meantime, if you do have any questions. Thank you.