 Well, thank you very much for joining us here for this very special session as we discuss the Crisis that the world faces when we talk about water and sanitation Let me just throw some numbers your way before I get into the conversation with Matt and Gary And why this is such an important issue that governments around the world the private sector needs to grapple with the economic health and human development impacts of Off the water crisis globally about 260 billion dollars in economic losses suffered every year due to the lack of safe water and Sanitation about 663 million people worldwide do not have any access to safe drinking water 2.4 billion people worldwide do not have access to a toilet And I think what is imperative now is for the world to understand that like climate change This is an issue that requires urgent intervention whether it's from the government or the private sector and of course The non-profit social sector as well very special guests here with me today Matt Damon and Gary white Thank you very much for joining us. I'm gonna give you a personal anecdote Just before I was coming to Davos And I told my colleagues at work and I said, you know I have a session with Matt Damon and Gary white and suddenly my cool quotient went up because I was talking to Matt Damon But but I think I think that's a story there as well I think we do need people who have your kind of influence to talk about these issues Because otherwise like climate change wasn't an issue a couple of years ago water health Education are issues that are not given the kind of priority that they ought to is that what? Makes this sort of critical for you to put your weight behind it as well that the world needs to address this issue certainly But as I started to look at issues of extreme poverty and I wanted to get involved You know a little over ten years ago I I I was just shocked by how water underpinned everything and just just the the magnitude of the crisis and You know just the senseless You know the needless death and and you know You know not to mention the I Mean leaving aside the fact that like every 90 seconds a kid is dying because they lack access to clean water and sanitation Which is something that's very hard for a westerner to relate to at all the the life outcomes of Women and girls who are spending their entire lives scavenging for water Even if they do survive there they're doing it at the expense of their own education there the outcome They can expect in their life is severely affected by the fact that they lack access to clean water and Sanitation and so just the scale and the the magnitude of the Crisis really shocked me and made me want to learn more Gary You know you've been doing this for 25 years now What has changed over the last 25 years the way that governments approach this problem the way that the social sector Approaches this problem the way that the corporate sector approaches the problem What's been the big shift that you've seen? Well, I think the shift that we've seen that we've acted on I think this gets to the to the point of what the insight is here and that is that This this problem actually kind of contains its own solution the fact that the poor are already paying so much for water seven to ten times more per liter than in the Middle-class and some of the urban slums around the world And the fact that you know, they're going to loan sharks to take out loans to build toilets And so you you start to look at this this issue in a very different way at least we did and that is that you know What if instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that we have to raise all Charity in order to solve this this global crisis What if we could look more at providing capital and getting affordable capital into the hands of the poor so that they Can get the water and sanitation solutions that they need and that's what we've done with with water credits We had that insight and we acted on it and now we've created a Network of more than 65 microfinance institutions 65 microfinance institutions around the world who are providing loans for water and sanitation Now more than five and a half million people Have gained access to water and toilets by getting a loan instead of waiting for charity that might not ever come But you know, you just spoke about how this problem is solvable Give us a sense of the math give us a sense of the numbers because According to the WHO what it requires about two hundred billion dollars a year Yeah, and how much have you been able to raise through water credits so far? Well, I think it's important to look at two hundred billion dollars a year versus the eight billion That's currently going in for all aid and development assistance that and you can see that disparity And how we're never going to get there with charity What we've done is taken philanthropic capital about 17 million so far to kind of jump start this market at the base of the pyramid Correct the market failure so that microfinance institutions can respond. So that 17 million has leveraged now 220 million in private capital to come in and scale this up so that's really what we're looking at and we need to scale it further and The at the macro level I've been on the water Global Agenda Council for for weft and we're about to to publish a report some of the preliminary Finding show that it would take about well first of all It would the coping costs that the poor have now of buying packaged water that's been treated, you know The coping cost of the health issues related to this both in terms of the direct medical cost as well as the cost of being Sick and not working premature death. All of these come up to about 678 billion dollars a year But on the other hand, we also calculated what it would cost to get water in every household 24 7 Sanitation proper wastewater treatment. It's about 678 billion So it's like for four billion dollars We could find our way out of this and that's what I meant by the the problem contains its own solution While you were speaking with investors trying to convince them that this was a idea to bet on this was an idea that has the potential to scale What was the big challenge there? Well, I think Gary's being a little humble I think the the the first insight that he had was by by spending his adult life in a lot of these communities That realization that the extremely these extremely poor people were paying for their water was a was a big epiphany so He had this theory that if he could just nudge the market towards them that they could become You know paying customers and they could they could viably pay back a loan And and so it was a theory and it's worked really better than than we could have we could have ever hoped I mean these loans go out and they pay back at over 99% And what that means is so the concept of water credit was Okay, if you you live in a urban or peri-urban area a slum And you know you're in a slum in India the municipality is piping water right under your feet But you're not connected to it, right? You don't have a tap in your home So right so you as the woman of you know the matriarch of the family You're taking time away from your job to go to some Pre-designated water collection point and stand in line for you know, however many hours to to to fill up your Jerry can This is obviously incredibly unproductive So what Gary thought was well This isn't a classic kind of Mohammed Eunice model of an income generating loan It's not like I'm buying a son. You're you're loaning me money I'm buying a sewing machine and I'm gonna have a sewing business and pay the loan back But it's actually an income enhancing loan right because what you're actually doing is you're buying somebody's time back They no longer have to go if you confront them the money for the for the connection to the existing infrastructure They no longer have to leave their job and spend hours waiting in line they're gonna have a tap in their house and so you're gonna buy that time back for them and essentially what that's gonna do is allow Allow them to pay this loan off and pay it off relatively quickly I mean these loans they're taken out over 18 months to two-year period But oftentimes people pay them off early and immediately take out alone the loan to put a toilet in their house You know because they've got this new income from this time that they've they've got back so it started as this theory as kind of a Gary just looked at it and said this really should work and and Over this last number of years. It's it's it's proven to work even really as well as we ever could have hoped and and And the thing about these loans paying back at 99% and above is that that money just gets recycled and goes back out again so what you're really doing is is You know in a kind of classic direct impact situation where you're digging a well It'll cost say $25 to bring somebody clean water for life Well with this model because the money keeps going out and coming back and going out and coming back in our most mature loan programs in India we're down below $5 per person to get bring them clean water for life So you're you're really bringing down the philanthropic cost of capital per person and that is what makes it sustainable and it makes it scalable So since you talked about India Gary, let me ask you about the India example Maybe that will help us understand how the water credit model works better Is it correct that you target largely women as far as these loans are concerned because the delinquency ratio is Significantly low and you're almost at 99% Exactly, and we do because that's our partners right we work through local microfinance institutions to get this done and I think you know an example that kind of brings it home is is a woman. I met in Bangalore She and she was paying for her family 20 rupees Every day for their water supply and she was paying 20 rupees so they could go use the the toilet in their their slum And so you know every day 40 rupees 1200 rupees a month that she was paying and these are those coping costs I was you know getting to before and so she took out a loan for a toilet and for a water connection and her Combined monthly payments on that loan for 18 months was 1200 rupees So it's exactly the same amount each month that's being expended But she would have been trapped forever paying the 1200 Under the system, but this access to a loan allowed her to pay that connection fee to the water utility and get the toilet built I think that really summarizes this this concept of and Matt said it a long time ago it's really expensive to be poor and that's what we're helping people to do to buy their way out of this endless cycle of Going and paying for this or going to loan sharks another woman I met was paying 125 percent interest on a loan so she could build a toilet So that's what we're trying to to tap into trying to correct this market failure Basically, you know as you correct this market failure and as you try and scale things up Matt What is the role that you see of governments and and the way that you can partner with governments to take this forward? For instance in India the government has launched a swatch Bharat campaign Which is essentially you know to build toilets and sanitation and so on and so forth How do you see the role of government in this context? Well, that's a yeah I mean that really helps put the wind at our back actually that the swatch Bharat mission but But but look I mean there you really need both you need both working and Together, I mean ours is very much a bottom-up approach, but you need that top-down services You need governments providing the infrastructure, you know that for people for people to tap into so So so there's there's a really important role for everybody to play but but I think but nobody's across purposes I think we're You know, hopefully what we've been able to do is is really prove this market prove that prove that there are these people at the base of the economic period who are who Who should have value as customers? You know and can pay that water tariff and and pay it regularly and and and participate that way But but you know and then there's also the issues of well, I mean you tell about the RBI and well, yeah I mean we are working on Matt and I had some good meetings with the Reserve Bank of India and talking about this this model to Offer up our experience and one of the things that we talked about was the priority sector lending in India And and how can we support getting? priority sector for water and sanitation and Talking through that and that you know, I'm happy to say that that policy has been Been modified so that water and sanitation do fall into the priority sector. How can we get it into? An approved vehicle for the CSR Mandate that's now in India and bringing again our experience and we're there just to support I mean this is a priority for India and for a lot of countries around the world And we just want to share our experience and have that Factor in however the government's think that that can can help them so it's working in India At least the government is being responsive to the ideas that you're putting on the table What is the experience in other developing markets that water dot org is working in at this point in time? Do you see a similar sort of agility similar responsiveness from the governments that you're working with? Yeah, we do we do and You know, we're working in about 12 countries around the world and You know, there's there's obviously a little bit of healthy skepticism at first right, you know We're this international NGO and we have this this kind of unconventional concept What are they what are they confused about or what are they? Well, a lot of it a lot of it is just that you know We kind of come under the radar, you know as Matt said we're more bottom up than top down And so we don't kind of go in and kind of try to meet with the you know The head minister of water or anything like that and draw attention to ourselves What we like to do is to kind of quietly go about helping the poor get access and what are The roadblocks that are keeping them from getting access and we start there We always start with the poor and see what is the the roadblock and then we help remove those roadblocks And we find that access to affordable finance is the number one roadblock in most countries And as we start to unpack that and develop solutions that are specific to those countries Then you know, we can share our success and share our evidence base because that's what we find governments and Funders and everybody responds to best is that we don't just have a theory We went out and built the evidence base. That was what was really interesting in India a couple years ago That our MFI partners we asked them to identify the bottlenecks and with All of them reported back access to affordable capital I mean it was they said the market is the need is there the appetite for these things is there and in fact that The Gates Foundation conducted this study and they've determined that With with solutions like this like like water credit there There are five hundred and sixty five million people who could participate in solutions like that So that's a big big number, you know If you have six hundred and sixty million people who lack access to clean water and two point four billion who lack access to adequate sanitation You know five hundred and sixty five million is that's a healthy chunk of that They can be reached with these kind of market forces just as long as you just give the market a little nudge towards them So what is the aspiration you just spoke of? Operating in 12 countries. Where do you see what a dot org in the next five years Matt? Well, we're Really trying to turbo charge this idea of water credit because it's working so well I think that's the that's kind of our first order of business, but we but we also all you know It's about reaching people right now, but it's also about looking over the horizon and what you know What is that next innovation and we spend a lot of time thinking thinking about that for now? Our latest is this idea of water equity, which is taking the concept of water credit, but now trying to involve social impact investors and You know people who would be willing to jump in and build the fund So we built one fund for eleven million dollars that we've already deployed and now we're putting together a fifty million dollar fund And looking for people to come in to that Just so that we can we can when do you expect to close? When do we expect to close probably in about a little over a year? But it's interesting because when we were here three years ago Matt, right? You remember we we announced that we were we had this concept Right try to raise this fund Matt kicked in the first million and you know we went out and did it We did the 11 million dollar fund. It's been deployed into India At least 730,000 people are going to get water and the investors in this fund who brought the 11 million are going to get a targeted 2% financial return and they'll get their capital back So it's again the the problem contains its own solution if you look at the market-based Approach to this and so now we have every confidence in announcing here that We can raise this 50 million dollar fund We have a pipeline of Investees that's almost nearly complete that we're doing the due diligence on and so it just when people ask what they can do You know investors and for now it's been accredited investors coming in at very high levels so we can prove this out But what we want to do is build a platform in fact We're building it now so that we can democratize this so that anybody can make a loan into Water equity and we can put that to work helping people get water and then they can get repaid We believe that's an inherently scalable solution if we can tap into this the social impact Investing phenomena. Well, it's a big headline. It's a big aspiration to go from 11 to 50 million dollars And you hope to close that by next year But does it make life easier when you've got Matt Damon putting a million dollars on the table up front Does that does that help getting everybody else on board? It certainly helps, but I think what people Realize because of things like this and other things we do Matt isn't just a celebrity But he is literally one of the world's water experts So there's a difference between having a celebrity show up and talk with people in government or investors But when you have a celebrity who's like so grounded in this and really is one of the the world's water experts That has a lot of gravitas. Well, so I mean just is in terms of proving this model again and again and again It's it's just goes to credibility for our organization going into some of these meetings And you know as Bill Clinton said do us a few years ago. Just keep running those numbers up But he was Yeah, but he was right I mean the more you know that just builds credibility and and it makes it much easier to go raise funds for for something like this for water equity when Look people ultimately in my experience People really respond to things that work Yeah And if and if they you know and I think the one take away that we would want everybody to have here today is that this Problem is absolutely solvable and and I can't say that enough there This problem is absolutely solvable and it's solvable in our lifetime It just it's gonna take a comprehensive effort from from from all of us and you know Governments included and but but you know, you know, there's no there's no mystery to this We do know how to solve it You know, we were talking about the role that the government can play what the social sector is doing but what about The corporate sector and the role that you see the corporate sector playing Gary because you have strategic alliances in Different parts of the world that you operate through What's the experience been there and what is the ask of the corporate sector? Well, we've been really fortunate and I think largely because of the the market-driven aspect of the model That we've really connected with corporate foundations You know the PepsiCo foundation was a very early investor in water credit in India And their support alone has allowed us to reach 1.6 million people In India the IKEA foundation another really strong supporter of water credit Caterpillar Foundation Inditex and and many others have been willing to come on board with this kind of social entrepreneurial approach and And back it and so does it go beyond the realm of corporate social responsibility? It it does it does I think it's if we if we look at, you know, another relationship that that we're doing with Stellaratois to engage consumers, right and and having people understand that a purchase that They make can contribute to somebody getting safe water and so that's something that that That brands and corporations have a natural in and they know how to talk to audiences And if we can collaborate with them on the powerful messages that we see and make that happen Then that kind of democratization again, whether it's making a donation to to water.org or you know making a purchase Or making it alone when that platform is ready There's lots of ways that corporations and and water.org and water equity can partner and I think that's that's a key This is all about partnerships, whether it be with the governments whether it be with our corporate Supporters or whether it be with individuals one of the things I'm really excited to see with this Stella deal where it goes Is you know, they have a few different ways you can give they have this Chalice these chalices that are these beautiful glass chalices that are designed by artists in the countries in which we're operating So you can buy you can buy those chalices and then and then But you can also do things like Go into a pub in the UK or America and and buy a pint of Stella and that one pint of Stella They will guarantee bringing someone in the developing world clean water for a month So I'm curious to see and I asked them good about drinking yourself to death You Don't have to order 50 But no so but you but but I mean if I were you know a College kid or you know 25 years old and was said well, you know, I can have my favorite beer And I'm also doing you know, it's a really I'm really interested to see were you really thinking that we are 25 Well, no, well, here's the thing I think this generation the Millennials are and and both anecdotally and then also I mean It's you know, I we were talking to Stella earlier and they were saying it's quantifiable Right because this generation coming up is is tuned into stuff like this in a way that generation X my generation was totally tuned out What were you thinking of a 25? I was just thinking about my acting career writing screenplays and and but but but what's exciting is to look at this this younger generation coming behind us because They really do get it and if our corporate partners can show An increase in their bottom line by an activation like this That's really great news for all of us because because we'll be able to bring more brands into this and and really kind of turbo charge Our work that would be wonderful since you're talking about turbo charging and you just gave us the Stella example Is this B2C engagement going to be something that you want to focus on over the next few years to really scale things up? Definitely. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think I think anything we can do to scale this up and and as President Clinton says run the numbers up. I think you know, that's what that's what we'll be focused on How important is it going to be for individual brands to collaborate with you? In order for you to get the kind of scale that you require Gary Well, I think that's just it I mean in the conversations that we had with Stella It's like we want to expand this type of partnership and get you know more partners This is an all-hands-on-deck kind of global crisis that that we need to solve so it is You know corporations have you know Really evolved over the last couple of decades or so to play kind of an outsized role in in the even in the On the global stage, right? You know 30 years ago governments would have dominated the conversations like this and now Corporations are coming into it and I think that the corporate social responsibility That's incumbent upon them to to look at issues through this framework Whether it be because they know that they have consumers in these countries and it's important to them to help people there Meet these basic needs or whether it is something that that can also you know, they're they're stewardship of and Supportive issues like this can't help the bottom line so I think we have to to rally them to reach the More democratized audience and so you know people can still make donations to kind of jumpstart these Innovations and markets and then hopefully we can even work with some of these brands to figure out how to to democratize the loan program so people can make loans and maybe we can tie that in with some brand partners So Matt is the focus going to continue to be over the next few years really on Democratizing or addressing this challenge through access to finance or are you also looking at other innovations? specifically using technology to provide access to water well We'll keep doing what you know our you know what we've been doing really successfully with these financial models But then but without a doubt we're gonna we're always looking for the next for the next thing So it's a two-pronged approach That's always the question, you know what I mean, and so we have You know a whole new ventures fund where we where you know part of what we do is pilot these Take these ideas and pilot them and see see what what actually works. We kind of you know very much like water credit you know Had we not tested it in the real world and and put real resources It would have just been a theory so So as of now we know that there's this low-hanging fruit where there's this appetite There's just demand for these loans. So we're just trying to get as many of these loans out as we can because that's a very tangible way to to run the numbers Yeah, and I think that the new ventures fund that you reference I mean that new ventures fund is a pool of philanthropic capital that we've raised that help us to to do R&D Basically, you just don't think of NGOs as having an R&D fund and yet we many NGOs need that if not all I mean corporates have that and so we we wouldn't have been able to discover some of these Insights have some of these insights and shape the solutions unless we had that support And I think that as we as we move forward that's going to continue to be our our innovation engine I mean a great example of that that we're tapping into with water equity and water credit is like What if we had what if we wanted to go beyond micro finance? We don't we don't necessarily believe that that we're going to get water to everybody through micro finance institutions There are lots of other Enterprises out there that are struggling that are trying to serve the base of the pyramid needs of water and sanitation Either through designing and bringing to market low-cost toilets the supply chains for the the pipes and the the other infrastructure that needs to go in and You know people selling and manufacturing water filters to treat water So with water equity that fund will actually have a 10% carve out of that 50 million that will be for these frontier investments So that we can test Providing capital to these other types of enterprises that are serving the base of the pyramid needs and that's that's the That's kind of what's next. I think for us exciting pilot projects that you want to run us Well, I was just in Cambodia just a few weeks ago And I met some of these these private water utilities They get these concessions from the government to supply water to these areas that are more outlying and People that are really committed to to serving the needs of the poor there that are starved for capital So they have the water treatment plant They have some infrastructure, but they want to spread the infrastructure out to more users, but they're so capital constrained I mean, I've talked to utilities in in Africa that were paying 33 percent for capital You know imagine a utility in the US issuing a bond for 33 percent You just can't make it happen So we're looking at these these small utilities and again, they're regulated by the government You know they have to charge fair rates But if we can get them the capital that they need they could double the number of people living in poverty They could get access to a water connection What about the infrastructure deficit and a lot of these countries that you work in countries like India Cambodia, etc There is that infrastructure deficit Which is the big elephant in the room that you have to deal with you're trying to address the access to finance problem But you know, do you see the infrastructure deficit as being the big stumbling block? Well, look, there are some people for whom only a subsidy driven model will work Right, but our argument is that it's not this entire Pyramid that everybody you know that there that there's market segmentation right and that they're you know And there's a huge swath that you can reach with a with this finance model, right? but if you go to rural Ethiopia and yeah, I mean there's Nobody's gonna put pipes out there, you know and But you know and and and for and for some people We would just argue a much smaller percent of that at the basic economic period a subsidy driven model would really be your Your only solution so Gary, how do you address that if no one wants to go down to Ethiopia and put pipes down? How do you in that sense get to The 663 million people? Yeah, because we I mean our our vision is that that we can be the generation that solves the water crisis and And that means everyone I think when you when you kind of unpack the economic pyramid you recognize that There's you know, literally hundreds of millions of people who could get their solution through things like finance But then there's the extreme poor and that's where the subsidy model comes in It is the responsibility of governments to provide that infrastructure Even if it is in extremely rural areas now, that's not piped water to every house, but it's it's a well-maintained safe water pump that's covered People can then walk a reasonable distance to to get access to to water So I think that there there are a variety of solutions that that allow us to get this done But the concept is we've got to get past this conventional wisdom That's going to take charity to solve it for everyone if we can take the the the funds that would have otherwise Been directed to those who could afford to pay You know those philanthropic funds could be redirected from there to people who really need that subsidy Then I think it's gonna be a much more solvable problem You know so for people sitting in this room if they want to get involved if they want to contribute in in some way What would you say Matt? You know, what should they be doing? What should they be thinking of? Starting to drink Stella Well, you can always go to water.org that's a and and and make a donation You know and follow our follow our work and I mean I I can say as somebody who's been doing this for a little while that it is one of the most complex and fascinating problems Facing our world and and it's really really interesting and so you can just maybe start doing a deeper dive at our website and start Learning more about it. I I can only promise you it's endlessly fascinating, but that would be a good place to start Gary Yeah, I think you know becoming more aware of this issue You know like Matt says it certainly We still need philanthropic support in order to correct these market failures and discover the new innovation So we'd like people to donate to water.org so we can we can discover the next big thing But then also once we we get our platform up I think engaging by making a loan and kind of following how that that has impact and Sharing it with with other people. That's that's one of the things that I hope that platform can do You know, I can imagine once we get that up. Somebody could could gift You know their family or friend for the holidays alone, you know that then they can Track and and you know that our our market research and our hope is that once people do that Even though they have the opportunity to take their money out after that first loan and get repaid that they'll continue to Reinvest it and help more people get access. What's the average loan size just so that everyone can plan their their their holiday? gifting ideas It's about $217 Open for questions, I can see lots of hands. Yeah. Yes the lady in the yes My name is Mariana. He let I'm a global shaper from the core of a hub in Argentina And I wanted to ask you about the role of youth we talked briefly about the role of government and corporate sector and about the challenge which I Wanted to ask you if you think that the involvement of youth in the solution not just buying beer But actually the solution is important to solving this problem And if so if water dot or does have a strategy to actually involve youth in these communities to work on water access projects Thank you. Thank you. Great question. Yeah, the That next generation is absolutely critical to us and I mean just look at the just look at how how empowered you guys are to to shape the behavior of these Corporations not only that your respective governments, but also these corporations I mean you've got these big corporations like paying attention to the to your You know to your to their consumer base And if these if their consumer base lets them know that these issues are important to them you'll activate that corporation and and and and it'll be this this kind of virtuous circle where the corporation Where they say someone like Stella Artois we want their bottom line to be affected We really hope that their customer base goes you know what I you know I Like to go to the pub on Friday night and I was gonna order But I'm gonna order this type of beer because this is actually gonna gonna make a difference in somebody's life and so so I think you you have a huge amount wheeled a huge amount of power and and Everybody's watching what what you guys do? Yeah, and I think you know the shapers that the social entrepreneurs that are here I'm a swab social entrepreneur in a school social entrepreneur So I I completely get the power of ideas that are out there Among those communities, and I think you know never has it been Easier to kind of activate around an idea and I think for us we want first of all We see a lot of individuals that are already coming into solving this problem Either through organizations that they create or working in some of these partners that we work with Around the country the nationals of those countries that that work in these micro finance institutions that are open to new ideas The hopefully the shapers and the entrepreneurs and others who are starting these enterprises that maybe need capital from water equity and could Be funded with this investment in that way, so I think that that's that's critical I mean we're we're in the business of ideas I mean that's you know water equity is an innovation of water org and it's gonna be a spin-off into it's into its own Entity and so we we value those kinds of Game-changing ideas Gary. I'm glad that you talked about social entrepreneurship, and you know We've been partnering in India with the Schwab Foundation for the social entrepreneur awards for the last 15 odd years now And you know as someone who's who's been doing this now for 25 years You've been a social entrepreneur What is the message that you would like to give to other young entrepreneurs who are looking at social entrepreneurship specifically? I think What I would say is that Really if you if you feel Drawn to an issue and you feel like you have a key insight then I think that's that's the first step I think And it has to be your passion that the concept the saying that I love it's you know Your life should be about finding the intersection of your greatest passion in the world's greatest need So there's there hasn't been a social entrepreneur yet who succeeded who didn't have like great passion about the issue that They're working on but it's that's not enough You have to to really test your idea to the insight that you have to make sure that somebody else isn't doing it Right, don't be afraid to to grab on to others that maybe have pioneered something that you can come in and kind of Nudge one way or the other you don't necessarily have to create an organization whole cloth Water credits a great example of that. Yeah. Yeah, water credit is just nudging a system that's already there And that can be hugely beneficial and and I think that once you once you get that insight Then you have to build the evidence base to debunk the conventional wisdom so that you can then Have that evidence base to go find the funding to scale up because all social entrepreneurs need that access to capital As well to scale their ideas. What's been hardest part of being a social entrepreneur? It's been hardest. I don't know it's Yeah, I would probably have to say Not being certain of the future that you envision and I think one of my greatest fears was that I might give up, right? and that But I didn't you know and I think it's you're inherently an optimist because if you had told me it was going to Take as long to get to where I am today I might not have started but I was always convincing myself it would happen much faster I mean 25 years you think we have the global water crisis solved by now, right? It's it's it's a humbling experience to see that Not not everybody is going to see In the same way the insight in the change that you're trying to bring about but if you believe deeply enough in it You just have to keep pushing More questions. Yes. Go ahead. I am JD Bunsell I'm a global shaper from Chandigarh in India and I'm involved in the electrification of the remotest villages in the Himalayas People who have never seen what a light bulb is we provide them energy access using solar micro grids My question to you is where do you see the innovation in clean drinking water technology coming from? Is it a more push from the government's or is it the private sector or nobody cares about the innovation? We hope somebody does care about the I have I have no doubt that there are going to be technologies that merge it'll be game changers in this and and I'm I'm not averse to technology. I have three engineering degrees myself, right? But what I find is that the innovations that need to happen and need to be more around finance at this point, right? because there's already water being treated somewhere in especially in the urban and peri urban areas and getting into pipes and And and that technology hasn't changed a whole lot in the last hundred years But we get people coming to us all the time that have the silver bullet idea of the technology and largely We find that when you do the numbers on it It's still too expensive to really serve the the base of the pyramid where we're looking at that That doesn't mean that that we're gonna be indifferent to this We'll continue to look at those and see if there are ones that can truly be game changers But for now it really seems to be leveling the playing field for the poor Getting them access to the same water supply system that the middle class and the wealthy have in these areas Yes, sir. Go ahead Hi, my name is a lower shame Daniel a global shaper from Abu Jhabi, Nigeria And my question is what role does education play in maintaining this access because from my experience Taps water filters even toilets they break down. So what role does water does or play in ensuring that this access lasts a lifetime? Great question because I think this statistic is that half of all water projects worldwide fail And I remember whoop geez speaking of wasting water I remember being in Ethiopia with Gary seven years ago or eight years ago and and There was We were in this a very rural area and and there was a hand dug well that the water Literally was the color of chocolate milk It was just so dirty and these children were filling up these two liter bottles to take them to school you know and and It was very hard to watch, you know because you knew they there was very high degree Certainty that they were going to get sick, but they needed to have water to survive and and About 20 meters from this hand dug well that this whole village was using There was this state-of-the-art Well hand pump that Was just gathering dust and it had come from an Indian NGO and it was probably a $10,000 pump, but you know as in many of these cases it had been put in and Left and so when when it broke down or needed some part that obviously there was no hardware store around with this part So it just it just kind of went to seed and just and just sat there And so so you see a lot of that a lot of these This direct impact programming that isn't really quite thought out and doesn't really get enough community buy-in From the community. It's meant to serve You know and a big part of that is you know is is is educating the people who are going to run it on how to use it and how to fix it and You know that that's just that's just something you see over and over again is this issue of Kind of really well-intended efforts that that kind of aren't thought through all the way Yeah, and I think that it's that collaboration between the community itself who has to have it has to be equipped to be able to do that basic maintenance, but then also backstop by government that were more expensive repairs are needed So it's again, it's it's it's a bottom-up and top-down that that everybody has that goal of maintaining the infrastructure Once it's in place I think the important thing also About water credit and the fact that we're we're taking this market-driven approach and The that so many of these infrastructure projects are just gifted to people without Consulting them about is this the toilet that they want is this the hand pump that's best for them Does this best meet their needs? Do they want just a latrine with like some? You know some bamboo wrapper around it For privacy or do they want an improved toilet with concrete blocks? And are they willing to pay for that so the key with water credit is that you know Nobody is going to take out a loan for a water sanitation solution. That's not right for them So it almost makes this Inherently sustainable the fact that people are getting the solutions that they want they're invested in it They'll maintain it and then they all cook and also stage this a lot of people will take out a loan For a simple toilet and then they'll come back and take out another loan to have a bathing area next to it So it allows them and this is so important It allows them the dignity and the power To be able to get the solutions that are going to best meet their needs And I think that goes a long way towards the sustainability issue that the sector faces They're customizing their their solutions themselves. I have two minutes of the last question. I give That side two chances. So yes, go ahead. Hey, good afternoon. My name is Carla Delantar. I'm a global shapers from this Love in the Philippines So I run a nonprofit as well And the country director for ways through out there. So we provide access to clean drinking water in the most remote locations in the Philippines So where we've been talking points on technological advances. We're talking about the the proof of concept It's all it's already working. So with our mission to actually providing access to clean drinking water and all around the world My question is how does this delay if climate change is a big issue nowadays? Well You've got 30 seconds Relays to climate change Well, it's It's yet to be fully seen I think that any time that you have you know with climate change You're gonna have shifting weather patterns and you're gonna have too much Precipitation in one place and not enough in another and that's gonna that's gonna cause dislocations in all kinds of ways I think You know flooding that's going to contaminate wells, you know when you get all this runoff with fecal matter You know around that contaminates wells rising sea levels going to Cause wells that would otherwise produce fresh water to be producing salt water for people So it's it really is going to to run the gamut I think what we can be most certain of is that it's going to disproportionately affect the poor Because they're the ones that that always seem to to not have the resources to cope with these things And I think that that kind of brings me back around to just the what we're seeing I think emerging in this annual meeting is how important income disparity is And we have to wake up to that, you know the New York Times article yesterday the six wealthiest people now Controlling half of the world's wealth or more than you know equaling the bottom Yeah But to me there's no Greater manifestation of that Then water Right, because if you are poor nothing else matters except getting water today and nothing else Exemplifies that disparity more than us having access to water without even thinking about it And this bottom half not having it at all and to me this this is what income disparity is all about and why we need to tackle it and Again knowing that it's inherently solvable Gary Vite, thank you very much for your optimism and thank you very much for waging this battle for 25 years Matt Damon you've inspired everyone in this room to go out there and get a stellar But what about what about proceeds from the next Matt Damon movie? Can we see proceeds being used? Can we see proceeds being used to to try and solve this crisis? Well that you have to take up with the studio I don't know. I don't know how receptive they'll be to that But but no yeah, the consumers have a lot of power with what they Spend their movie tickets on too. So so yeah, who knows maybe there's a way to bake it into some of that, too Matt Damon Gary Vite. Thank you very much for joining us