- What do we mean by humanitarian and resilience investing?
This means taking private capital, return-seeking capital,
and finding opportunities for it to engage in projects
that when those projects take hold, actually reduce the risk
of economic migration, climate migration,
deals with helping refugees regain livelihoods,
stability, aids in reconstruction, aids in recovery,
and essentially, using the engines of the private sector
to expand the capacity that's available.
- A lot of our focus has been on agriculture, energy,
and wash, so water, sanitation, and hygiene.
On the agriculture side, we worked closely
with a project that was developed
out of the World Food Programme
Innovation Accelerator called H2Grow,
and they're providing hydroponic solutions
to those that are living in dry and arid land.
So really trying to work
on agriculture development in those places.
And so, this worked really well with our work
because on the private side, the more familiar the model
for investment is, the easier it is to draw
in the private interest.
- Why is this important to BCG?
BCG's had a standing commitment
to social impact for a long time.
And as you know, one of the things that we've emphasized
is the importance of the firm making a difference
in the world.
- We've been working together for a number of years.
And I think what's really valuable,
I think is we have the shared ambition to tackle
really difficult challenges.
This is a complex problem to solve.
What we've seen through this collaboration
and partnership is not only the benefit that the forum
has received through the various guidance
and expertise of different BCG colleagues and leadership
in helping us to think
about these new approaches,
but also, I think the agility to course correct
because we are creating a new space.
- When we're investing into these types of initiatives,
we want to see results
and we're very impact-focused as an organization.
And WEF is naturally very good
at bringing the right stakeholders together
and really convening the right people in the room.
And so, when you have the right people in the room
with the right people who want to push the envelope
and move things along, magic can happen at that point.