Dan Bena
Pepsico

"In the last 10 years it is amazing to me how many different partners are starting to collaborate now. So I remember when I first started this [initiative] years ago, the idea that the private sector could engage with the United Nations was taboo, that was never a consideration, but more and more the private sector is being invited to different round tables by the UN. It’s not that anyone actor holds the solution but together is where the solutions will arise.

I’m so proud to say that PEPSICO actually is explicitly now involved in water and sanitation and we made a public commitment back in 2009 to get 3 million people access to safe water, we met that commitment three years early and we’ve now doubled it, so admittedly 6 million people is small compared with the nearly 800 million on the Planet [without access to safe water] but if other companies can follow our lead that’s when you start to see the needle move.

My hopes are that everyone in the world has the dignity of safe water and sanitation in a sustainable way and all of the social and economic development that comes along with that."