Dear Members and Friends,
As the summer break beckons, I was delighted this week to receive a response from the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab to a letter I wrote to the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) on behalf of our development aid focussed members. He reiterated the position, that the Development budget will return to 0.7% of GDP when conditions allow. He also affirmed his perspective that ‘contracted programmes with our private sector suppliers will continue to be a key element in the UK’s development programming’ This is a positive endorsement and provides us with a platform to build upon, as we look to demonstrate the benefits of the work delivered by our members.
Earlier this week, world leaders convened in London for the Global Partnership for Education Summit to discuss investment in education and partnerships to tackle the global Learning Crisis. Many of our members were in attendance and we look forward to discussing the Summit’s outcomes at the next Education Working Group meeting. The Working Group’s recent report “Recover Learning, Rebuild Education”, provides our members’ views on some of the ways the Lost Learning Crisis can be addressed and improve the life chances of millions of young people.
As we continue to put the finishing touches to our programme for Autumn, we will continue to focus on identifying real opportunities and engaging with key stakeholders with our ‘Meet the Trade Envoys’ and ‘Meet the Trade Commissioners’ series, coupled with Deep Dives into key opportunities within specific countries. We will also focus on a programme of international development meetings around the 7 global challenges prioritised by the FCDO and delve deeper into these. We are also engaging and hosting session with the regional development banks — key contacts when looking towards funding opportunities.
Our Working Groups will be focused on developing specific capability showcases across Infrastructure and Climate Change and we will continue to demonstrate our members capabilities in education with a series of regional round tables. Based on the up-to-date guidance, we will also begin to explore returning to face to face events from September onwards, initially in smaller groups.
I would draw your attention, in particular to the following events in September:
Our key meetings with the Asian & Caribbean Development Banks. Given the scale of the opportunities that exist we have decided to run two sessions with each. Our first meeting with the ADB on September 8th will focus on opportunities in Education and Healthcare; and on September 15th September, we will cover opportunities in Transport and Energy. Our Sessions with the Caribbean Development Bank will start with a session covering Infrastructure & Environmental opportunities and the second session will look at more Social & Education related opportunities. Both sessions will also include a dedicated presentation on navigating the Procurement process and a call to action from the DIT.
Our next two exclusive sessions with the Prime Ministers Trade Envoys are scheduled on 7th & 15th of September. On the 7th we will be joined by Heather Wheeler MP Trade Envoy for Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam for a Roundtable Discussion. On 21st September, we look forward to a Roundtable Discussion with Baroness Hooper, Trade Envoy to Panama, Dominican Republic & Costa Rica.
You can access details of all our events already scheduled for Autumn here.
I will be taking a break myself for a couple of weeks in August. I hope that you will all be able to take some time to relax and recharge, and I look forward to being back in touch at the end of August. Very best wishes to you all, and enjoy the summer break.
With Best Wishes
Derrick
Derrick Sanyahumbi
Chief Executive Officer
British Expertise International
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See our full events programme here, and to enquire about becoming a member of BEI, register your interest here.
Join our Working Groups — as part of our member focus, the working groups offer opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement, learning & sharing, profiling expertise & capabilities and highlighting thought leadership. Groups include Climate Change, Education, infrastructure, D&I, and we also support a Safeguarding Leads Network. For details contact Joe McLynn
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Upcoming Events
Currently all our events are hosted virtually and look forward to exploring hybrid event options as the government eases socialising restrictions. For any event registration support please contact the events team. Click on titles to access full event details. The full calendar of events can be viewed here and recently added event dates are highlighted with an asterisk*.
2nd August — BEI Education Working Group
12th August* — Infrastructure Working Group
18th August* — Climate Change Working Group
6th September- Education Working Group
7th September — Closed Roundtable Discussion with Trade Envoy Heather Wheeler MP
8th September — Business Opportunities in the Asian Development Bank — Education & Healthcare
9th September — Infrastructure Working Group
15th September — Business Opportunities in the Asian Development Bank — Transport and Energy
15th September* — Roundtable Discussion with Trade Envoy Baroness Hooper
15th September — Climate Change Working Group
22nd September* — The FCDO & Evidence Based Decisions
28th September — Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
28th October* — Roundtable with Trade Envoy Darren Henry MP
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External News & Events
Our sister company, the British Foreign Policy Group (BFPG), recently published a report on ‘Global Britain and Levelling Up: Strengthening the UK’s Democracy, Resilience and Security’, which explores the key areas of alignment between the UK’s two major international and domestic renewal projects.
4th August — The Department for International Trade (DIT) will be hosting a UK Online Qualifications Virtual Showcase in Asia Pacific, a UK education showcase and learn how online qualifications can be adopted now, and for the future, across Asia Pacific.
13th August — The Department for International Trade (DIT) has advertised a business opportunity for British exporting companies on a tender to supply power generators in Argentina. Please follow this link to express your interest.
28th — 30th September — The African Development Bank (AfDB) is hosting the fourth annual ‘Africa Resilience Forum’, this year on the topic ‘Covid-19 and Beyond: Working Together for a Resilient Recovery’.
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