Dear Members and Friends,
As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the schedule and timings for our annual ‘Meet the Ambassadors’ series in June 2022 are now being published. Once again, we are delighted with the regional coverage and the excellent participation we are already seeing from the High Commissioners and Ambassadors around the world. Please visit the website, where you can register directly for the specific regional events, which cover: Southern Africa, West Africa, North Africa, East & Central Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia; The Caribbean, The Middle East (GCC), The Middle East (non-GCC), Latin America and Western Balkans.
This week the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) published their latest review, which assesses the results of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) education programmes since 2015, with a particular focus on girls’ education. The review found that the UK has contributed to improvements and that its work was relevant to the needs of marginalised children, particularly hard-to-reach girls — though significant barriers still exist. ICAI judged the government’s claim that it supported 15.6 million children in education to be “reasonable”. But the aid watchdog reported that FCDO does not currently track learning achievements which would provide a better measure of its support for quality, or ‘decent education’. ICAI Commissioner, Tarek Rouchdy, said: “The UK has developed an ambitious portfolio of programmes to support education in developing countries that has helped over 15 million children since 2015, including marginalised girls, children with disabilities and children living in conflict zones.” We look forward to following up on this review, and hopefully hosting an event around the report itself with FCDO’s response.
This week, we hosted a panel discussion entitled: ‘Exploring the Intersection of Gender and Disability in Education’. In light of the challenges surrounding gender and disability in education, there is a strong need to build back better and more inclusive education systems, with practical and effective interventions especially important at the intersection of gender and disability. We were delighted to host panellists from the World Bank, UNGEI, and our members Sightsavers and Social Development Direct, who all shared some great resources and learning, and we look forward to following up on the event in our Girls’ Education Working Group.
The Climate Finance Working Group had a very informative briefing from DAI representatives on the European Green Deal. This is a banner for a series of EU trade regulation that could impose a significant change on developed and developing countries in trading with the EU. For example, products sold in the EU would need to demonstrate that they are “deforestation free”- meaning that the seller must prove that their products come from sources that do not rely on further reduction of rain forests. These draft regulations will take 5+ years to implement but will apply across a range of produce. The UK, USA and even China are working in similar regulations. As a result, there may be an opportunity to provide technical services to markets that need help in understanding and implementing these regulations. BEI will shortly be announcing an event for Members to explore this issue further.
Looking further ahead, on Tuesday 17th May, we look forward to a session with the DIT team on ‘Global Health Strategy and Opportunities: The DIT Priorities’. The UK’s contribution to global health stretches way beyond Covid 19; and with our great reputation in health expertise, the sector represents a significant opportunity for global growth. In this event we will hear first-hand for the Department for International Trade’s team responsible for supporting this vibrant sector. They will highlight their overall strategy and detail some of the key opportunity areas they see in the future — across multiple areas. We are delighted to be joined by the DIT team, which will include Dr Aphrodite Spanou, Director for Healthcare, Life Sciences and Chemicals; Rahul Agarwal, Deputy Head Healthcare & Life Sciences; David Sheppard, Deputy Head Healthcare; and Madhukar Bose, Deputy Head Healthcare.
Given how critical successful funding is to help support all members in their drive for export growth, on Wednesday 8th June we are pleased to welcome Colin Buckley (Managing Director) and Andrew Palmer (Director of Global Affairs) to present on the UK’s development finance institution, British International Investment (BII). They will explore its new 2022–2026 strategy and its role as part of the UK Government’s international financing offer. The BII was formerly known as CDC, and this event will provide members with an opportunity to catch up with the Leadership Team to hear about their plans and priorities over the coming years.
For more details and to register for these events, please click here.
Finally, as we head into the May Bank Holiday week end, I hope you will all manage to have a relaxing and enjoyable break.
With Best Wishes
Derrick
Derrick Sanyahumbi
Chief Executive Officer
British Expertise International
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Don’t forget…
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 and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and we also support a Safeguarding Leads Network. For details contact Joe McLynn
Join our LinkedIn Group and keep up with our news and our upcoming events highlights. Members can also post and share latest news and thought leadership. Join the group here.
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Upcoming Events
Currently most of our events are hosted virtually and we are starting to explore face to face and 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.
2nd May — BEI Education Working Group
9th May — BEI Girls’ Education Working Group
17th May — Global Health Strategy and Opportunities: the DIT view
18th May — BEI Climate Change Working Group
24th May — BEI Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
6th June — BEI Education Working Group
8th June — Doing Business with British International Investment (formerly CDC Group)
13th June — BEI Girls’ Education Working Group
13th June — Meet The Ambassadors: West Africa
14th June — Meet The Ambassadors: Middle East (GCC)
15th June — Meet the Ambassadors: East and Central Africa
15th June — Meet The Ambassadors: Latin America
15th June — BEI Climate Change Working Group
16th June — Meet The Ambassadors: Central Asia
16th June — Meet the Ambassadors: North Africa
21st June — Meet the Ambassadors: South Asia
21st June — Meet the Ambassadors: Southern Africa
22nd June — Meet The Ambassadors: Southeast Asia
22nd June — Meet The Ambassadors: Middle East (non-GCC)
23rd June — Meet the Ambassadors: Western Balkans
28th June — BEI Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
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External News & Events
1st — 20th May — Egypt Inwards Mission: the British Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) in collaboration with DIT Egypt is bringing a delegation of Egyptian Ministers and business leaders to the UK. There is a series of roundtables discussions covering the investment climate infrastructure, renewables, climate change, green finance and much more. This visit is particularly relevant as Egypt will host CoP27 at Sharm El Sheikh. Attendance at the events is by invitation only. For anyone who wishes to participate please contact Katie Duffy (kd@britishexpertise.org)
17th — 18th May — UKEF is hosting a supplier fair on 17th and 18th May which may be of interest to members in the water/civil engineering sector. Please find details of the hybrid event on the event page here: UKEF Supplier Fair. The event is free to attend and suppliers can register their interest and find further information on that event page.
28th — 29th September — Field Electronics and Sensors Training : The one-day BEGINNER course will give you an introduction to electronics as applied to environmental sensors in the field. The one-day ADVANCED course will build on the Beginners course and Learners will gain advanced knowledge on data logging systems, sensors, communication protocols and remote data downloading. Find more details HERE.
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