Feb 11, 2022

BEI Weekly Update — 11th February 2022

Dear Members and Friends,

This week, we have released the Third Edition of our Education Working Group report ‘Recover Learning, Rebuild Education’. We are delighted to include new contributions from: Abt Associates, Advance HE, Alpha Plus Group Ltd, Ecctis Ltd, One Awards, OxfordAQA, Quay Asia Ltd, The Skills Network, DAI Global UK and TransformELT. They join existing contributors: Adam Smith International, British Council, Cambridge Education, Cambridge Partnership for Education , Chemonics International, Cormack Consultancy Group, DAI, Eagle Scientific Limited, Ecorys UK, Education Development Trust, Hobbs The Printers, IMC Worldwide, Itad, Konung International, McKinsey & Company, Nathan Associates, OxfordAQA, Oxford Policy Management, Palladium: Make It Possible, Promethean, Reallyenglish.com Limited, RTI International, Sightsavers, Social Development Direct, Tetra Tech International Development, Wiley University Services. It is great to see so many members collaborating on this report and creating so many opportunities internationally as a result.

We have also had a busy week in terms of events. We continued our Trade Envoy series with an engaging Round Table session with Daniel Kawczynski MP, Trade Envoy to Mongolia. Attendees discussed the geo-political significance of the country, together with the opportunities that exist as Mongolia seeks to diversify its economy. There is significant potential available from UKEF to support initiatives in the country. With a planned visit in March, the Trade Envoy committed to following up with members individually on any issues they wanted him to champion during the visit.

We also held a very well attended virtual panel discussion on The Business Case for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our panel featured two experts and two members with significant experience in this space: Femi Otitoju, Founder and Managing Director at Challenge Consultancy; Alice Hooper Scott, Chief Behavioural Officer at Development Beyond Learning; Leisa Gibson, Senior Advisor for Equity and localisation at Abt Britain; and Olu Olanrewaju, Director at Altair. This was a very engaging and truly thought-provoking discussion; members are invited to watch the recording if you weren’t able to participate.

Finally, we were delighted to welcome Louis Taylor, CEO of UK Export Finance , the UK’s export credit agency, for an in-person lunch. UKEF’s climate change strategy rests on four pillars to support UK exporters’ transition to net zero by; increasing support for clean growth and climate adaptation, reducing UKEF’s portfolio of greenhouse gas emissions, greater transparency and disclosure, mitigating climate-related financial risks and providing leadership on climate change amongst export credit agencies and relevant IFIs. It was noted that there has been increased support to SMEs with new products as well as the longer-term export credit solutions to supporting finance for overseas buyers of UK export and the shorter-term trade finance solutions to support UK exporters. We will be following up with Louis and his team and encourage members to get in touch with us to discuss any issues you may have.

Next week, with Half Term for many, we have just one event.

On 15th February we look forward to our Morocco Deep Dive. We are delighted to be hosting HE Simon Martin CMG, the British Ambassador to Morocco, who will give his insights into the political landscape and a brief economic overview. We are also welcoming the in-country DIT Team including the DIT County Director Chris Woodward as well as Climate and Education leads, who will focus on the specific pipeline of opportunities for UK business in their respective sectors.

Finally, I hope you all have a relaxing weekend, and for those taking some time off with your family for Half Term, I hope you have a good 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, D&I, 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.

Recruitment Board
Take advantage of the new Job Board on our website to post your organisation’s vacancies, currently this facility is available for free.

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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 and recently added event dates are highlighted with an asterisk*.

15th February* — Morocco Deep Dive

22nd February — Roundtable with Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to South Africa — Andrew Selous MP

1st March — Meet The Trade Envoy to Morocco — Dr Andrew Murrison MP

16th March — Opportunities for UK Companies in Nigeria

22nd March — Opportunities for UK Companies in Egypt

23rd March — Meet the Trade Commissioner for South Asia, Alan Gemmell

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External News & Events

15th Feb — The World Bank, 2022 World Development Report (WDR) webinar examines the financial and economic risks that have been created or exacerbated by the pandemic, and outlines policy measures governments should take now to avoid major financial upheaval. For full details and to register find details HERE

21st — 25th February — The UK/SG Innovation Partnership Series — Smart Cities, Green Tech, and Circular Economy- DIT in collaboration with the UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN) and Tech Nation, will host a virtual trade mission to Singapore. Apply to participate here.

22nd –24th February — The Department of International Trade is taking a Smart Cities mission to Malaysia. If you would like to attend, please register here.

28th — 31st March — British Embassy in Tashkent is inviting UK companies to attend its flagship event — Uzbek British Trade and Investment Council (UBTIC). This is the official bilateral trade and investment forum convened by the governments of the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan. For more details please contact Komila.Khamidova@fcdo.gov.uk.

25th — 29th April — Spatial analysis in QGIS and R — An Introduction for Environmental Scientists. Running over four half-day sessions, this hands-on and interactive online course will give you an introduction to spatial data analysis in an open-source environment. For more information click here and to sign up and pay online click here.