Dear Members and Friends,
I am delighted to confirm that we will once again be hosting our annual ‘Meet the Ambassadors’ series in June 2022. We look forward to a dynamic and engaging set of sessions, building on the success of last year’s virtual series and previous years. Please visit the website, where we are publishing the details of the specific regional events, which include: 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.
After what I hope was for all of you a great Easter break, we have had two good events this week.
We were delighted to host Turkey’s Ambassador to the UK, HE. Umit Yalcin for a lunch. The Ambassador shared his insights on commercial opportunities for UK companies in this fascinating market. Not only did he highlight some market insights on the areas of education, transport and medical tourism, but also outlined the continued strength of Turkey’s political and diplomatic friendship with the UK. Having underscored the great challenges of both climate change and the war in Ukraine, it was great to hear how this bilateral relationship would continue to address these challenges as partners.
We also ran an excellent hybrid panel discussion on the fascinating subject of ‘Technology and Aid: experiences, opportunities and challenges.’ Our Panel included Louise Thomas, Deputy Director, International Tech Department at the FCDO, Helen McElhinney, Head of Policy ICRC UK and Ireland; Alex Grainger, Associate Director and Head of Geospatial at Tetra Tech and William Morrison of MetricsLed. Whilst the panellists each brought a unique perspective, all of the speakers consistently underlined the significance of the use of technology in delivering aid and development programmes. Whilst there will be challenges, it was generally agreed that technology is becoming an integral part of international development, helps to drive innovation and must therefore be part of the broader solution package.
Next week, on Thursday 28th April, we look forward to a panel discussion entitled: ‘Exploring the Intersection of Gender and Disability in Education’. As education systems around the globe work to rebuild and evolve following the Covid-19 pandemic, the BEI Education Working Group continues its series of senior-level engagements with key stakeholders to enable dialogue supporting recovery from the Learning Loss crisis. Our panel includes Laurène Leclercq, Education and Social Inclusion Global Technical Lead for West Africa at Sightsavers; Danielle Cornish-Spencer, Head of Portfolio: Equal Education at Social Development Direct; Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Global Disability Advisor, Inclusive Education Initiative at The World Bank; and Gloria Diamond, Policy Advocacy & Evidence Lead at UNGEI.
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.
For more details and to register for these events, please click here.
Our Future Leaders Group Programme is now accepting applications for the new cohort and the website contains all the information on this dynamic and exciting course, and I am delighted to say that a number of BEI Members have already signed up for this year’s activity. If you or your organisation would like to find out more about the opportunities in the course, please complete the form on the website — which can be found here.
Finally, I trust you will all have a relaxing weekend ahead.
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 and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and we also support a Safeguarding Leads Network. For details contact Joe McLynn
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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
15th June — BEI Climate Change Working Group
28th June — BEI Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
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External News & Events
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.
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.
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