Jun 30, 2023

BEI Weekly Update — 30th June 2023

by

Peter O’Kane

by

Dear Members and Friends,

This week we completed our ‘Meet The Ambassador’ programme, with in-person visits from the High Commissioner to South Africa, who was joined virtually by the High Commissioner to Botswana, and the Ambassador to the Philippines. As ever, we are grateful for the commitment of time shown by so many of our Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and the clarity and openness they have shown. We are distilling the breadth and diversity of topics they covered into a short piece and will share this with you shortly.

Recordings of recent events are highlighted below, as are the details of the Events coming up.

Looking towards Autumn, following the successful Meet the Ambassadors series, we are delighted to confirm our FCDO Development Director series, which will re-commerce this September. After a long period of uncertainty around UK AID, following the turmoil in the UK political landscape, FCDO budgets have been subject to revisions and major adjustments. We are looking forward to welcoming FCDO Developing Directors who will offer insights into their priorities, particularly around the country’s development strategy, pipeline and budgets. We already have confirmed sessions with the Development Directors for Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Syria and Sierra Leone.

In ‘Out and About’, Alexandra attended a pop-up exhibition featuring some of BEI Member PLP Architecture’s latest innovations, produced by their in-house PLP Labs. You can read her observations on this fascinating and future focused exhibition here.

In 23 Grafton Street, our sister company the British Foreign Policy Group has this week issued two great and timely blogs - the first on the events in Russia last weekend, written by David Landsman.

The second, written by British Foreign Policy Group Senior Research Fellows Dr Rebecca Harding, Dr Victoria Baines & Professor Jeremy Black drills down into the implications of economic instability in Russia. You can access a copy here.

I hope you enjoy warm and dry weather – but as ever, the prospect of Wimbledon fortnight coinciding with inclement weather is always high!

Warm Regards

Peter O’Kane

Chairman

British Expertise International/Strategy International

Recordings of recent past events:

7th June 2023 - MTA: Costa Rica & Panama
8th June 2023 - MTA: Mongolia & Kyrgyzstan
19th June 2023 - MTA: Indonesia
20th June 2023 - MTA: Ghana & Nigeria
22nd June 2023 - MTA: Namibia
23rd June 2023 - MTA: Guatemala & El Salvador

Key events coming up include the following:

6th July 2023 10:00-11:30 BST: Egypt Education Deep Dive with the Department for Business and Trade - Join us for a webinar deep dive into the education opportunities in Egypt led by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Sharif Sabri, Senior Trade Adviser for Healthcare and Education at DBT will provide us with an insight into the key education priorities and an overview of their pipeline.
11th July 2023 10:00-11:30 BST: Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Settings: Stakeholder Roundtable - The BEI NbS working group is delighted to invite you to explore the upcoming BEI member publication: Financing and Implementing Nature-based Solutions in Urban Areas - a Guide for Local Actors. Our speakers are drawn from three of BEI members’ key stakeholders: The World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
11th July 2023 15:00-16:00 BST: Gender Equality & Social Inclusion Working Group - Join us for a meeting of the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Working Group. The GESI Working Group has replaced the previous Girls’ Education Working Group following a need to engage on wider matters of equality and inclusion not just related to women and girls, but other marginalised members of society. Following the recent GESI report launch, the Working Group will look to engage with GESI across sectors of: Climate Change; Economic Empowerment; Education; Humanitarian; and Health.
11th July 2023 16:00-19:30 BST: Climate Change Working Group Networking Evening - Join us for an evening of thought-provoking conversations with leaders across UK industry in the climate space. Our keynote speaker will be Dr Iris Soler, Associate Director at Turner & Townsend, who will explore links between water with climate.
12th July 2023 10:00-11:30 BST: Deep Dive on Opportunities in the Water Sector in Egypt - Join us for a deep dive on Opportunities in the Water Sector in Egypt. We will hear from George Yunan from the Department of Business and Trade and from Mohamed Saad from UK Export Finance to gain valuable insights into the future direction of the UK’s relationship with Egypt and the priorities for collaboration in the water sector.
13th July 2023 11:00-13:00 BST: Green Skills: Equipping the Workforce for a Sustainable Future - Join British Expertise International for an in-person panel event on Green Skills in the Skills & Training Working Group. We will be joined by speakers from: Turner & Townsend, The Skills Network, and Climate Sense, who will be presenting on their organisation’s commitment to delivering against the green skills agenda.
18th July 2023 14:00-15:30 BST: Opportunities in Transnational Education (TNE) with the Department for Business and Trade - Join us for an online webinar on Transnational Education (TNE) opportunities with the Department for Business and Trade. We will be joined by Dr Suzanna Tomassi, the Higher Education Specialist from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) who will provide us with a snapshot of the current global trends and opportunities, as well as regions of focus for DBT.
19th July 2023 09:00-11:00 BST: Portfolios in Practice: Lessons learned from the Girls Education Challenge - Join us for an in-person round table on lessons learned from the Girls Education Challenge (GEC). We will be joined by Emma Sarton, Senior Education Advisor at Cambridge Education Mott MacDonald (GEC Learning Lead) and George McLaughlin and Dr Sharon Tao, Team Leader for the GEC at FCDO.
27th July 2023 14:00-15:30 BST: UKEF and Global Britain -- Immediate and medium-term region and sector priorities - Join us Tuesday 20th June from 10:00-11:30 for a roundtable discussion with Tim Reid, the Chief Executive of UK Export Finance (UKEF), discussing ‘UKEF and Global Britain -- Immediate and medium-term region and sector priorities’. The discussion will include current challenges, such as the crisis in Ukraine as well focusing on medium-term priorities, such as U.K. expertise assisting energy transition.
27th July 2023 16:00-17:00 BST: BEI Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is not bound by geographic borders, instead it is a global agenda. This Working Group supports member organisations in building and executing a consistent high impact approach to EDI, by providing a platform to share best practices and discuss challenges and barriers in a constructive but safe environment.

Register for an upcoming event →

External Events

18th July: BDO Women Working in Development - BDO invites you to the re-launch of their Women Working in Development Network and our upcoming event in July. They will be holding a panel discussion focused on the use of KPIs and gender targets within donor programming. This relaunch event will be held in person in the BDO London office, but the panel session and Q&A will be recorded and shared following the event. Please use the link above to register!