Oct 8, 2021

BEI Weekly Update — 8th October 2021

Dear Members and Friends,

With the Party Conference season coming to an end, we seem to be entering an unprecedented era where we are facing significant challenges and opportunities in tandem. Whilst there is much positive momentum, there are also real pressures on our global (and local) supply chains, and our own government will now be looking to its Spending Review (SR) to underpin its intent with practical budget choices. This will be a delicate balance, given the investment that has been made in the last two years to support the country as it dealt with the impact of the pandemic. We will continue to engage with and press HMG partners for clearer strategy delivery details as their business plans evolve out of the SR.

This week we also kicked off our 2022 Future Leadership Training, with a gathering of the alumni and current cohort. The Future Group, designed to appeal to candidates who are identified as most likely to become Board/C-Suite leaders in the next 5–10 years provides unique opportunities to prepare for this level of leadership. In addition to background information, we heard from past alumni who had attended the course. Please contact me if you would like to discuss the programme — as a sponsor or potential attendee.

Our Education Working Group (EWG) met this week and are continuing to engage with key stakeholders across the education sector following the publication of the 2nd edition of their report, Recover Learning, Rebuild Education. Over the coming months, members of the EWG will be looking to meet and engage with representatives from the FCDO, UNICEF, World Bank and a range of specific Ministries of Education regionally. As the group continues to grow in both size and ambition, we are all very excited about what the Working Group can achieve looking to the future.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances we had to postpone two events, one with Simon Penney, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Consul General to Dubai, and the other was the Climate Finance & Development event with FCDO. Our sincere apologies for the inconveniences caused and we will look to reschedule these shortly, please keep an eye on our website events calendar.

Next week, on 12th October — we will be hosting a small, members only Roundtable with Trade Envoy Mark Garnier MP , who is the Trade Envoy to Thailand, Myanmar and Brunei. As South-East Asia’s growing political, economic and strategic significance makes it ever more relevant to the UK’s prosperity and security interests, these export markets will increase in importance for UK plc. Places are limited, but do reach out to me should you wish to join this and future Trade Envoy events.

On 13th October, we will be hosting a members only lunch with Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola, Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, who will share some insights on UK-Nigeria relationships and his perspectives on areas of opportunity in sectors including energy, infrastructure and agriculture technology.

On 14th October, we will be joined by FCDO’s Bo Sundstrom, Head of the EU Development Programme and Martin Heather, Policy Team Leader, who will provide the latest updates on the FCDO-EU relationship in development, humanitarian engagement and related issues. Understanding the proposed future relationship as it relates to international development is key to many of our members who have delivered and wish to continue delivering work with the EU.

Our Working Groups have been going from strength to strength with most of them working on some outputs to deliver reports that will profile their expertise and better articulate the UK international offering. If you are not already a member of our working Groups, feel free to reach out to me for more details on the following groups: Education, Infrastructure, Diversity and Inclusion, Climate Change and its sub-groups (Built Environment, Nature Based Solutions and Extreme Weather Risk & Climate Resilience). We welcome member participation and contributions to ensure these groups activities are member driven and relevant.

I have noticed in the last few weeks that everyone seems to be getting a lot busier; whilst this is welcome, but if you happen to be available for a coffee do reach out as I would be happy to have in person catch ups. I also hope you will use the weekends as opportunities to rest, recover and re-energise.

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*.

12th October — Roundtable with Trade Envoy Mark Garnier

13th October* — Lunch with the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK

14th October* — The FCDO and the EU’s Future Relationship

14th October* — BEI Infrastructure Working Group

19th October* — Investing in Education — a CDC Group View

20th October* — Opportunities in the Kurdistan Region

20th October* — BEI Climate Change Working Group

21st October* — Climate Finance and Development with Rachel Turner

27th October* — Lunch with the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to the UK

28th October — Roundtable with Trade Envoy Darren Henry MP

24th November* — Education Systems & the Covid-19 Recovery — Follow up event

25th November — Lunch with Andrew Mitchell CMG

25th November — Doing Business with USAID

30th November* — Roundtable with Trade Envoy Lord Davies

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External News & Events

19th October GTR UK plans to return as a physical event in 2021, offering unrivalled insights into the latest exciting developments impacting on the world of UK trade and exports, and taking place in London on October 19. Details available here.