2020 In Review
2020 has been a year like no other! But at the Coalition for Global Prosperity we have seen an incredible year of change and progress. This has been my first year as CEO and I have been honoured to lead such an incredible organisation. CGP has also seen our team grow whilst our excellent line up of events continued to influence the debate around Global Britain and our place on the world stage.
Although the Government’s announcement of a planned reduction to the aid budget was of course disappointing, we have been encouraged by a number of vocal supporters of aid as well as those who were traditionally sceptical, speaking out in the media and parliament to help ensure this issue is kept in the spotlight and key objectives are met. This work will remain a priority for CGP over the coming months, working alongside our key partners.
This year, alongside the ODI and Dominic McVey, CGP have met with a number of the Government’s newly appointed Trade Envoys. This has included Mark Garnier (Trade Envoy to Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei), Lord Popat (Trade Envoy to Uganda and Rwanda) and Lord Bates (Trade Envoy to Ethiopia). These have been an excellent success with meetings lasting well over an hour and follow up communication and briefings ongoing. We have meetings with more Government Trade Envoys scheduled for the New Year.
Due to the current international travel restrictions, CGP have been unable to host our usual number of overseas visits. However, we have begun a series of virtual visits, holding our first virtual overseas visit to Cameroon in Partnership with the International Rescue Committee in December.
The visit was an incredible success with five Members of Parliament joining us on a tour around the South West and Northern regions of Cameroon. On the visit were Conservative MPs Alicia Kearns, Adam Holloway, Royston Smith, Alex Stafford and James Sunderland. More MPs had shown an interest in the visit but were unable to attend so future visits should also prove popular.
A number of MPs put out tweets and videos following their visits which all helped to raise the profile of the event. CGP are in the process of planning more virtual visits for 2021, including a potential trip to Syria.
This year’s also seen CGP carry out our first ever polling of voters who supported the Conservative Party in December 2019 but not in June 2017. The poll focussed on the area which is most commonly referred to as the “Red Wall”, constituencies that the Conservatives won from Labour. This polling looked at attitudes towards UK aid and overseas development. We also looked at how Britain’s leadership abroad on key areas such as healthcare (especially prominent with COVID) was perceived.
We have been discussing this polling with MPs from across Parliament who represent seats in this area so that we can discuss attitudes of their constituents to UK aid. In addition to meetings with MPs, we have also been engaging regularly with Special Advisors and senior civil servants on our polling project in order to demonstrate the levels of support for UK leadership abroad. This engagement has been taking place ahead of the official launch of our polling project in January 2021 which we are incredibly excited to share with you.
CGP continued to host in person events until March 2020, at which point we moved to host a wide range of excellent virtual events which were all very well attended. These events were:
Making It Count: 2021 A Year of UK Leadership on Climate and Nature | Keir Starmer MP, Ed Miliband MP and Alok Sharma MP
In Conversation with Layla Moran MP
Roundtable with US Congress – Global Challenges: How Can the US and the UK Remain A Force For Good In The World
Roundtable: The FCDO and the Integrated and Spending Reviews
What Is The Role Of Culture And Education in Increasing The UK’s Global Influence | Imran Ahmad Khan MP, John Whittingdale OBE MP and others
In Conversation with Preet Gill MP
In Conversation with Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
Global Britain: A Response To The Call For Home | Danny Kruger MP
Global Britain: Conservation and Public Health | Ruth Edwards MP and Julie Marson MP.
UK Aid and Pandemic Preparedness | Rt Hon Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE and others
Girls Education: Global Britain’s Best Foreign Policy Took | Julia Gillard, Harriet Harman MP and others
Decade of Action: Business and the Global Goals | Gillian Keegan MP, Matthew Rycroft CBE, Lord Jack McConnell and others
Breakfast Roundtable with the Conservative Friends of International Development’s Business Network | Sir Oliver Heald MP
2021 Forward Look
Next year looks to be even more exciting. As we settle into the new normal CGP will be starting the year by launching our new polling project which looks at attitudes towards international aid in the Red Wall seats that the Conservatives won from Labour a year ago. We will also be launching a brand new newsletter which will be sent to Members of Parliament, Peers, stakeholders and supporters. This will keep you informed of our upcoming events, latest work and insight from the team and board at CGP.
2021 will also see an even bigger programme of events which we hope will continue to shape the narrative around UK aid. These will continue to be virtual and we will then move to in person events as soon as it is safe to do so. Some of these upcoming events are:
Private roundtable with War Child and Conservative Friends of the Armed Forces
Panel Event with HALO Trust and CfID on Conflict Prevention in Fragile States
Agriculture Roundtable with the Gates Foundation – Ed Miliband and Zac Goldsmith
Trade and Aid event with Dominic McVey (TBC)
Private Roundtable with Democrat Members of Congress and UK Parliamentarians
Co-hosting an event with the Eleanor Crook Foundation on how the UK can remain a global leader in tackling malnutrition.
Throughout 2021, we will continue to increase our engagements with Parliamentarians and officials in order to promote the importance of UK aid as a central element of the Global Britain strategy.
