2. Clearly articulate FCDO’s value proposition & priorities Businesses need to have a clear sense of what priorities the FCDO is seeking to work on, the capabilities the FCDO can bring to bear on these priorities (alongside the wider apparatus of UK Government), and how the FCDO intends to deploy these capabilities. The need for a clear value proposition is made pressing by the recent restructuring of the department, the shifting of the UK’s trading and diplomatic relationships post-Brexit, and the still-unrolling new world order being shaped by COVID-19. FCDO’s offering can be strengthened by leveraging the global network of country offices and wider UK government capabilities. Partners expressed that part of presenting ‘a structured way for businesses to engage’ included presenting a ‘joined-up’ view of UK government, including how FCDO sits alongside the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, and how they leverage joint capabilities. Similarly, partners found engagements from country offices to supply on-the-ground intelligence during BP4GG highly valuable (as happened in Myanmar and Kenya) but reflected that such expertise could have been engaged across all seven countries of BP4GG operation. Alongside a clearly articulated offering, private sector partners have advised that FCDO focus on certain well-delineated issues to avoid being spread too thinly over the numerous vast and complex problems presented by the SDGs.
FCDO’s offer to business Private Sector partners of BP4GG outlined the following potential roles for FCDO in partnering with business: 1. Facilitation around critical issues of shared concern Commercial companies can face challenges working with competitors to address issues in their common interest, including restrictions imposed by competition law. They can also lack a ‘bigger picture’ perspective that might be provided by those elsewhere within or outside of the industry. Their networks may be extensive in relation to their own supply chains, but not extend further than those partners needed for purely commercial purposes. Aisha Aswani at Co-op observed that the ‘BP4GG sessions brought together people who Co-op wouldn’t have normally learned from.’ Supporting this facilitation with a broader, more complex perspective than individual companies will be able to gather is also highly valuable. To do this FCDO can canvas businesses on their thoughts but also establish a wider viewpoint that encompasses a multiplicity of perspectives, and probe into issues that private sector actors cannot. FCDO can also be the neutral actor to conduct due diligence to provide the necessary oversight and accountability. It can also be a challenge to bring businesses together to share risks to pilot an innovation. BP4GG demonstrated how the FCDO can create a pre-competitive space where commercial actors can benefit from jointly piloting an innovation they would not have been able to do alone. Ian Michell, Group Technical Director of Flamingo Group who led the BP4GG sea freight flowers pilot agreed that the partners would not have come together to craft a joint pilot had it not been for FCDO tendering for proposals and then supporting the multiple commercial stakeholders to work together (growers, shipping companies, wholesalers, etc.). 2. Government-to-Government Brokering Government is ‘often a missing voice’ in key countries trying to improve labour law and infrastructure and to address systemic root causes, according to Aisha Aswani at Co-op. The UK Government can be a big influencer via leveraging national trade relationships and other diplomatic channels. The BP4GG sea-freighting flowers pilot has been supported by the FCDO Kenya team, notably through a Senior Trade Adviser who is engaging with relevant Kenyan ministries alongside the Dutch embassy to bring domestic government support to bear. This resulted in a joint event hosted by Kenyan Flower Council to disseminate lessons from both the UK aid funded BP4GG project and Dutch funded research on sea freight from East Africa. Participants included UK’s Deputy High Commissioner to Kenya, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kenya, and Cabinet Secretary to the Ministry of Trade, Government of Kenya. Similarly, Fiona Sadler at Marks and Spencer observed that FCDO is in a unique position to advocate directly with other governments for principles of human rights and equitable trade, especially given ‘there are issues that business cannot get involved in but are significantly impacted by.’ 3. Learning and knowledge management Businesses often lack incentive to harness learnings beyond their commercial needs. FCDO can bring this learning function to partnerships, and further act as a host and repository of knowledge independent of the lifecycle of projects, and to ensure there is a centralised place for learning not sitting dispersed with individual partners. 10
