What’s going on at – and around – the Global Partnerships Conference this week

The upcoming Global Partnerships Conference, co-hosted by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, South Africa, British International Investment and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, takes place on 19-20 May in South East London, and will bring together stakeholders from governments, the private sector and civil society to reimagine the future of development cooperation and international partnerships.

A number of INGOs and civil society actors, including many of Bond’s members, will be hosting events in and around the conference, helping to foster meaningful engagement and discussion on key issues around the future of international development, what equitable partnerships look like in practice and how the sector is becoming more locally led.

Bond, as the UK network for NGOs, has collated a non-exhaustive list of member events and stalls inside the conference, which delegates can attend, as well as side events and actions occurring on the conference’s sidelines, which are open to all. If you are a Bond member and have an event you’d like us to add, please get in touch with us.

Find the full agenda here.

INSIDE THE CONFERENCE

DAY ONE – 19 MAY

10:10-11:00, Knight Gallery, Room A: Norwegian Refugee Council
Beyond Aid: Reimagining Global Partnerships in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Contexts
Fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) sit at the sharpest edge of global poverty, displacement and humanitarian, and climate need. Bringing together perspectives from national institutions, global development finance, senior political leadership and FCAS civil society, the discussion will explore where current assumptions about risk, markets and capacity need to shift, and how global ambition can be operationalised in ways that strengthen resilience, reduce vulnerability and move beyond repeated crisis response. Speakers include Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive at ODI Global, Angelina Nyajima Simon, Executive Director of Hope Restoration South Sudan, Akihiko (Aki) Nishio, Vice President for Development Finance, World Bank, and more.

11:40-12:30, Knight Gallery, Room A: Future of Development Cooperation Coalition
Bridging the Gap: development cooperation and private capital mobilisation

11:40-12:30, Café: Comic Relief
Alternate Convos Podcast Live: Shifting Power across Past, Present and Future of Development
A live recording of the award‑winning Alternative Convos podcast, hosted by Charles Kojo Vandyck . Bringing together an African grantmaker, a grassroots civil society leader and a youth activist, the session explores what “shifting power” in development really means, why progress has been so slow, and what has genuinely changed over the past decade.

12:55-13:45, Café: BBC Media Action
Imagining new futures: The role of tech in reshaping gender dynamics

12:55-13:45, Knight Gallery, Room A: International Institute for Environment and Development and Comic Relief
Demonstrating Adaptive Social Protection in Action

15:05-15:55, Knight Gallery, Room A: International Centre for Tax and Development (Institute of Development Studies) and ODI Global
A roadmap for Fiscal Resilience: taxing smarter for equity and growth
This session will share practical lessons from over a decade of research and partnerships on tax reform, focusing on how countries can increase revenues in ways that are equitable, sustainable and politically feasible. Confirmed speakers include Giulia Mascagni, Executive Director at the International Centre for Tax and Development and IDS Research Fellow; Hazel Granger, Senior Research Fellow and TaxDev Lead at ODI Global; Scott Caldwell, Head of Public Finance and Tax Department at the FCDO, and more.

DAY TWO – 20 May

09:00-09:50, Knight Gallery, Room A: CAFOD
Scaling Local Leadership in Crisis Response

09:00-09:50, Café: What Works Consortium
Everyone’s Business: Preventing Violence, Powering Progress

10:00-10:50, Knight Gallery, Room A: Save the Children UK
Shifting the Power: who decides, who designs, who delivers?
This session, which will bring together speakers from local partners with FCDO Minister Chris Elmore MP and philanthropy actors, will position local actors as designers of the future, and task traditional NGOs, governments and philanthropists with finding ways to support delivery in the difficult context of shrinking aid budgets, fading faith in multilateralism, a deepening climate crisis and increasing humanitarian need.

12:30-12:50, Café: UNICEF
Speaker’s Corner: Cathy Russell, UNICEF Executive Director

13:05-14:05, Café: Restless Development
Powershifting: What really happens when you let youth lead?
A dynamic side event, sing role-reversal scenarios and intergenerational dialogue to challenge traditional funding and partnership models.

14:30-12:50, Café: Malaria No More UK
Speaker’s Corner: Sherrie Silver, choreographer and Malaria No More Ambassador

15:00-16:00, Café: Institute for Development Studies, with Southern Voice and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Shifting the Power: Global South perspectives on future development cooperation
With conversations and initiatives on the future of development picking up pace, this session will aim to put the perspectives of Global South countries at the heart of what comes next. Join leaders from across the development ecosystem for a discussion on how to embed Global South perspectives through ongoing processes. Speakers include Katharina Stasch, Director General (Multilateral, Transformation, Finance) at BMZ; Carsten Staur, Chair at OECD DAC, and many more.

16:10-16:30, Café: Global Citizen
Speaker’s Corner: Michael Sheldrick, co-founder and Chief Policy, Impact and Government Relations Officer at Global Citizen

Marketplace Stalls
A number of Bond members or their partners will have stalls in the conference’s ‘marketplace’, so please drop by and speak to them if you’re in attendance. They are:

OFF-SITE AND VIRTUAL EVENTS

10-16 May: Christian Aid
Christian Aid Week
Christian Aid Week is a powerful expression of what can happen when compassion leads to action. It’s a shared moment to come together – across churches, communities and households – to stand alongside people living in poverty around the world.

12 May – 11:30-13:00 (online only): Christian Aid
Tackling Unsustainable Debt – the Key to Ending Poverty and Ensuring Prosperity
Hosted by Christian Aid, this live webinar explores how sovereign debt – at its highest level in over 30 years – is undermining progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Speakers from Egypt, Kenya and Zimbabwe will share the impacts of unsustainable debt on their communities and outline practical policy solutions to deliver the growth and shared prosperity we all seek. To attend, register here.

13 – 20 May: A Million Acts of Hope Consortium
A Million Acts of Hope Week of Action
Hundreds of charities, communities and faith groups have come together to launch A Million Acts of Hope – a campaign to bring hope out into the open and celebrate the everyday acts of kindness, care and connection happening across the UK. See A Million Acts of Hope’s website for details of local events and how you can get involved.

18 May: 13:00-15:00, The Advent Centre, 37–39 Brendon Street, London, W1H 5JE (invite only), ADRA-UK
Rebalancing Value Chains through Locally Led Social Business: From Margins to Markets
The event will feature a panel discussion exploring how trade-based development and social business models can strengthen smallholder participation in value chains, while using grant funding as catalytic capital for sustainable, locally led growth. Speakers will include representatives from the ADRA network, AFFORD (the African Foundation for Development), which will share a diaspora-investment perspective, plus smallholder farmers and experts in impact and innovative finance. For further information, please contact [email protected].

18 May: 15:00-17:00, Thatcher Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, ONE Campaign
ONE invite you to join them in Parliament to hear directly from young campaigners, and take part in a moment focused on our collective potential and responsibility to ensure millions of children reach their fifth birthday and beyond. ONE will be launching a new report into the state of global under-five mortality, and how the UK can play its role to ensure more children around the world reach their fifth birthday. This event is an opportunity to pick up a copy of the report and speak with ONE’s young campaigners about why the UK should do more to help drive down global child mortality rates.

18 May: 16:00-17:00, Room U, Portcullis House, House of Commons, United Against Malnutrition & Hunger
Partnerships for tackling malnutrition: Leadership and lessons from Africa
UAMH is hosting a roundtable discussion on partnerships for nutrition, supported by Rt Hon David Mundell MP, Co-Chair of the APPG on Nutrition for Development. This event has limited capacity. To attend, or for more details, please contact [email protected].

18 May: 18:00-20:00, 4 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JQ (invite only), ONE Campaign and ODI Global
Reception for Africa Day 2026 and the Global Partnerships Conference
ONE is co-hosting a high-level reception with ODI Global, that brings together policymakers, development leaders, and cultural influencers to mark Africa Day 2026. This will be a moment to recognise and celebrate the richness of Africa. The reception will also see the launch of the Hope Report 2026 from ONE, focused on the prospects for every child to survive and thrive, in Africa and around the world. The evening will centre on informal networking and conversation, with a short segment of keynote remarks from the stage.

19 May: CDAC Network
Standards and Assurance Framework for Ethical AI (SAFE AI) launch
Developed by CDAC Network alongside The Alan Turing Institute and Humanitarian AI Advisory, SAFE AI is a free-to-use framework which gives humanitarian organisations the governance infrastructure to deploy AI with confidence – managing risk, distributing accountability and keeping communities in the loop. Find out more at SAFE AI — CDAC Network.

21 May: 15:00-18:00, ODI Global, 4 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA, Action Against Hunger UK
Integrating nutrition into anticipatory action: from pilot learning to practical partnerships
Action Against Hunger UK, alongside Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT (CGIAR) and partners, is hosting a high-impact side event, which will convene cross-sector leaders to advance practical, scalable solutions at the intersection of nutrition, climate and humanitarian response. This event offers an opportunity to contribute to a focused discussion to shape how anticipatory action is understood and financed within a high-level FCDO policy and partnership context. Please register your interest in attending, and Action Against Hunger UK will get back to you soon: http://againsthunger.uk/oathezj8.