Global Partnerships Conference 2026
This page explains the purpose of the Global Partnerships Conference and how to follow updates and outputs from the event.
Overview
The Global Partnerships Conference is bringing together countries from all over the world to build new partnerships and set out the UK’s new approach to development as the crisis in the Middle East continues to wreak havoc on global energy and food security. The World Food Programme estimates that almost 45 million more people could fall into acute food insecurity if the conflict does not end by the middle of this year.
This is a critical time in the agriculture calendar, not just the diplomatic one – if global partners don’t get fertiliser moving there will be shipments of critical emergency aid needed not just external investment and technology.
The conference will bring together governments, businesses, philanthropies, international organisations and civil society to discuss how wider coalitions working together can better respond to today’s global challenges.
Over the past 50 years, international cooperation has helped reduce poverty and address shared challenges such as global health, climate change and energy security. However, current approaches are often too slow and fragmented, and do not always deliver results quickly enough. Global challenges cross borders, and effective solutions must do the same.
What the conference will focus on
The conference will focus on 3 areas for reform:
- improve access to finance: mobilising and aligning international and domestic investment to support sustainable and resilient development
- speed up access to knowledge, skills and technology: strengthening digital systems and ensuring innovations, including AI, expand opportunity and help tackle global challenges
- put countries and communities at the centre of solutions: shifting power, resources and decision‑making closer to the people most affected, particularly women and girls, and reducing duplication across the system
Watch the conference live
Watch the plenary sessions from the Global Partnerships Conference 2026 live on the FCDO YouTube channel.
Follow updates
We will add links to related announcements, speeches and publications as they are published.