The Business Alliance for Global Development advocates for global development as a strategic investment in Britain’s
long-term growth and prosperity.

The UK can support global development through a variety of partnership types and by contributing to a number of different types of development finance, including: international aid (Official Development Assistance) seizing the flow of illicit funds; enhanced financing from multilateral organisations; and debt relief.

We promote the UK’s global leadership in this space, and showcases the contributions British companies are already making around the world.

Our founding members

The Alliance is supported by business leaders who are signatories to our Statement of Principles. The Confederation of British Industry and the Co-op are the co-founding members of the Alliance.

Rain Newton-Smith

Chief Executive, Confederation of British Industry (CBI)

From August 2014 until March 2023, Rain was Chief Economist at the CBI where she led its economic policy, analysis and survey teams and the CBI’s work with HM Treasury. She also led the international team, focused on global business leadership around the B7 and B20, and championed the CBI’s work to support the transition to a low carbon, sustainable economy. Rain was instrumental in shaping the CBI’s work to help business navigate through the Covid pandemic. Prior to joining the economics team at the CBI, Rain was Head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics, where she was the lead expert on China. Her earlier career included nine years at the Bank of England, including preparing global forecasts for the Monetary Policy Committee and a secondment to the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. Rain holds an MSc in Economics from LSE and studied Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. In 2012, Rain was honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader.

Paul Gerrard

Campaigns, Public Affairs & Policy Director, Co-op

In a twenty-year career in the Civil Service, Paul worked in senior roles which included responsibility for the operational delivery of the £40bn tax credits and Child Benefit system and the strategy to tackle multi-billion organised criminal attacks on the UK’s indirect tax and excise duty systems. Paul joined the Co-op Group in 2016 and as Campaign, Public Affairs and Policy, he is responsible for the Co-op’s engagement with Government on a range of public policy issues and manages the internal Board governance of the Co-op. Paul leads the Co-op’s campaigning activity through their multi-award winning campaigns on slavery, loneliness, shopworker violence, climate justice and social mobility. He regularly gives evidence to Parliamentary Committees and appears on national media on these campaigns.