The UK, alongside co-hosts South Africa, British International Investment and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, have convened a  broad coalitions of partners, from governments, international organisations, business, technology philanthropy and civil society to rethink how to combine strengths in addressing global challenges, such as economic, climate and health shocks.

At the Global Partnerships Conference in London, Britain’s Foreign Secretary is bringing together countries from all over the world to build new partnerships and setting 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 45m 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. People around the world will benefit from a new era of cooperation on international development, after a broad coalition of partners pledge new ways of working to build resilience and tackle global challenges.

The world is changing faster than the system designed to support it. The current conflict in Iran has significantly driven up global oil and gas prices. Shocks like these can stretch public finances and push more households into food insecurity, underlining the need for countries to build stronger systems, partnerships for growth, and response mechanisms to stop risks becoming crises.

Across the week, there will be events that address the economic and human impacts of the Iran crisis directly, focused on global resilience and effects of energy and supply chain disruption, such as fertiliser supply and food security risks, and how to ramp up early action where pressures are greatest.

At the centre of the Global Partnerships Conference is a shared agreement – the Global Partnerships Compact – to work together differently, faster, more openly, and in genuine partnership. It will aim to create a system of international cooperation that not only responds to shocks like the Iran crisis and its global impacts on energy, fertiliser and food prices, but also builds a system that’s resilient in the face of the crises of the future putting countries at the forefront of their own growth.

The conference aims to unlock billions of pounds in innovative finance, harness technology including AI, and build new partnerships that help countries strengthen systems, manage risk earlier and become more self-sufficient in the face of future shocks.