New executive is urged to back pledge of support for Malawi

More than 1000 people have signed a pledge of support for Scotland's Malawi initiative, amid fears that its funding could be adversely affected under the new SNP-led administration.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, is to be invited to accept the pledge backing the Scotland-Malawi Partnership, which was established to help reduce and relieve poverty in the southern African state.

The umbrella group started three years ago and, through the work of more than 100 Scots organisations and individuals, helps the authorities in the region to develop resources in education, health, water and sanitation.
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While many of its projects are funded for the next "two or three years" Dr Peter West, chairman of the partnership, said it was "just beginning to get a bit concerned" about its long-term prospects.

Jack McConnell, during his term as First Minister, was a major force in strengthening links between Scotland and Malawi, leading to the opening up of the partnership aid programme, worth £4.5m a year.

The partnership's concern would appear to stem from the fact that, though in a pre-election promise the Scottish Nationalist Party committed itself to doubling this international development programme, it would incorporate other Southern African states.

The Scotland-Malawi partnership will now seek assurances over financial support when it invites Mr Salmond and Linda Fabiani, Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, to the David Livingstone Memorial in Blantyre to give them the 1000-strong pledge.

Dr West said: "We now have more than 1000 signatures pledging support for the partnership projects and plan to write in the next week to the First Minister and Linda Fabiani, asking that the partnership continue to be supported. It has done enormous good in Malawi with 58 projects funded through it."

In April, the work of the partnership enabled Malawian students to come to Scotland, and enroll on tourism degrees at Glasgow Caledonian University. The students were part of a vanguard of gifted entrepreneurs who it is hoped will provide expertise, enthusiasm and business acumen to transform the economy of Malawi.

Other projects benefiting from executive funding have included a tie-up between St Andrew's High School in Kirkcaldy and Domasi Mission School in Malawi. Teachers from the Scots school visited the African state earlier this year and, in a reciprocal arrangement, Malawian teachers are expected to come to Scotland in the autumn.

Earlier this year, surgeon Eric Taylor and his wife, Celia, were the first Scots to travel to Malawi for an executive-backed medical support mission.

The Nationalists have argued the move to double the international aid budget and expend it to other countries would make Scotland a force for good and set an example to other wealthy nations.

Earlier this year, the party's international development team, Pete Wishart, MP, and Alyn Smith, MEP, went on a fact-finding mission to Southern Africa, including Zambia, where they identified future projects and partners.

Dr West said: "We are delighted the SNP is considering doubling the budget. We are the last people who would object to money going into somewhere like Zambia. Our present fund is £4.5m and we can show anyone that, with that sort of money, we can deliver enormous essential benefits to Malawi."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said it remained "fully committed" to a continuing relationship between Scotland and Malawi.

She added: "Not only is this government fully committed to the relationship between Malawi and Scotland, we are also fully committed to substantially increasing Scotland's international aid budget."

The relationship between Scotland and Malawi goes back to the time of David Livingstone, who journeyed up the Zambezi and Shire rivers to Lake Malawi in 1859. The initiative of individuals has been the defining characteristic of activity between the two countries ever since.

Oxfam, which has worked in Malawi for two decades, claims 65% of Malawians live below the poverty line with 40% attempting to survive on an income of less than 15 pence per day.

Jack's Malawi project deserves to keep going

REGARDLESS of which combination of parties forms the next Scottish Executive, I'm hopeful that Jack McConnell's initiative on Malawi will survive any change.

So what if some policymakers in Whitehall were quick to remind the First Minister and uppity MSPs that Westminster ruled the roost in all things pertaining to foreign policy? Those concerned with - and supportive of - what MSPs judged to be an act of humanitarianism, rightly continued to do what they could to make life just a bit better for those at the bottom of the economic heap, and help Malawi find a steady path out of its poverty.

I can't think of a member of the last parliament who was implacably opposed to the Malawi link-up once the genuine nature of the initiative became clear. Malawi needed friends and some pump-priming support, and we could go part of the way to meeting those needs.

Therefore, would it have been right for Jack to explain that the Scottish Parliament didn't have foreign policy-making power? Thousands of Scots wished him well, and understood the difference between dealing directly with the international agencies and local organisations responsible for a well-building project or a baby vaccination programme, and shovelling international aid money into Swiss bank accounts via Government departments and their ministers. Schoolchildren also gained an insight into what the other side of the educational coin is like in countries whose social fabric is stretched to the limit.

Their understanding of what makes the world so ill-divided was enhanced because they had a personal connection to one of Africa's poorest countries.

In the midst of an election that sometimes feels like a Dutch Auction, with every party promising more services and benefits for less tax, it was something of a shock to be returned to the real world inhabited by most of humanity. My thoughts on Malawi and some of the short-sighted and mean-spirited responses to the Scottish Executive's work there were sparked on reading the newsletter from James Gillespie's High School South Africa Student Sponsorship scheme.