Promises made to world's poor were lies

OXFAM has reported what some people on the Make Poverty History march feared, but hoped not to hear - that the promises made in Scotland to the world's poorest by the leaders of the world's most powerful economies are proving to be a lot of hot air and downright lies.

Two years ago, a quarter of a million people marched through the streets of Edinburgh to demonstrate their support for international aid to Africa being doubled by G8 leaders, and debt repayments being written off for at least the very poorest countries. Anyone who expressed scepticism that the Gleneagles summit would prove different from previous summits that had failed to flash the cash promised at previous summits was ignored.

After all, the argument went, Saint Bob won't let the G8 big-wigs back-slide. This time they'll pay up, rather than be outed by Bob Geldof as sweet talkers who don't walk the walk when the chips are down and children are dying of starvation or from a lack of basic medicines.

"Give them the money," said Bob, who nobody believes to be a phoney, but whose ability to spot one is questioned by many. The former Boomtown Rat met with, and cursed at, the Great 8 in Gleneagles whilst other, equally serious, groups like Oxfam were listened to by lesser members of the circus that descended on Perthshire, and scandalised some whilst making others a bit embarrassed at the cost of a jamboree at which the plight of poor people was talked about.

I wonder if any of those who signed up to double annual aid to the poor of Africa by 2010 blushed with shame when they heard Oxfam's calculations as to how the lot of the poor hasn't been lightened much at all, and that by 2010, the Gleneagles target would be missed by $30 billion?

To be fair to Tony Blair, his blush need not be the deepest shade of red. His Government came closest to keeping its promise of giving $14.9 billion by falling short by a mere $1.6bn, but lets put that figure into context. Last year the rich countries' club of eight spent three times more on bottled water, $58bn, than was spent, in total, on aid to Africa, a continent where children die of dehydration and people have to walk miles to a well.

In the UK, sales of champagne and wine total twice the amount of foreign aid, so maybe it's I who should blush every time I avail myself of special offers on the fizzy stuff.

Then again, if right next to the display for special offer bubbly the supermarket had a collection point for donations to a project to provide adequate water supplies to villages in Malawi, for example, I would contribute.

If a personal connection can be forged between the donor and the recipient, evidence shows this approach will produce a bigger bang for the buck. It also diminishes the chance of good foreign aid money being invested in bad projects or siphoned off by bad political leaders.

It's a safer way of transferring aid money from rich to poor than leaving governments to fix things amongst themselves. That's why the new Scottish Government Minister for Foreign policy, Linda Fabiani, should pick up where Jack McConnell's Malawi policy left off.

To be sure that money and other support and resources donated from Scots is going first to the people who need it most, Jack's lot channelled their aid directly to local projects, not local or national politicians.

Some people were scathing about the relatively small amounts of money donated to groups in Malawi compared to the aid that could be given by the UK Government.

But what would you rather have, big promises or smaller amounts, cash in hand? Ironically, it's often the latter approach that allows people to help themselves, and is therefore preferred by those who international aid is intended to help.

For example, in Zambia, every growing season, elephants ate all the vegetables planted in the Lubinda family's plot. Try as they might, the family couldn't chase away the elephants, and so had no money to pay for schooling for its seven orphan grandchildren.

Enter a small charity, Africa Now, that favours the practical, donor to local project approach of the McConnell aid programme.

Africa Now didn't put the Lubindas in touch with a Zambian Government sponsored programme.

Instead, they donated a handful of chilli pepper seeds for planting round the edge of the vegetable plot. When these grew, the problem was solved. Chilli, whether grown as hedges or processed to produce oil that can be mixed with dung cakes and burnt, makes elephants sneeze hard.

So if you're feeling let-down by the G8 leaders who've broken promises made in your name, urge the Scottish Government to keep up the Malawi aid programme, write to your champagne supplier and suggest how African villages without a water supply might be assisted and remember the true story of the sneezing elephants.

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.