Meeting of the Parliament 11 November 2015
Three years ago, I took part in a very similar debate. At that stage, we were looking ahead to the Livingstone bicentenary, which was an opportunity to celebrate the long-standing and deep-rooted connections between Scotland and Malawi. On this occasion, the time horizon is rather shorter—it spans the 10 years since the signing of an historic co-operation agreement between the previous Scottish Executive and the Government of Malawi.
Before I turn to what I believe that agreement has helped to achieve and where we need to focus over the next decade, I want to pay a brief tribute to two people who I believe are due particular credit for helping us to rediscover and rejuvenate the ties between our two countries.
It was, of course, Jack McConnell who signed the co-operation agreement in 2005, but his contribution was never simply ceremonial. His personal drive delivered the agreement, and his passionate belief in the benefits that the relationship can bring to both countries has remained undimmed ever since.
Secondly, I acknowledge the role that was played by the missionary, scholar and tireless campaigner the late Rev Andrew Ross. I first met the Doc in his capacity as honorary president of Edinburgh University Association Football Club, but when I later worked as an adviser in the Scottish Executive, he instilled in me the importance of re-energising Scotland’s ties with Malawi. It was an honour, if a bit of a surprise, to find myself at the Doc’s graveside in the missionaries cemetery in Blantyre during the visit that Elaine Smith and James Dornan mentioned. He is sorely missed, but his legacy in binding together two countries that he loved lives on.
As colleagues may know, along with Mike Russell, I have the privilege of co-convening the cross-party group on Malawi in this Parliament. It is a very active group, and at our meeting earlier this month we took time to reflect on just some of what has been achieved over the past 10 years.
The Scotland Malawi Partnership, whose work I, too, highly commend, has produced an excellent document detailing 10 case studies from the past 10 years that help to illustrate the breadth and range of projects and relationships that have been supported. That breadth is truly astonishing. As Bruce Crawford reminded us, 94,000 Scots and 198,000 Malawians are actively involved in one way or another, and £40 million has been raised through Scottish communities.
Those projects and relationships span many areas, including health and education, the environment and energy, agriculture and trade, and arts and culture, to name but a few. As Humza Yousaf rightly made clear, what makes Scotland’s relationship with Malawi so special, so resilient and so impactful is the way that it binds and builds from the grass roots up.
The Scotland Malawi Partnership’s document highlights the civic links that exist, which I can see for myself in my constituency. Links between schools such as Sanday and Westray and their counterparts in Minga and Chitengu remain strong, as do the ties between the Orkney and Thyolo presbyteries. Those links benefit people in both communities enormously; anyone who is in any doubt about that should hear the compelling presentations from Gleniffer high school pupils, which they gave to the CPG back in September. However, that raises the question of how we spread those benefits to other schools, particularly schools in Malawi, and what more we can do to encourage and support young girls to get the education that they are all too often still missing out on. Those challenges still lie ahead.
Similarly, although, as Claire Baker pointed out, we are seeing positive signs on the health front, with HIV infection and maternal mortality rates dropping, there can be absolutely no let-up. That point is certainly well made in the Labour amendment, which also underscores the importance of developing trade in support of a “strong and sustainable” Malawian economy. There is certainly an appetite to build on such successes.