The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S7M-00862, in the name of Clare Haughey, on the 150th anniversary of the founding of Blantyre in Malawi. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates Blantyre, in Malawi, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, to be celebrated in October 2026; understands that the city was founded on 23 October 1876 by Scottish missionaries, and was named after Blantyre in Scotland, the birthplace of the explorer David Livingstone; recognises that Scotland and Malawi share a deep historical friendship dating back to Livingstone’s explorations in the region; highlights the publication of the book by Jonathan Waters, Blantyre: Urban Evolution – A Photographic History, which chronicles the city’s people, places and transformation since 1876, and pays tribute to the many individuals, businesses, third sector organisations, including the Scotland Malawi Partnership and Rutherglen-based Classrooms for Malawi, schools and universities and governments that have maintained the links between the two countries over the past century and a half.
17:43
I am grateful to colleagues for signing my motion, which marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of Blantyre in Malawi, in order to bring the debate to the chamber. I welcome Stuart Brown and Chad Morse from the Scotland Malawi Partnership, who have joined us in the public gallery.
The anniversary provides an opportunity to celebrate the depth and diversity of the relationship between Scotland and Malawi, while considering what an equal and effective partnership can look like in the years to come. It gives me great pleasure, therefore, to have been able to secure the debate.
I thank Scotland’s International Development Alliance for sending members an informative briefing ahead of the debate, as well as a copy of the Scotland Malawi Partnership’s document, “Scotland’s Civil Society links with Malawi—Constituency Mapping: Holyrood”. The Scotland Malawi Partnership helps to support, connect and represent over 1,000 organisations and key individuals linked with Malawi across Scotland, including in my constituency of Rutherglen and Cambuslang. The mapping document provides details of individuals and organisations with links to Malawi in each of the Scottish Parliament’s constituencies, which clearly illustrates the breadth and depth of the ties between the two countries.
I know that many MSPs across the chamber have, over the years, been strong advocates of those ties, and their origins sit within my constituency, which is home to Scotland’s town of Blantyre. To be frank, the shared name can occasionally lead to some amusing search results, in particular on weather applications. When I was writing my speech, I saw that both Blantyres were set to enjoy sunny intervals this afternoon, albeit with a 13°C difference in temperature.
Blantyre in Malawi was founded in October 1876 by Scottish missionaries, and named after the birthplace of David Livingstone. He was born in 1813, in a small tenement flat in Shuttle Row in Blantyre, which housed workers from a cotton factory on the banks of the Clyde. Today, the building is home to the David Livingstone Birthplace museum, which is a much-loved local landmark. In 2021, I attended the museum’s reopening after its multimillion-pound regeneration project.
The updated museum now hosts a new range of collections, which, as well as telling Livingstone’s story, tell the stories of the African men and women in his exploration crews, and highlight his ongoing legacy. It is a fabulous resource, not least because there are moments from his story that link directly to numerous current cultural issues. Those resources can be and are used, including by many school groups, as a jumping-off point to discuss issues such as racism, climate change, black history and women’s history. Every Malawian President has visited Scotland at least once, and has been sure to include a visit to the museum.
In August, at the David Livingstone Birthplace museum, I attended the launch of a new book—"Blantyre: Urban Evolution—A Photographic History”. It was a real pleasure to meet the author, Jonathan Waters, and Stuart and Chad from the Scotland Malawi Partnership, plus many others who share in maintaining and strengthening the ties between our two countries.
For more than 20 years, the Scotland Malawi Partnership has helped Scottish and Malawian people and organisations to work together as equal partners. It is thanks to the partnership’s dedication that those links and relationships that blossomed a century and a half ago have endured and flourished. In 2015, the then chair of the partnership, the Rev Professor Kenneth Ross, said that the partnership that had developed between the two nations over the past 150 years was
“the living legacy of … Livingstone”,
and described it as
“a friendship defined and underpinned by mutual understanding and mutual respect, by solidarity and support.”
Today, an estimated 46 per cent of Scots personally know someone with a link to Malawi. Each year, more than 109,000 Scots are involved with a civic link to Malawi, and more than 208,000 Malawians are actively involved in links with Scotland. Those relationships encompass communities, schools and universities, businesses and civil society organisations in both countries, having grown far beyond their historical origins—a living legacy indeed. However, those civic links are only one part of the jigsaw.
In 2005, the Scottish Government formalised its partnership working with the Malawian Government, focusing on areas including health, education, gender equality and climate change. More recently, the Government has sought to expand the relationship by encouraging trade, investment and co-operation in relation to renewable energy work. Scotland-Malawi links have created opportunities for two-way learning in areas including sustainable agriculture, community-led development, education, health and climate resilience. Those strong connections are increasingly important in a changing global context. Climate breakdown, rising debt burdens, conflict and weakening international co-operation are placing growing pressures on lower-income countries.
One of the most pressing challenges that the Malawian Government faces is building the best possible education system for Malawi’s children and young people. Malawi has one of the youngest age structures in the world, with around two thirds of the population under 25. I am proud to be the MSP for the constituency in which the Classrooms for Malawi charity is based. Classrooms for Malawi works out of Rutherglen, and its main focus is on building and improving school facilities in the country to help tackle overcrowding. Due to a lack of classroom space, pupil-to-teacher ratios in Malawi are almost unimaginably high. The Malawian Government target is 60 learners per teacher; however, the usual ratio is 124:1. In standard 1, which is equivalent to our primary 1, the average ratio is 130:1.
Classrooms for Malawi works side by side with Malawian communities and local authorities to identify schools that are in urgent need of infrastructure improvements. In consultation with community leaders, parents, teachers and local authorities, the charity employs local tradesmen, working with locally sourced materials, to construct classrooms. Through its work and its partnerships, the charity has now completed 207 school builds and renovations to date. That is an incredible achievement.
I look forward to hearing from other members about the Scotland-Malawi links in their constituencies. While those links are founded in friendship, however, today they are operating against an international backdrop of rising right-wing populism and declining political support for international development from some of the world’s most powerful nations. The 150th anniversary of Blantyre is an opportunity to celebrate the remarkable relationship between our two countries. It is also an opportunity to pause and reflect, and recommit to that relationship, and to tackle together the challenges that our nations face.
The time limit for all speeches in the open debate is four minutes, but time will be added for interventions.
17:51
I commend Clare Haughey for securing this important debate on the 150th anniversary of Blantyre in Malawi.
When I was preparing my speech on Scotland’s relationship with Malawi, I wondered, while thinking that it was all very interesting, how I could find an angle to include my constituency of Uddingston and Bellshill. As it happens, there is a bridge connecting the towns of Blantyre and Bothwell in my constituency that is named after the very man who connects the two countries: David Livingstone. One end of that bridge opens into the town of Bothwell, and the other into the David Livingstone visitor centre in Low Blantyre, so perhaps the connection is not quite as tenuous as I first thought.
However, the more I looked into the Scotland-Malawi relationship, the more I realised that the important connection is not really the geographical one—it is the human connection. Every Scottish constituency has people-to-people links with Malawi, and that includes Uddingston and Bellshill. North Lanarkshire is represented by organisations such as Noble primary school in Bellshill, where pupils have met Malawian coffee farmers and learned about fair trade and its impact on communities. Just down the road, Bothwell parish church has been developing a relationship with a congregation in Malawi, with the aim of learning from each other as well as sharing experiences and expertise.
Those might sound like small examples, but they are important. When we talk about international relationships, it is easy to picture Governments, ministers and people in suits and official delegations, but relationships do not work like that. They are built by people, and the connections run in both directions. One wonderful example is the MV Ilala—I hope that I have pronounced that right—which is the ferry that has served communities around Lake Malawi for 75 years. It was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Scotstoun and then transported to Malawi in pieces and reassembled there. A ship that was built on the Clyde became part of everyday life for people around Lake Malawi.
There is a modern political dimension, too. As a Scottish National Party MSP, I am particularly pleased to see the work that is supported through the SNP’s Westminster Foundation for Democracy programme with Malawi’s parliamentary women’s caucus. That work has included supporting women parliamentarians on gender-responsive budgeting, political participation and electoral integrity. It shows what a modern international relationship can look like, and it is not about Scotland simply giving something to Malawi—it is about sharing our experiences, strengthening our institutions and learning from one another.
That matters when we think about climate change in particular. Malawi has contributed relatively little to the causes of the climate crisis, yet its people are dealing with some of the most serious consequences of that crisis, in particular because agriculture is so important to the country’s economy and extreme weather can have devastating impacts. That gives us a reason not simply to offer support, but to listen and learn and ensure that we work together.
Is the member aware of the work that the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee did last year in relation to Malawi? We looked at the relatively small amounts that were given to Malawi that helped it to map wells in the country and found that the mapping was vital during the floods, because it meant that the country was able to highlight which communities were in danger. That is an example of why we do international work and why it is so important for countries.
Ms Adamson has put on the record just how important these connections between our local communities are. The work of that previous committee was vastly important, and I hope that it will continue with the new committee. She is right that small sums of money can make a difference. Scotland is a wealthy country and we can offer small sums that make big differences.
Perhaps that is why the debate matters even to someone who represents Uddingston and Bellshill. Internationalism does not mean that every Scottish community needs to have a direct connection with every country in the world; it means recognising that our communities are connected in ways that we do not always see in our day-to-day lives. A school partnership can change the outlook of a child; a community link can become a friendship; a friendship can become a project; and a project can change lives, just as Ms Adamson said. That is how an international relationship becomes a local relationship.
So, what does Malawi have to do with Uddingston and Bellshill? Nothing, if we think of international relations as something that happens between Governments and distant capitals—or quite a lot, if we understand those links as relationships between people.
17:56
I thank Clare Haughey for bringing the debate to the chamber. I was recently asked to join the cross-party group on Malawi, so I have already been looking at the relationship between Scotland and Malawi. As Clare Haughey pointed out in her contribution, it is a long-term, wonderful and interesting relationship—the word that she used was “remarkable”. It started with the unique Scotland-Malawi friendship, rooted in the 1859 journey of explorer David Livingstone—as other members have mentioned—and, as the motion highlights, the founding of Blantyre in Malawi. The friendship dates back to the explorer’s travels across Malawi in 1859. That was followed by decades of church, educational and community links and, as others have mentioned, civic relationships.
The origins of the modern relationship are easily recalled to the mind of anyone who was interested in the Scottish Parliament from its early years. As an outsider to the Parliament at that time, I remember that the former First Minister Jack McConnell established the official intergovernmental co-operation agreement between Scotland and Malawi in 2005. I think that it is fair to say that he understood that the agreement’s civic roots were key to its success. As other members have said, it was not simply about the intergovernmental links; it was important to build on the deep historical ties that we had with Malawi, rather than just signing a formal agreement between Governments.
I am glad that the relationship was renewed and updated in 2018. At that point, we were looking at things that mattered to people such as co-operation on health, education and skills, sustainable economic development and renewables and energy—the things that we talk about in the Parliament every day—and the links between people, communities, schools, universities, churches and charities. My understanding, from speaking to many people once I knew that I would be joining the cross-party group, is that the agreement provides for wonderful co-operation between the two countries and sees them operating on an equal level. That may be unique in terms of the ways that other international development funds work.
The Scotland Malawi Partnership, as Clare Haughey mentioned, has sent members a briefing, which has included, for me, a wonderful report about the projects in my region. For example, it highlights that, 15 years ago, the St Andrews Charitable Trust built a school, which has grown from 96 children to more than 1,000. It has five school buildings, along with teachers’ houses and solar panels, and the trust provides things such as mosquito nets, food, school books and equipment. There is a close relationship that is tangible in what it provides. I was also interested to read about the Fair Trade Electives medical elective partnership work. It looks like an amazing partnership, in which both groups gain so much from working together.
I want to highlight some of the work that is done to support women and girls. Scotland and Malawi have worked together on a number of initiatives that are focused on improving outcomes for women and girls in key areas such as education, including access to education, reproductive health, empowering women and leadership. Those are all important elements.
I also pay tribute in particular to the work that has been done by Susan Dalgety, who was an adviser to Jack McConnell at the time of the original Scotland-Malawi agreement. It shows how important that agreement was to the Scottish Parliament that someone who was working at that stage still shows such a commitment to the project, and in particular to women and girls. That work has certainly sparked my interest—I have read many articles and followed what is happening on social media. In fact, I noticed from social media today that Susan Dalgety is on her way to Malawi, so I will be interested in hearing about the exciting work that may come from that visit.
If the Presiding Officer will give me a moment, I will just add one point, given that I have been speaking about women. I have been doing some work about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, in particular around women. We know that the embargo is causing problems with electricity and the supply of flour and bread, and the impact on women in Cuba has been enormous. As this debate is about international collaboration, I wonder whether members might also take a look at some of the humanitarian needs in Cuba.
However, given the time, Presiding Officer, I will stop now. I simply say that I really appreciate the debate coming to the chamber, and I hope that our friendship with Malawi continues well into the future.
18:01
I thank Clare Haughey for lodging the motion—I was happy to support it and to have this debate in the chamber today.
As someone who has spent a reasonable amount of time in South Africa and travelled more broadly around southern Africa, I can attest, although I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting Malawi, that the Malawians whom I have had the pleasure of meeting to date have all been incredibly kind, warm and welcoming people, and I think that that is reflected in the friendship and links between our two countries.
The motion focuses on Blantyre’s founding by Scottish missionaries in 1876. That role in founding what is now Malawi’s financial and commercial capital set the tone of Scottish and British influence in Malawi in the 19th and 20th centuries. Scottish and British cultural influence was instrumental in making the state that we now recognise as Malawi. Schools and educational institutions such as the Henry Henderson Institute in Blantyre, the Overtoun Institution in Livingstonia, the Kondowe teacher training institution, Livingstonia secondary school and Livingstonia theological training, the Loudon Embangweni school, the Bandawe school, the Ekwendeni school and St Andrews school in Blantyre were all found by Scots or based on Scottish theological and educational principles.
Hospitals such as the Blantyre, Mulanje, Ekwendeni and Loudon mission hospitals and Bandawe medical station, among many others, were founded with the input of Scots and Scottish civil and religious bodies. It was Britain, including many Scots, that ended the barbaric practice of the slave trade in and around Lake Malawi in the 1890s as the country became a British protectorate—long before that, Scottish missionaries had long campaigned against the barbaric practice in the region. Of course, that feat was replicated across many other countries in Africa to put an end to that heinous and barbaric practice.
Indeed, Scottish religious and cultural influence in Malawi runs so deep that Malawi’s first post-independence Prime Minister and then President, Hastings Banda, who ruled the country from 1964 until 1994, was a practising member of the Church of Scotland. To this day, between 14 and 18 per cent of the population of Malawi are members of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian congregation.
Scottish and British positive influence on what is now Malawi also extended to the realms of infrastructure and commerce. Key commercial enterprises that powered the economy of what was then the British Central Africa Protectorate from 1891 to 1907, and then Nyasaland until 1964, before the independence of what we now know as Malawi, were driven by the principles and influence of commercially minded Scots. The African Lakes Corporation was founded in 1877 by Scottish businessmen to co-ordinate commercial interests with Presbyterian missionaries. That business did not cease trading until 2007, which highlights the bridging of our modern links to Malawi with the traditional links that go back right back to the 19th century.
That period also saw the development of key infrastructure and transport links in what is now Malawi that shaped that modern nation. The Shire Highlands railway, the central Africa railway, the Blantyre-Salima railway extension and the telegraph, postal and telephone networks that helped to shape the country were developed in that period. Scotland and Britain should be enormously proud of our history and our links in Malawi, and our links with countries like Malawi around the world.
Of course, as the motion mentions, there are still significant links between Scotland and Malawi to this day. I commend the work of voluntary groups and their efforts in Malawi, but I must also caution against the use of taxpayers’ money to fill in for the work of foreign Governments that are not delivering for their citizens. After all, empire did not end to be replaced by a humanitarian empire.
To conclude, the motion is right to celebrate the very real, important—
Will the member give way?
I am about to come to a conclusion, but I will be delighted to.
I hear what the member is saying about international development, but we heard from Clare Adamson and Steven Bonnar about the importance of even small amounts of money to countries such as Malawi, as they can make a huge difference to the lives of the people there. Does he not accept that, although his party might have an ethos of not wishing to give money to overseas Governments, that money can actually save lives and make a huge difference to the quality of life of people in countries that are poorer than the United Kingdom?
Again, I am happy to commend the work of voluntary organisations. I think that Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom have a proud record of voluntary organisations working in other countries. However, my concern relates to our system of government having to step in and take the place of foreign Governments that are not delivering for their own people.
This Parliament should endeavour to maintain and foster the friendship that we have with the people of Malawi, and we should also endeavour to foster and maintain that pride in and recognition of the positive role of Scots, and of Britain as a whole, in countries such as Malawi. We should never be apologetic for our role in the world. Malawi is a fantastic example of the role that we can play.
18:06
Prior to being elected in May, I spent much of my career working in international development. Most of that involved working with communities in the Arab world and, for a little bit, in east Africa, but never, sadly, in Malawi. Therefore, I am really excited to learn more about and learn from work that is happening in Malawi, to hear more about the people of Blantyre, which sounds like an incredible city, and to engage with the Malawian diaspora here in Scotland.
As the Scottish Green Party spokesperson on international development, I believe strongly in centring feminist, anti-racist and decolonial approaches in international and domestic affairs. In particular, I believe in thinking about power sharing in our partnerships and moving away from the more traditional top-down notions of capacity building. I am really interested in what can be learned from the relationship between Scotland and Malawi about building partnerships that are rooted in equality, respect and mutual learning.
At the Scottish International Development Alliance’s conference last week, it was great to hear international development expert Mikaela Gavas talking about the distinctive civic partnership that underlies Scotland’s support for Malawi—a partnership of reciprocity, which does not involve parachute-in pilot schemes.
I love the fact that Scotland and Malawi are together pioneering really progressive models of international development through the climate justice fund, taking a rights-based and participatory approach with local ownership at its core, where communities actively design, implement and monitor interventions rather than being passive recipients of aid, and where climate justice and climate resilience strategies are thought about in terms of how they can also advance gender and disability justice and vice versa.
I am pleased to see that the Scottish Government is committing to increasing both its international development fund and the climate justice fund, but we need to ensure that those increases are front-loaded in year one and are inflation-proof. Scotland cannot offset the devastating cuts coming from the UK, the US and elsewhere, particularly to places such as Malawi, but we can do things differently and honour our commitments and our partnerships. Further, as Clare Haughey says, a small amount can make a great difference.
Scotland’s partnership with Malawi also has huge potential in terms of other ways of thinking about aid, international solidarity and shifting power away from the global minority. The climate justice fund is a loss-and-damage fund, which recognises that those who are least responsible for climate change often suffer its worst impacts. The climate justice fund was described by Nicola Sturgeon not as an act of charity, but as an act of reparation, which was, in my opinion, a really inspiring direction of travel.
Building on that, we should also be thinking about how Scotland can support international calls for reparations for the harms that have been caused by slavery and colonialism, including backing the Caribbean Community—CARICOM—reparations framework and learning from Malawi’s domestic national compensation tribunal and Malawians’ efforts in the past decade to seek reparations for when peaceful protesters were massacred by British colonial forces in Nyasaland. We should also think about how Scotland can interrogate its own colonial legacy in Malawi.
Debt cancellation serves as a core mechanism of reparatory justice and a significant thing that we could be doing in Scotland is pushing for global debt justice and working with our partners in Malawi to ensure that Malawi’s voice is heard in conversations around global debt, finance and tax justice. Malawi has an unsustainable debt burden and, last year, the International Monetary Fund described Malawi as being in debt distress. As Scotland’s International Development Alliance notes, that debt is limiting Malawi’s available resources for sustainable development to fund health, education and climate resilience.
That issue was also acknowledged by the Scottish Government during the Commonwealth games in a statement that was agreed alongside representatives of the Government of Malawi. I urge the Scottish Government to continue working in partnership with Malawi on the issue, to support the global call for debt reduction, to promote debt justice internationally, to back fairer global tax rules and stronger representation of countries such as Malawi in international financial decision making, and to perhaps offer Scotland as a seat of arbitration for foreign debt.
It has been a privilege to take part in this debate, and I look forward to continuing these conversations, learning from our partners and the Malawian diaspora here in Scotland and helping to strengthen a relationship that feels like it is built on solidarity, mutual respect and a shared hope for the future.
18:11
I start by congratulating Clare Haughey on securing this debate. I should declare an interest as a member of the Scotland Malawi Partnership.
Clare Haughey took us through a list of links that places across Scotland have with Malawi. I have a long list from my region, but I will restrict myself to the one closest to my home, which is the fact that the Rotary Club of Perth Kinnoull contributes to the cost of polytunnels and solar pumps to help farmers in Malawi. I know that many other similar groups are doing likewise across the country.
I had the privilege of visiting Blantyre some years ago on a parliamentary trip. It was fascinating to see that bustling city, which is now the capital of commerce in Malawi and is, as Clare Haughey states, 150 years old this year. Clare Haughey quite rightly identifies Blantyre as being named after the birthplace of David Livingstone, the great Scottish missionary explorer. It speaks volumes that, such is the affection in Malawi for the memory of David Livingstone, Blantyre retains its original Scottish name when many other African countries have cast off their colonial identity.
As we know, Livingstone was the first white man to see the Victoria Falls on the River Zambezi, and a statue still stands today in recognition of that feat. However, his primary interest in travelling to Africa was not exploration, at least not at first. He was motivated by the ambition to spread the Christian message. He was trained as a medical missionary and was sent out by the London Missionary Society in 1840. It has to be said that he was not, in his lifetime, a great success as a missionary, winning perhaps as few as two converts to the faith over the many years that he spent in Africa. However, the legacy of his work, and that of subsequent Scottish missionaries, is evident today in Malawi, which is one of the strongest Christian countries in the world. The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian is closely aligned to the Church of Scotland, and there continue to be many close links between Scottish church congregations here and projects in Malawi as a result.
Livingstone had a second ambition, and that was the extinction of the slave trade. Britain had abolished the slave trade in the early 19th century, and, from that time, much of the resources of the empire, including the Royal Navy, were devoted to stamping out the horrific trade in human beings across the Atlantic.
I thank Mr Fraser and Mr Langan for their contributions, but does the member acknowledge that, despite the fact that slavery was abolished, it was replaced by a colonial system that was equally as devastating and had huge impacts across Africa and other parts of Asia?
Well, I am going to come on and talk about the Scottish influence in Africa, as I think that is really important to mention when I am talking specifically about David Livingstone’s role.
Even the crushing of the Atlantic slave trade did not stop what was the far greater evil of the Arab slave trade that operated throughout the east of Africa, which funnelled men, women and children through Zanzibar to the ports of Arabia. When we hear today calls for European nations to pay reparations for slavery, we should never forget that the Arab slave trade lasted far longer and was far more damaging to Africa than anything that was done in Europe. Livingstone and his compatriots knew that African chiefs were complicit in that dreadful trade, capturing members of neighbouring tribes or even selling members of their own tribes to the Arab slave traders.
We know that, on 1 June 1840, Livingstone attended a meeting in Exeter hall in the Strand in London, which was mounted by the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and for the Civilisation of Africa. At that meeting it was proposed that Africa could be saved from the slave trade only if it could be opened up to the prospect of commerce—if African chiefs could be persuaded that they could trade with their own produce rather than human beings, the slave trade could be brought to an end. It was not Christianity alone that would save Africa, but Christianity coupled with commerce. It was that dual ambition that drove Livingstone throughout his career. All his endeavours in Africa to open up the centre to new trade routes were driven by that ambition to extend commerce.
Livingstone would not see success in that regard in his lifetime, but, one month after his death in 1873, an agreement was finally reached between Britain and the Sultan of Zanzibar to end the slave trade, and the horrendous traffic in human beings was finally extinguished.
After his death, Livingstone’s body was taken by his loyal supporters to be buried in Westminster abbey, but his greatest monument was the end of the African slave trade. That is why his legacy remains preserved today, with his birthplace in Blantyre being recognised in that city in Malawi 150 years later.
I hope that, in this debate and going forward, we can build on the links between Scotland and Malawi and reflect on our shared history and on what our two countries have done for each other.
18:17
I, too, thank Clare Haughey, my fellow co-convener of the cross-party group on Malawi, for securing what has been an excellent debate. There has been a lot of agreement but, as is the case in all good debates, some challenging perspectives have also been raised—we have heard some from Murdo Fraser, and I congratulate him on his speech.
I have been a member of the Malawi cross-party group since first being elected in 2007. My interest in the country was piqued by the late Reverend Andrew Ross. I got to know the Reverend Ross—or the Doc, as we knew him—in Edinburgh University Association Football Club during my time at university. He talked to me about his experience as a minister in Malawi—one who had been expelled by President Hastings Banda back in the day. I was pleased to see, on a subsequent visit to Malawi, that the Doc had the last laugh, as his grave is in the missionary cemetery in Blantyre.
I also thank the Scotland Malawi Partnership, not just for its support of the cross-party group, but for the wider work that it and its sister partnership in Malawi do in supporting those relationships. The report that it produced demonstrates those ties across every constituency in the country, speaking to the depth and diversity that Clare Haughey referred to, but also to the people-to-people, community-to-community nature of the relationship, which is what provides the foundations for the political links. Jack McConnell, the former First Minister, deserves enormous credit for the step that he took in establishing the co-operation agreement in 2005, and for the ongoing and enduring support that he provides to that relationship. It is one that successive Scottish National Party Governments have picked up and run with.
Earlier, Kate Nevens quoted Mikaela Gavas from the Center for Global Development, who also said:
“Scotland's international development fund is small by global standards, but it has built a reputation for being principled, predictable and partner-led at a moment when much larger donors are becoming transactional and unpredictable. That reputational capital is worth protecting.”
That is an important point, and there are questions about how we sustain funded projects after the funding stops. The Parliament also has questions to answer about our relationship with the National Assembly, which to me appears to have receded over recent years. There may be good reasons for that, but we need to keep revisiting that to see where we can lend support, and we should draw confidence from those ongoing and enduring civic ties.
In Orkney, as is the case everywhere else, there is a strong local story to tell, with connections between the presbyteries in Orkney and Thyolo being well established. I pay tribute to my good friend Kester Chiwalo, who was a great friend of Orkney and who has sadly passed away since I last participated in a debate of this kind. Nicky Thompson, on the island of Sanday, was a driving force behind the twinning between the school in Sanday that I went to and the one in Minga outside Lilongwe. That arrangement was established at the time of the co-operation agreement in 2005 and has delivered huge benefits to staff and pupils in both those schools. There is also ongoing work to support Mary’s Meals, which has a huge and beneficial presence across Malawi.
I also pay tribute to Glenys Hughes, the force behind the Malawi Music Fund, which has helped to deliver Umodzi house, a hostel for vulnerable girls in Malawi that was built and opened in 2023 and partners with local Malawian teachers to deliver educational opportunities in music and art. In the past year alone, the Malawi Music Fund has supported nine youngsters through secondary school and two students through university courses in special needs education, and has enabled four youngsters to undertake vocational courses in plumbing, fitting, community development and agriculture and one to begin a diploma course in pharmacy.
That is not a one-way street; it is a relationship from which both countries have extracted huge benefit. That happens at a human level, between people and communities, and at Parliament to Parliament and Government to Government level. That political and civic work is symbiotic. As Mikaela Gavas observed, it is:
“civic depth sitting alongside sustained government funding, each lending the other credibility. That pairing is the model worth Scotland protecting”.
I again thank Clare Haughey for securing an excellent debate and I offer, “Zikomo,” to our friends in the warm heart of Africa.
18:22
I am grateful to Clare Haughey for securing this debate to mark not only 150 years of Blantyre in Malawi but the longstanding relationship between Scotland and Malawi.
As someone with deep and life-long personal connections to Southern Africa—though a little bit further south than Blantyre—I know that relationships between Scotland and African countries are not simply stories of Scottish people going abroad. They are stories of people, communities and countries shaping one another, sometimes through solidarity, sometimes through struggle and sometimes through profoundly unequal and unjust power relationships. I recognise the anniversary, while also being honest about its history. Blantyre was, as we have heard, founded 150 years ago by Scottish missionaries and named after David Livingstone’s birthplace, but that was not the moment of discovery that colonial histories would so often have us believe. People already lived there, had their own histories, cultures and political systems and were the protagonists of their own stories.
Nor should we airbrush Scotland’s role in colonialism. Scotland was part of the British imperial project, and Scottish institutions and businesses benefited from multiple systems of exploitation and racial hierarchy. The Scotland Malawi Partnership is right to encourage us to have a critical understanding of that history, including the resistance to colonialism led by Malawians such as John Chilembwe. That honesty does not diminish friendship. I would argue that it makes genuine friendship possible, because what I value most about the relationship between Scotland and Malawi today is that it is increasingly about partnership, solidarity and support, rather than pity, charity or paternalism.
We see that clearly in the work of organisations across our country. I was delighted to meet members of Famine Relief for Orphans in Malawi—FROM Scotland—in Inverurie earlier this year. Since 2005, that remarkable Aberdeenshire organisation has raised almost £800,000 through the generosity and hard work of local people. That money has supported communities in Malawi with early years development, hundreds of meals every day for children, nursery schools, teacher training, health centres, maternity facilities, clean water, sanitation and much more. It has helped to provide safe accommodation for girls pursuing secondary education and has supported young people into university.
That support comes from that deep-rooted sense of connection. It is not an abstract international development policy—it is people in Aberdeenshire standing alongside and with people in Malawi. They are also part of something much bigger. The Scotland Malawi Partnership connects more than 1,300 Scottish organisations and individuals with partners in Malawi. Alongside its sister organisation, the Malawi Scotland Partnership, it helps sustain thousands of relationships between communities, schools, universities, health organisations and charities. We should protect that infrastructure.
At the recent conference of Scotland’s International Development Alliance, as we have already heard from Kate Nevens and Liam McArthur, Mikaela Gavas described the combination of Scotland’s civic links and sustained Government support for Malawi as a “model worth … protecting”. At a time when international development is under enormous pressure, including the devastating UK Government cuts to aid for Malawi and many other countries, we must not retreat into isolation. We should protect the Scotland Malawi Partnership, support the Malawi Scotland Partnership, and value the work of Scotland’s International Development Alliance and Scottish Fair Trade.
I am grateful to all those who will continue the work of the Holyrood cross-party group on Malawi, so that this Parliament continues to be part of that relationship. I am only sorry that I cannot commit to formal membership.
Presiding Officer, 150 years after the founding of Blantyre, let us not simply celebrate a shared past; we have the opportunity—and, I would argue, the responsibility—to build a shared future based on genuine equality, justice, anti-colonial solidarity and mutual respect.
I call the minister to respond to the debate.
18:26
I thank Clare Haughey for bringing the debate to the Parliament and for giving all of us the opportunity to mark this significant milestone. I also want to thank colleagues across the chamber for their contributions. The strength of feeling from members who have spoken today reflects the Scotland-Malawi relationship, the Scotland Malawi Partnership and the Malawi Scotland Partnership, and the value that people across both of these countries continue to place on that relationship.
We have heard powerful examples this evening of many of the connections that bind Scotland and Malawi. Again, I thank Clare Haughey for giving us a glimpse of that historical significance, especially around the work and legacy of David Livingstone, which Steven Bonnar and Carol Mochan have mentioned as well.
I found Liam McArthur’s contribution really insightful and hugely helpful about that two-way relationship and mutual benefit as well.
I completely agree with Maggie Chapman’s remarks about being honest as a society and community about the impact of both the slave trade and colonialism. Two wrongs do not make a right, and I genuinely hope that we can acknowledge the impact of the empire beyond.
The First Minister saw the strength of those connections for himself during his visit to Malawi last year, which was the first visit by any First Minister since 2005. He spoke of the warmth of the welcome that he received and of seeing first-hand the impact of partnerships in health, education, gender-equality promotion and climate resilience. In Blantyre, he met Malawi’s first cohort of home-grown dentists and saw how that long-standing collaboration between Scottish and Malawian institutions continues to create opportunities and improve lives.
The minister is absolutely right to point to the First Minister’s visit, which was very warmly welcomed. Huge progress has been made in health, education and sustainable development in a range of areas.
She talked about dentistry projects; in a cross-party group discussion the towards the end of the previous parliamentary session, a problem was identified in that dentists would be trained but there was not necessarily a pathway for them to enter into practice. That picks up the point that I made in my speech about the ability of projects to make a difference—once the funding ends, what happens to the objectives that we all want to see happen?
I will capture Mr McArthur’s comments on funding later in one of my remarks, but he makes a really important point about international development and continued funding to ensure that the work continues.
To return to the First Minister’s visit, the programme that he observed takes us back to Mr Fraser’s contribution and the point about civil society. The First Minister met with civil society leaders and visited St Michael and All Angels church, highlighting the enduring role that faith communities, local organisations and citizen-led partnerships continue to play in the relationship between our two countries. These experiences demonstrate that the Scotland-Malawi relationship is not simply one between Governments but one rooted in friendship and people-to-people connections.
Last week, at the Scotland’s International Development Alliance conference, I had the opportunity to hear directly from organisations working with partners in Malawi and other partner countries. Those discussions highlighted the importance of having a long-term partnership and ensuring that local voices and priorities shape our approach. I really welcome the publication of Jonathan Waters’s book, “Blantyre: Urban Evolution—A Photographic History”, and I look forward to the opportunity to learn more about the city’s story, including from members’ contributions in the chamber. This evening’s speeches demonstrate the breadth of that relationship, and Parliament has played an important role in supporting those connections.
Since our international development programme began in 2005—I thank Carol Mochan for her contribution on this—our work has been shaped by that partnership and by solidarity and a commitment to working alongside communities and our partner countries. As I said, we also recognise the complex historical context in which international development operates, including the legacy of colonialism. That understanding has strengthened our commitment to partner country-led development, amplifying local voices and ensuring that we take a rights-based approach. Through Scotland’s international development fund and climate justice fund, Malawian organisations and communities are working with partners in Scotland and internationally to improve health and expand educational opportunities.
: To pick up on Mr McArthur’s points, does the minister support the work of the University of the West of Scotland and other colleges and universities that have been involved in training midwives in Malawi, for example. That can be done remotely using new technology. In the modern world, it is possible to reach out to help and support people in Malawi in that way.
I wholeheartedly support Ms Adamson’s point, which goes back to the point about this being a two-way partnership, with mutual respect and understanding.
On the challenges, we cannot ignore the increasingly challenging international context in which this work takes place, which takes me to Mr McArthur’s intervention. Significant reductions in the UK Government’s overseas development assistance are having a profound impact on many countries, including Malawi. I am really sad that Mr Langan actually applauded the fact that there has been a cut to that assistance, because the reductions represent a 90 per cent bilateral funding cut by the UK Government. I go back to Mr McArthur’s point about how we sustain these important partnerships and programmes. The truth is that I am worried that some of the legacy of the work that we have done, which was all those years in the making, is now in danger because of the funding reductions.
I thank the minister for being generous and taking a second intervention. I certainly agree with the concerns that have been expressed across the chamber—or rather by a number of colleagues—in relation to the reduction, not just as a result of the reduced UK overseas aid contribution but the decisions that have been taken by the US at the same time. However, actually, the issue of the sustainability of some of the projects that have been supported in Malawi predate those decisions and were a reflection of the difficulties of sustaining projects beyond the end of the funding. I accept that, when the funding squeeze tightens, those problems are probably exacerbated and widened, but this issue has not arisen only since the decision to cut the UK aid budget.
It is important to recognise that Scotland is a very small partner on the global stage. If there is anything that we can do within that space, I would be more than happy to speak to Mr McArthur about it. These are important issues, on which he and I can work together to ensure that work can continue.
At the same time, I encourage all colleagues across different parties to urge the UK Government to reconsider the reductions in aid. The decisions taken today will have a lasting consequence on some of the world’s poorest communities, and on our shared ambition to tackle poverty, inequality and climate vulnerability, given the super-El Niño impacts that we might experience.
Despite the challenges, Scotland remains committed to playing its part as a good global citizen. The Scotland-Malawi relationship demonstrates what can be achieved through long-term partnership, mutual respect and a shared commitment to addressing those common challenges.
As Blantyre celebrates its important anniversary, we honour a shared history that truly spans generations. Just as importantly, we celebrate the friendships, collaboration and spirit of solidarity that continue to define the relationship between Scotland and Malawi today. The debate has shown that those connections remain strong, and that gives me every confidence that the relationship between Scotland and Malawi will continue to flourish in the years ahead.
I once again thank Clare Haughey for her motion and all members for their contributions. On behalf of the Scottish Government, I offer my warmest congratulations to the people of Blantyre on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, and I wish them every success for the celebrations ahead.
As they say in the Chewa language, zikomo kwambiri.
Meeting closed at 18:37.
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