The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-11272, in the name of Jim Eadie, on the 35th anniversary of Mercy Corps. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament celebrates what it sees as 35 years of Mercy Corps’ positive contribution to the world; notes that it was established in the USA in 1979 as the Save the Refugees Fund; understands that, after changing its name, in 1996 it merged with the Edinburgh-based Scottish European Aid to launch its European-led operations; notes that these are headquartered in Edinburgh; thanks Mercy Corps on what it sees as its ongoing efforts to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of international development; believes that its work has helped improve 229 million lives in 115 countries; understands that it is currently working in over 40 countries; notes that 93% of its staff are from these countries and believes that its determination to work with locally-based people has given it a deep insight into the problems and solutions needed in the areas in which it operates; understands that it aims to solve a multitude of issues, including the marginalisation of women and minorities, responding to conflict, and dealing with economic collapse and natural disasters; supports it in what it sees as its approach toward long-term recovery by staying in the country beyond any initial emergencies to help ensure stability; applauds Mercy Corps in its continued presence in Pakistan, Liberia, Haiti, Gaza, Afghanistan and Indonesia; believes that, in these countries, it aims to move communities from relief to recovery to resilience and it is committed to engaging market forces; recognises the bravery and determination of its staff who continue their operations in war-torn countries such as Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria while helping thousands of internally-displaced civilians; commends it on its work in Liberia to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus; supports the Scottish Government’s continued spending on international development and on the funding of non-governmental organisations such as Mercy Corps, and wishes Mercy Corps every success in its future endeavours.
17:07
I thank members across the chamber who have signed my motion and have stayed behind for the debate. I also welcome the staff of Mercy Corps and from the University of Edinburgh student charity group who have joined us in the gallery.
Scotland is leading the world in international development through the work of Mercy Corps, whose European headquarters is based in Edinburgh. The purpose of this debate, as well as to celebrate 35 years of one of the leading organisations in the field, is to focus attention on Scotland’s impact on and commitment to international development.
Before I focus on the activities of Mercy Corps, I would like to pay tribute to some of the other leading actors in the field in Scotland. The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, which is the official aid and development charity of the Catholic church in Scotland, works in 16 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Mary’s Meals feeds almost 1 million schoolchildren every day. Christian Aid Scotland works globally to eradicate poverty and is one of Scotland’s largest voluntary organisations, with 600 volunteer groups that are based in churches. Oxfam Scotland campaigns for an end to poverty and to raise awareness of climate justice.
As members can see, the sector is rich and varied. At the helm is the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland—NIDOS—which does fantastic work in promoting collaboration across the sector.
Mercy Corps Scotland has a total income of over £45 million. Its Edinburgh office supports country programmes in 34 countries around the world. There are 40 people in its Edinburgh office, who are employed as programme officers, international finance officers, compliance managers and fundraisers, covering the broad spectrum of fundraising.
The work of Mercy Corps covers the range of activity from immediate disaster relief, such as the provision of urgent water, food and shelter in the Gaza crisis last year—it is worth noting that, after the United Nations, Mercy Corps has the largest humanitarian presence on the ground in Gaza—to immediate recovery, such as its prevention of child soldiers programme in Colombia and its water and sanitation programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which will bring water to 1.5 million people over the next five years.
Ultimately, its activity also includes work on resilience, such as its programme in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is creating two eco-zones to strengthen capacity to withstand climate change. So far, 12 pilot projects have been implemented in innovative sustainable land management to address desertification, overgrazing, deforestation and water-management problems.
By combining those three areas of focus—immediate humanitarian response, rapid economic recovery and long-term resilience and self-reliance—Mercy Corps takes a distinct approach to international development work and creates a vehicle for lasting, sustainable improvement in people’s lives. It innovates and uses technology wherever possible, such as in its programmes in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Indonesia to improve food security. It is developing a suite of mobile-based products for smallholder farmers to provide them with market information and financial management practices to increase farm productivity.
Mercy Corps often begins working in a country during a humanitarian crisis, in which its immediate action saves lives and reduces suffering. Then, just as quickly, it extends its efforts to economic empowerment initiatives. In this way, it helps communities rapidly recover from the crisis and create mechanisms to increase their resilience to shocks and setbacks that are likely to recur.
Mercy Corps takes a distinct approach to international development work and, simply put, where others see intractable problems, it looks for opportunities for progress. It knows that local people are the best agents of the fastest, most durable economic recovery. That is why 93 per cent of its staff are local to the countries in which they work.
Closer to home, Mercy Corps has worked closely with a range of organisations through the Edinburgh disasters response committee. For the past six weeks, Mercy Corps and EDRC have been running a Christmas appeal. In previous years, with the generous support of the people of Edinburgh, they raised an incredible £430,000 for Haiti and a further £200,000 for Pakistan.
Last year was an unprecedented year for the humanitarian field. The world now has the highest number of people displaced since 1945. The United Nations declared four of the world’s humanitarian crises level 3, which is the organisation’s highest designation. They are in Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and the Central African Republic. Those are all countries in which Mercy Corps is working on the ground.
This year is going to be a watershed year. March will see the fourth anniversary of the commencement of the conflict in Syria, and Mercy Corps currently has the largest Department for International Development-funded response programme in that country. The rise in chronic crises is an area that Mercy Corps is working on, as it continues its work on economic development in fragile and conflict-prone states. That is something that we must all pay attention to. As the Ebola crisis in west Africa has shown, complex emergencies are impacting on longer-term development.
Also this year, the current millennium development goals will come to an end and new ones will be set. It is time to consider what Scotland’s role should be and what we can do as a society to help.
The Scottish Government’s international development fund—in relation to which I pay tribute to international development ministers past and present—has done great work in pursuit of the millennium development goals. How will it change to reflect the evolving development priorities?
We must pay more attention to complex emergencies that impact on development, and to the role of young people in that, recognising that disenfranchised and unemployed young people are critical to economic development and conflict resolution.
I am proud that the Scottish Government, with cross-party support, has provided assistance in major humanitarian emergencies over the past decade, fulfilling Scotland’s role as a good global citizen. Those have included the 2010 monsoon floods in Pakistan, the conflict in Syria, typhoon Haiyan, last summer’s crisis in Gaza and most recently the struggle against Ebola in west Africa. I believe that we need to develop a strategy to better respond to humanitarian crises in a more deliberate and proactive way. Mercy Corps and others have already been discussing how the Scottish Government responds to humanitarian crises, and we should consider how we formalise the process for triggering humanitarian aid, and whether we set up a separate humanitarian fund.
Scotland’s impact on the world is not limited to its international development and aid policies. How Scottish companies operate internationally, the consumer choices that people in Scotland make and a range of Government policies, including energy, climate and procurement policies, all have a major global impact.
We also need to mainstream gender equality and women’s empowerment in all of our international development programmes and ensure that they are at the heart of development work in the areas of education, health and employment.
In conclusion, let us congratulate Mercy Corps, whose projects over the past 35 years have improved beyond measure the lives of 229 million people in 115 countries across our planet. Let us pay tribute to all of the staff and volunteers who have made that work possible and let us wish them well in the work that they will do in the years ahead.
17:15
I congratulate Jim Eadie on bringing the motion to the chamber for debate and join him in recognising the truly global impact of Mercy Corps. In its 35th year of operation, it is right that we look back at its positive legacy in building resilient communities in times of crisis.
As the motion points out, Mercy Corps is active in communities in more than 40 countries and is funded entirely through charitable donations. It works with a clear vision to build more sustainable solutions to the problems that are borne of poverty, civil war, long-term economic hardship, religious persecution and social exclusion.
The charity’s success lies in its extensive knowledge of the communities and its contacts at the grass roots, which help it to form supportive networks across sectors and build resilience. As Mercy Corps puts it:
“We often enter during a humanitarian crisis, move rapidly to recovery, and then build long-term resilience to recurring stresses.”
Understanding how those recurring stresses emerge depends on its presence and contacts within the community. In all situations, those community-led solutions form the heart of the Mercy Corps strategy.
Mercy Corps does that using each developing country’s emergent technologies and focuses specifically on promoting gender equality, in recognition that doing so is an integral part of sustainable social and economic solutions. It also does that in the face of truly global problems. Poverty, conflict, weak governance, climate change and increasing population and food insecurity are all cited in the strategic road map as the cause of many long-term humanitarian crises and the barriers to tackling them.
I will touch on two countries that are mentioned in the motion: Haiti and Gaza. On 12 January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Many members will recall the devastating impact that that had on the country, particularly in the capital Port-au-Prince, where there were estimates of between 220,000 and 316,000 victims. More than 300,000 more people were injured.
The Mercy Corps representatives on the ground worked to ensure that survivors’ immediate needs—including food, water and post-trauma recovery—were addressed as a priority. That included providing 9.5 million litres of fresh water through water vouchers, purification tablets and high-capacity water filtration units. They also distributed more than 100,000 hygiene kits. Following that, they provided temporary jobs to more than 28,000 people who worked to clean up and begin rebuilding their communities. They also helped to restart the local economy by providing more than 180,000 Haitians with a cash transfer programme to purchase essentials for local markets. That allowed something of normal life to return to residents who had been badly traumatised.
A second example is Gaza, the horrors of which are fresh in everyone’s mind after recent events. In the midst of that intense conflict and frequent bombing in civilian areas, Mercy Corps was on the ground distributing urgent supplies of food and water. It also distributed hygiene kits with essentials such as soap, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, as well as heavy tarps that families could use as temporary shelter materials.
Mercy Corps also held—and still does, I believe—psychosocial sessions, which help children to express their feelings after severe trauma and teach parents how to deal with signs of psychological stress. Those happened before the two most recent wars and will continue as a key local service that is needed more with each year that passes.
Those are only two examples of how the work of Mercy Corps varies according to the situation. The salient factor in all circumstances is that it is rooted within the community and constitutes a constant and stable presence that understands the complexities of towns, cities, regions and countries and how to form local solutions that can be built on year by year as a community heals.
The scale of Mercy Corps’s ambitions and achievements is truly remarkable. I urge all members present—and all absent members—to visit its site, read the inspirational stories and watch the videos that come from around the world.
I congratulate Jim Eadie again on lodging the motion, which I fully support.
17:19
I thank Jim Eadie for bringing this motion to the chamber and I extend my congratulations to Mercy Corps in celebration of its 35th anniversary.
Since its establishment in 1979, Mercy Corps has, through its various activities, made a real difference to an increasing number of people. Currently, the organisation is implementing projects in more than 34 countries, ranging from war-torn regions such as Syria and Gaza to countries repeatedly hit by natural disasters, including Haiti and Sri Lanka.
Considering the devastating situation that many people are faced with daily in those and many other countries, I believe that we have a responsibility as an affluent nation to help. Having recognised its role as a modern global citizen, Scotland is committed to contribute to the fight against global poverty.
I express my solidarity with Malawi today, as the country was hit by severe floods last week. At least 176 people have died so far, more than 200,000 people have lost their homes and continued heavy rainfall is forecast in the coming weeks. Malawi’s president has appealed for international assistance. As the catastrophe has hit one of the poorest regions in the world, the country itself is not able to counteract the immediate damage and put in place a plan to help the country to rebuild structurally and economically. Therefore, I welcome the help that the First Minister has offered this week.
Besides providing desperately needed support in emergency situations, I believe that we should look at the wider picture and address the issues involved in international development in the long term. In recent years, some experts such as Zambian-born Dambisa Moyo have tried to discredit the impact of international aid. Over the past 50 years, over $1 trillion in aid has been transferred to Africa alone, although many Africans continue to live below subsistence levels. That argument is controversial, but it reminds us that international aid has to be scrutinised carefully if we want it to be sustainable.
Those are just some of the questions that must be asked. What are the purposes and goals of international development? How should it be implemented and who should implement it? How can Scotland contribute to a just and fair world? Mercy Corps seeks to answer those and similar questions daily. Thus it has created a framework for change, which focuses on three main elements: involving local communities; building on local markets and economies; and assistance in developing good governance.
Being aware of and actively encouraging all the stakeholders involved was identified as key to securing sustainable change. Mercy Corps projects connect the civil society with the private and public sectors to create secure, productive and just societies. The organisation also tries to strengthen the ties between all participating parties, enabling them to interact effectively with each other while facilitating their engagement with the local population. Lastly, the organisation has generated the ability to determine and truly understand the support needs of people in developing countries.
The latter point has led to a focus on promoting self-empowerment by providing people in developing countries with the tools to shape their own futures. It is therefore important that we focus not solely on the aid budget but on the overall impact of Scotland’s actions on international development.
Money alone cannot eradicate poverty. Instead we should take a coherent approach to pro-development policy. That can be achieved by promoting equality, human rights and democratic governance in all our external actions, especially in the areas of the economic and financial system, trade and climate justice. I am proud to say that even though Scotland is a small country, it is committed to sharing its experiences on issues ranging from public financial management to holding democratic elections and strengthening civil society.
Since the Scotland Malawi Partnership was established, it has facilitated networking, promoted best practice examples, and—not least—created many friendships across two geographically distant countries. Because of such achievements, I believe that it is important not only to consider what still has to be done but to remind ourselves of the work that has been accomplished by the Scotland Malawi Partnership and Mercy Corps. Many other organisations and volunteers are contributing to and continuing to strengthen Scotland’s impact on the world. I take this opportunity to mention Pauline Cafferkey and all the others who have bravely volunteered to support the fight against Ebola in the affected regions in West Africa.
Lastly, I congratulate Mercy Corps once more and wish its staff in Scotland, as well as in all those countries that work in partnership with Mercy Corps, continued success in their work.
17:24
I am pleased to support my friend Jim Eadie’s motion celebrating 35 years of Mercy Corps, and to discuss international development and the valuable work that charitable organisations such as Mercy Corps undertake.
Mercy Corps does a vast amount of work all over the world that makes a real difference to the lives of millions, as we have heard. Given that we are discussing international development, it is important that the Parliament acknowledges the work that is done by a number of other international non-governmental organisations such as Save the Children, CARE International and Médecins Sans Frontières. The common link among those organisations is that, through immense effort and dedication, they spread their impact and make a noticeable positive difference on a global scale.
As Mercy Corps is aware, it takes more than donating large sums of money to make a lasting difference in international development. The fact that Mercy Corps has helped to improve the lives of 229 million people in 115 countries, from Afghanistan, Guatemala and Yemen to Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbabwe, is proof that the organisation understands that and has applied its knowledge expertly.
That all comes down to the organisation’s core beliefs in communities as the best agents of their own change, local markets as the best engines of sustainable recovery, and good governance as the foundation of success. That last point is underlined by the fact that more than 80 per cent of the resources at the disposal of Mercy Corps in the past five years has been put straight into programmes for those who are most in need in times of crisis.
Those examples, along with the points that colleagues have made, make it clear that Mercy Corps sets an example in international development of which it is rightly proud.
I also want to draw attention to the excellent work that is done by those other international charitable organisations. One that comes to mind is Save the Children, which in 2013 helped 15.4 million children in its work across more than 120 countries. Save the Children’s approach, with the help of artists, ambassadors and corporate partnerships, makes a lasting difference in international development and in doing so sets another example of how a real difference can be made.
I could choose from many examples, but the final organisation that I will highlight is Médecins Sans Frontières. It is very well known due to its success and dedication, which is why it deserves some of our attention tonight as we discuss the principles that underline the most successful charitable work.
The underlying principles of Médecins Sans Frontières are independence, neutrality and impartiality. Those values enable the organisation to concentrate entirely on getting help to those who need it, wherever they are. In addition, MSF practises its policy that gaining the acceptance of local communities is the key to being able to perform its work effectively, which is something that it has in common with many charitable organisations.
It is most welcome that we have had the opportunity to discuss Mercy Corps and its wider achievements in international development. As many of my fellow members have mentioned, Mercy Corps has been a huge success and deserves much acclaim. One of the key messages that I hope members will take away from the debate is that real progress is made in development when charitable organisations have at their core a set of principles that allow them to have a lasting impact on a global scale. Those principles, which include good governance, impartiality and promoting community-led and market-based initiatives, set an example that we in Parliament should applaud and that many international organisations should follow.
17:27
I am pleased to take part in the debate that my colleague Jim Eadie has brought to the chamber, and to give due recognition to Mercy Corps. For 35 years now, as we have heard, Mercy Corps has been carrying out fantastic work all over Europe and the world, with its main headquarters situated in Portland, Oregon. The organisation is quite quiet in doing what it does, and we do not hear about it all the time; it just quietly gets on with things.
I first came across Mercy Corps some years ago when I was trustee of a charity called Just World Partners, which dealt largely in the southern Pacific region. For various reasons the charity had to be wound up, and Mercy Corps came in and took over the small projects to ensure that the recipients of the work that was going on were not disadvantaged in any way. I have always felt that the organisation’s prime motivation is, as we have heard from other members, to give help where it is needed.
I have a particular interest in Timor-Leste, where Mercy Corps is doing a lot of work. Jim Eadie asked that women’s empowerment be at the centre of development. Mercy Corps has done some work in Timor Leste to prove that child nutrition increases as a result of women’s empowerment. I ask the minister to have a look at that work, as the information on it makes interesting reading.
I want to speak in particular about the energy for all programme, which is being run by Mercy Corps through the European Commission in Timor-Leste. Mercy Corps is doing that in the way that it does most other things, which is by partnering with local communities. That is not always easy. It sounds like one of those buzz phrases that everyone uses—“Yes, we partner with local communities.” Quite often, that is not the case, because it is difficult, and it is much easier for such organisations just to get on and do things and have all the local people standing around watching them. That was a problem that blighted international development for some time. Thankfully, we have got over that in the past couple of decades.
In Timor-Leste, Mercy Corps partnered with local committees in a scheme to address the country’s infrastructure problems. Infrastructure is bad there, which is not surprising when we consider the scorched earth policy that the Indonesians left with after the independence referendum.
Only 38 per cent of a population of just over 1 million in Timor-Leste has access to an electricity supply, which, I can say from experience, is not always reliable. In rural areas, 90 per cent of people relied on kerosene until Mercy Corps tried to make a difference by providing solar panels. It set up and partnered with small local companies, providing microfinance where necessary and trying to make a difference in people’s lives. We all know the problems associated with cooking on wood-fired open stoves, which is what most people in Timor do. However, to use kerosene for lighting is dangerous, not only in health terms but because of the horrific fires that can happen.
I could talk about this for ever and I have barely started. One thing that I took from Mercy Corp’s fine report is how honest and up front it is about its achievements. It has included headline lessons in the report, some of which are critical of itself. That is an important thing for agencies to do.
Mercy Corps has hit the nail on the head about an issue that always irritates me. It says that market development programmes require longer and more flexible intervention timeframes, particularly in high-risk areas. Far too often, we go in and say, “Right, in three years we’re going to make these wondrous changes.” Sometimes, three years is not enough. Sometimes, it will be 10 years, 20 years or even 30 years. We need to be realistic about how long it takes a society to turn itself around and be able to do things for itself.
The reason why I know that Mercy Corps has tried to partner with local communities in Timor is because I was speaking to some friends there. Although I heard good and bad reports about what Mercy Corps is doing there, that is proof that it is working, because if everybody was saying that it was fantastic it would be because it was just giving stuff away.
I say well done to everyone at Mercy Corps for the energy for all programme, and I give particular thanks to those working on the ground in Dili and all the rural areas of East Timor.
17:33
I, too, congratulate Jim Eadie on securing the debate. His interest in international development is recognised by us all.
We should celebrate the 35th anniversary of Mercy Corps and, in doing so, we acknowledge the excellent work that the organisation and its staff have done in those 35 years. We acknowledge, too, all the aid organisations that operate out of Scotland.
Jim Eadie’s motion recognises the bravery and commitment of the staff of Mercy Corps, the organisation’s reach and the effectiveness of the work that it has done and continues to do. He is right to highlight those aspects.
Rather than consider what is perhaps the expanded world view of Mercy Corps, I will focus on a particular aspect of its work. In a previous members’ business debate that I secured, I drew attention to the plight of those who have been displaced because of the conflict in Syria and made a plea that we should not forget the children of that conflict and the need to ensure that they are not deprived of an education. That area of work has been a focus for Mercy Corps and it has made a significant contribution to that.
As we know, more than 3 million people have been displaced from their homes in Syria. Their neighbours in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq are struggling because services in those countries are overstretched.
Mercy Corps is working to support around 800,000 refugees and is a supporter of the no lost generation campaign by the United Nations Children’s Fund, which highlights the long-term problems of the 1.2 million children who are missing out not just on an education but on stability at a crucial point in their lives. Mercy Corps has made a point of trying to assist adolescents in the refugee and host communities and has highlighted the isolation and lack of social support that those young people often suffer. The situation of girls is particularly difficult, as they are often from conservative communities and become tied to their homes, with no opportunity to acquire vocational skills or to become financially independent.
I must stress why that work is so important. Mercy Corps makes the point that the choices that we make in adolescence influence the paths that we follow in later life. The current cohort of young people is likely to be the one that has to deal with the aftermath of the conflict so, if those young people are deprived of an education, life and work skills, training in business and entrepreneurship and an understanding of community involvement and community life, not only are they being deprived of those opportunities as individuals but the opportunities for rebuilding Syria are being seriously limited. I believe that the issue is that important.
So what can we do? Mercy Corps has suggested a number of areas where additional help would make a difference, and I will highlight just one or two. I mentioned that girls in such situations are often pressured to stay indoors for their safety and because they are expected to do the household chores. Crucially, they need safe spaces where they can be mentored, supported and encouraged to continue their education and perhaps delay marriage and pregnancy.
To come back to education, schools in host communities are overstretched and there is a lack of clarity about things that we take for granted, such as certification and accreditation. There are difficulties of language and stigmatisation. More flexibility needs to be built into the system and communities need to be helped to understand the value that that can bring to their young people and their country.
Mercy Corps is doing a fantastic job, day in and day out, but it cannot do that alone. In this, its anniversary year, it would be good to be able to say that our country, which values education so highly, is with Mercy Corps in the job that it is doing. Perhaps the minister will consider ways in which the Government’s international development budget could assist.
Mercy Corps has branded its work in the area with the tagline “Syrian Adolescents: Their Tomorrow Begins Today”. All of us should want to be part of securing a brighter future for young Syrians. By doing so, we can be part of helping to build a safe and stable Syria, too.
17:38
I, too, thank Jim Eadie not just for the motion and for securing the debate but for the passionate and eloquent way in which he set the tone and the scene for the debate. I join him and others in expressing my gratitude and that of my party to Mercy Corps for all that it does on behalf of some of the most needy communities and people around the world. The team that is based in Scotland, which does truly remarkable work in more than 30 countries around the world, should be a source of pride for us all.
Malcolm Chisholm was right to put his finger on the flexibility of Mercy Corps and the local solutions that it is committed to introducing, as that approach is very much at the root of the organisation’s success. It often moves from urgent recovery into longer-term resilience, which must be the ultimate objective of international aid.
Linda Fabiani mentioned the modesty of Mercy Corps. I think that it would be at pains to point out that it is part of a wider effort and network. We are truly blessed in the efforts that many organisations do on our behalf internationally. There is no doubt that that effort has never been more necessary, as we are now seeing the highest number of refugees at any point since the second world war.
I recall a debate that I think took place three years ago, which again was led by my friend Jim Eadie, on the crisis in Syria. A number of colleagues participated in that. It was suggested then that the number of refugees coming out of the conflict in Syria was the highest of any conflict. Nobody will need reminding that the situation in that country has deteriorated abysmally since then.
Although the pressure of numbers creates challenges, this is not simply a numbers game. Mercy Corps made clear to me in correspondence the challenges that are presented by what it calls complex humanitarian emergencies, in which the impact of conflict is real for not just those who are directly affected but those who seek to deliver help to people in those communities.
David Torrance mentioned the situation in Malawi and pointed out that we are not talking just about areas of conflict. The complexity comes from natural disasters, too. I will join the Deputy Presiding Officer and James Dornan on a visit to Malawi next month, which is timely. We will see for ourselves the immediate effects of the floods—the disease risk and so on—and the longer-term risks to infrastructure and the like.
I am very grateful to the First Minister for her response to Patricia Ferguson at First Minister’s question time last week. That commitment is greatly to be welcomed and follows a long legacy of commitment to international development that ministers of different political persuasions have shown over the duration of the Parliament.
Recently we have seen the reaction to not just the Malawian floods but hurricane Haiyan, the Ebola situation in west Africa and conflicts such as those in Syria, Gaza and elsewhere. Financial support is important and members were absolutely right to point to the wider significance of the United Kingdom Government’s international aid efforts—I am particularly proud of the coalition Government’s commitment to delivering 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product in aid—and the wider international effort. However, we in Scotland also have expertise that we can deploy internationally, and the actions of ministers and parliamentarians here can publicise and raise awareness of the efforts of Mercy Corps.
As we move from the millennium goals to the principles of leaving no one behind, there is a call for us to take a more strategic approach to international aid. Jim Eadie and others pointed to the principles of addressing climate change, gender equality, human rights and democracy. All those things need to be fed into our approach, although I would be a little wary of an approach that tried to spread our influence too widely, as ultimately that could dilute it.
I thank Jim Eadie again for allowing the debate to take place and I congratulate Mercy Corps on its 35th anniversary. I wish it all the best in the desperately difficult but absolutely critical work that it does on our behalf.
17:43
I thank Jim Eadie for securing the debate and lodging the motion, which I am pleased to speak in support of on behalf of the Scottish Government. I wish Mercy Corps a very happy 35th birthday. I will turn 30 this year and I am having a bit of a pre-30 crisis, so I might speak to Mercy Corps to see how it adapted to being in its 30s. Congratulations to it, its staff and the wonderful team that it has around it for everything that they have done in those 35 years. I am sure that it will continue its work for many years into the future.
It is a privilege for the Government to have the European headquarters of such a large and prestigious organisation as Mercy Corps based here in Scotland. Not long after I came into my post, I was given a tour of its Edinburgh offices and was impressed by the dedication and commitment of its staff, especially those who were planning to work through the Christmas period to provide help to those who need it most. I am delighted that I will visit the offices tomorrow and I look forward to meeting staff and the new chief executive, Simon O’Connell, who brings to his new role a wealth of experience of working in developing countries.
Jim Eadie was right to say that the world that we live in is afflicted by many challenges. Last week, the United Kingdom representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spoke at the Scottish Refugee Council’s annual general meeting of the refugee crisis that we are facing, which Liam McArthur and Jim Eadie referred to, with 58 million people in the world forcibly displaced—more than at any time in history since the second world war, which is absolutely incredible.
I want to touch on a few points that have been raised. First, I want to commend Mercy Corps for the work that it does on long-term resilience. Jim Eadie described that eloquently in his speech. A lot of aid agencies that are designed to assist communities, particularly in natural disasters and sometimes in response to conflict, go in in a very well-intentioned way and do a lot of great work, but of course they have to move on to the next crisis, the next conflict or the next natural disaster. That is understandable and correct. What Mercy Corps does, which Jim Eadie touched on, is the longer-term resilience work with local partners. Jim Eadie spoke about Azerbaijan and Armenia. Mercy Corps is there for the long term. It is there before disasters take place and it is there to ensure that if such disasters are repeated, they will not have the same devastating consequences again. It is there after the media spotlight has gone from the conflict or natural disaster, when many other aid agencies have pulled out for understandable reasons. Mercy Corps should be commended for that long-term resilience work.
I want to touch on a point that Jim Eadie raised about humanitarian aid. I am pleased that the Scottish Government has a good record of responding to humanitarian disasters, be that in Gaza, Pakistan, Haiti or Syria or, most recently, the Ebola crisis. Usually the Disasters Emergency Committee is a trigger for the Scottish Government to put forward some funds to help to tackle a crisis, but that is not always the case. The DEC moved on Ebola after we had already donated significant money to the World Health Organization. A number of members mentioned the floods in Malawi. I will make some announcements very soon on what support we can give in that regard, but obviously there has not been a DEC trigger for that.
There are on-going discussions with Mercy Corps on how we set the criteria for triggering humanitarian aid. The challenge that we face is that we do not have a set budget for humanitarian aid in the Scottish Government. We rely on not just the international development fund but the generosity of other departments within Government. I am very sympathetic to looking at the matter further.
Linda Fabiani spoke incredibly powerfully about her own experiences with Mercy Corps. I agree entirely with her point that sometimes three years does not seem enough of a timeframe and I am very sympathetic to examining that. It is certainly something that we are looking at as a Government.
Patricia Ferguson made an equally powerful contribution, which focused on Syria. She made the good point that aid is important but we can do more than that. In my discussions tomorrow with Mercy Corps, I am more than happy to discuss its plans on the education front in Syria and to see how we can assist in that regard. I am keen that the entire Scottish Government plays a role in international development and that it is seen not just as a challenge for the international development department but as a cross-Government priority for us all. I am happy to take that up with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning.
On Patricia Ferguson’s point on Syria, we could be doing a lot more about the refugee crisis, given that 3.8 million Syrians are now refugees. I commend the work that the UK Government has done in delivering aid—in fact, the UK Government is the second-largest aid donor to Syria, so it should be commended for that. However, I would urge the UK Government to go further with regard to the refugee crisis. Thus far, many European countries have taken tens of thousands of refugees, but the UK Government’s vulnerable persons relocation scheme has thus far resettled only 140 Syrians. We can do more and Scotland is ready to play her part.
Mercy Corps has a long-standing relationship with the Scottish Government. One of the projects that I have been involved in and seen the fruits of is the project in Kashmir. As members will know, Kashmir is a region that has been blighted by conflict and instability for many years. Some 48 per cent of young people there are unemployed.
Mercy Corps received £400,000 of Scottish Government funding to deliver a programme to encourage entrepreneurship—young entrepreneurship in particular—over a three-year period. It ran an awareness campaign that reached more than 38,000 young people, alerting them to the possibilities of setting up new businesses. It received a phenomenal response, and by directly providing 170 young people with finance and the advice that they needed to start up their own businesses, the project has helped to harness creativity, enthusiasm and entrepreneurship. When I visited India in October 2013, I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of those entrepreneurs.
With the assistance of Mercy Corps, the Scottish Government has also helped to make a difference through many other projects.
I want to touch on the issue of gender equality, which was raised by Jim Eadie and also picked up by Linda Fabiani. We know that there are far too many maternal deaths and that there is too much infant mortality in the developing world. One of the projects that we deliver with Mercy Corps looks to empower community midwives in the Balochistan region of Pakistan. We are very proud of that, and of all the projects on which we work closely with Mercy Corps.
The Mercy Corps mission statement is to
“Alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.”
In a world where suffering, poverty and oppression are sadly all too commonplace, Mercy Corps serves as an inspirational example of how one organisation can make a difference.
I commend the motion and I am pleased to support it on behalf of the Scottish Government.
Meeting closed at 17:51.Previous
Decision Time