International Development and Co-operation with Malawi
The next item of business is a debate on international development and co-operation with Malawi.
Nearly a year ago, a quarter of a million people from all over the world and from all backgrounds came to Scotland and marched through the streets of Edinburgh. They sent to the world leaders who were gathering for the G8 summit at Gleneagles a clear message that we should make poverty history. It is no longer acceptable that half the world goes hungry while the other half prospers. It was that same generosity of spirit and good will that prompted thousands of Scots to respond so generously to the Asian tsunami and to the terrible tragedies since—the continuing food crises in sub-Saharan Africa and the earthquakes in Kashmir and Indonesia.
It is because we, as Scots, understand our obligations as a prosperous nation that we have an international development policy. Frankly, we cannot afford not to have one. We are not a traditional aid donor. International aid is the responsibility of the Department for International Development at the United Kingdom level, and that is a responsibility that we fully support. However, what Scotland has to offer is unique, and nowhere is that better expressed than in our relationship with Malawi.
In the late 19th century, ordinary Scots—men and women—travelled to that small country, which is nestled in the south-east of Africa. They went out of a sense of obligation to their fellow human beings. They went to spread their gospel, but also to share their expertise in health and education, in running public services and in developing businesses. They went to help to build a better country.
One hundred and fifty years on, the same Scottish values of fairness, equality and mutuality drive our relationship with the people of Malawi. We are two small countries that share a common past and a desire for a better future.
I want to talk about progress in our work with Malawi since the signing of the historic co-operation agreement between our two countries last November, but first I will reflect on the year since the make poverty history march and G8 Scotland, on the achievements of that summit and on how a national effort in Scotland is contributing to making poverty history.
The decisions that were taken last year at G8 Scotland are already making a difference, with a £28.8 billion increase in global aid by 2010; an increase in aid to Africa by $25 billion a year by 2010, which will double that aid over six years; full debt cancellation for the world's poorest 18 countries; universal access to anti-HIV drugs in Africa by 2010; and reform of international trade rules.
However, as the Prime Minister has said, that is a long-term agenda. Many of the Gleneagles commitments relate to future years and western Governments must maintain their efforts. That is why we welcome the recently announced Africa progress panel, which will track the promises that were made in Perthshire last year, just as we will keep to our commitments to work with developing countries, as set out in our international development policy.
The primary funding distribution mechanism for our policy is the international development fund. In the first round of awards, almost £5 million was provided over three years to benefit 34 projects. We provided £250,000 last year to projects that fell below the international development fund threshold, because we recognise that although small-scale projects are tightly focused, they can deliver benefits for very little money. We are reviewing the arrangements for this year after consulting key stakeholders and we expect to announce the next round for the fund in August.
We are actively supporting Scottish volunteers and have developed a new small grant scheme for people who work in the health sector, which was launched in November 2005. The humanitarian health fund provides essential travel and subsistence for Scots and will enable more health care professionals to undertake vital humanitarian work in some of the world's poorest countries—in Malawi and more widely. We have completed one round of that fund—allocations were made in May this year—and we look forward to undertaking more rounds in the near future.
In addition, and in line with the aim in our international development policy of capacity building in the Scottish non-governmental organisation sector, we have provided core funding to the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland and the International Development Education Association of Scotland to allow them to provide a stronger voice for their members.
However, developing countries do not want to depend on aid. In the long term, it is trade that will help those Malawians who live on 15 kwacha a day—about 6p—to escape grinding poverty. However, that must be fair trade. Let us be clear that fair trade is not about charity; it is something for which we in the west have fought: a way to ensure that workers receive fair pay, fair prices and decent working conditions.
Members who visited Malawi in February saw for themselves the benefits that fair trade has brought to the sugar producers in the village of Kasinthula, which now has the best schools and clinics in the area, built using the fair trade premium.
Last March, the First Minister expressed his wish that Scotland should become one of the world's fair trade nations. The group on fair trade, which I chair, has considered the best way to achieve that, and I am pleased to say that we hope to make an announcement very soon.
One thing that has struck me most in the past year is ordinary Scots' desire to make a difference. Through the international development fund process, I have been made aware of the number of Scottish organisations—large and small—that are active in international development in countries throughout our key geographic areas. I welcome and applaud that work.
At this point, I want to turn to our work with Malawi. As members know, I have just returned from my first official visit to the country, and I was struck by the extreme contrasts that I found. Malawi is beautiful; however, amid all the wonderful scenery lies the most extreme poverty. There is a great deal of cheerfulness and optimism, despite the fact that one child in seven dies before his or her fifth birthday; and there is a national desire for good governance and economic progress, even though the country has known multiparty democracy only since 1994.
Since the co-operation agreement between our two countries was signed, good progress has been made. Indeed, I was able to see some of that progress on my visit. For example, I saw for myself the great work that is being done by Scottish International Relief's Mary's meals programme, which, as a result of our funding, is now able to feed 80,000 children a year.
Although many projects that we support are still in the early stages of development, it is clear that progress is already being made on the ground. However, there is much to be done and we are clear about the need to focus our efforts. As a result, we have been working with our Malawian counterparts to develop more detailed action plans to underpin the commitments in the co-operation agreement.
For instance, we are, along with DFID, working closely with the Ministry of Health to support its sector-wide approach, offering practical advice and support and brokering partnerships between Scottish institutions and their Malawian counterparts. Our approach is focusing support on maternal health and HIV/AIDS, given the grave difficulties in those areas, and within it, we are helping to build capacity and exchange skills.
As far as governance is concerned, we are developing a programme of partnerships between media agencies in both Scotland and Malawi to strengthen the media, recognising its role as a core part of building good governance. For example, the BBC and STV are working with national radio and television stations in Malawi to develop public information programming and training packages and are providing them with essential hardware. Moreover, Napier University is working with the University of Malawi to develop its journalism courses.
Our ombudsmen and ombudswomen are working together on a programme of collaboration and are, for example, considering different approaches to ensuring access to services for people in rural areas. In addition, a lawyer from the Ministry of Justice is working with the office of the Scottish parliamentary counsel to share experiences of developing and drafting legislation.
We also recognise the importance of economic development. After all, like any country, Malawi needs a strong and stable economy if it is to flourish. As a result, we are sharing expertise with our Malawian counterparts on how best to realise the full potential of tourism.
Through the international development fund, we are supporting a number of projects that address the Malawian Ministry of Education's priorities, particularly with regard to gender equality and attainment. We are also working with the increasing number of schools in Scotland that are developing partnerships with schools in Malawi, ensuring that young people in both countries not only grow up with a much deeper awareness and understanding of one another but celebrate that spirit of friendship.
Of course, we can share our common human experience in many other areas, including those in my own portfolio of sports, the arts and culture. Earlier this month, I went to the St Magnus festival in Orkney where I was entranced by the Limbe church choir from Malawi, whose visit we supported. Indeed, I know that MSPs greatly enjoyed the choir's performance in the Parliament.
While I was in Orkney, I also had the great pleasure of meeting the distinguished Malawian poet Jack Mapanje and of hearing his experiences as a prisoner and poet. I hope that others will build on that type of exchange and that Scotland's other festivals will establish links with Malawi to allow us to learn more about each other's cultures.
Last month, on my visit to Malawi, I visited the graves of some of the early Scottish missionaries and their families. They sacrificed their lives for Malawi and their deaths brought home to me, in the starkest possible way, the depth of the friendship and the bond between our two countries. Just as Dr David Livingstone and others made a lifetime commitment to the country, we must be clear that we are in this relationship for the long term.
Our renewed friendship with Malawi is not something that we will commit to for a few years and then abandon. This partnership has already lasted 150 years and will prosper for many more. I believe that, together, we can build a better future.
Just as the Scottish National Party welcomed the establishment of this Parliament's international development fund by the Executive, so we welcome today's subject debate. A year on from the G8 summit, this is an appropriate juncture at which to discuss international development and Malawi.
As the minister said, some progress has been made since last year on the commitments that were made at the G8 summit, but it is generally recognised by people of every political persuasion that there is still a sense of disappointment about those grand promises. In some cases, debt relief being offset against aid has not fulfilled the promises that were made.
People recognise that what we can do in the Parliament and in the Scottish Executive is fairly small, but it is right that we should focus on Malawi, because of the historical links between our countries. It is also right that we should look at the bigger picture to see how everything fits in. Because this is a debate with no motion, I think that a lot of personal views will be expressed in members' speeches this afternoon. My personal view is that there can be so many good, worthy initiatives going on at all levels that we sometimes forget about the major issues.
One of the major issues for Africa is public health. There are a lot of initiatives around HIV/AIDS at the moment, for example. Then there are malaria and tuberculosis campaigns, and that is great, because it all needs to be done. However, when we look at how public health developed in our own societies, we see that it was about infrastructure for potable water and sewage. Although there are small initiatives across Africa—I believe that the Executive is funding such a project run by Mercy Corps in Zimbabwe—until we can guarantee people across that continent good infrastructure for potable water and sewage, we cannot really say that we are tackling the public health problems. That is what I am trying to get at when I talk about the lack of a strategic overview across the nations that are able to help.
Another big issue is trade. However we look at it, western trade policies are hard to defend. I hope that the new G8 round and the next World Health Organisation round will have everyone, including Governments that profess to care, lobbying for real change in trade rules. I am also aware that there are trade barriers even within the continent of Africa. That is another discussion that has to go on—internally within the continent as well as externally.
It is not just countries that consider themselves western democracies that are participating in Africa. I understand that China has become Africa's fastest growing business partner, with trade up 37 per cent last year. Commentator Hamish McRae has said:
"You could almost say that western relations with Africa are dominated by aid, while Chinese relations are dominated by trade."
The view of some people on the ground is that China is taking in its own workers, carrying out the work and then leaving, so its policies on trade with Africa do not really have a legacy of self-sufficiency. Perhaps, in the new spirit of co-operation that the west has with China, such an approach could be encouraged.
I have spoken about fragmentation and about the fact that lots of little initiatives are going on. One of the things that stuns me about Malawi and which harks back to that 150-year history of our relationship with the country is the number of folk in this country who have been carrying out such initiatives for years and years. I recently met people from the Kwenderana group, run jointly by churches around the Busby area. For years, that group has been funding a small school in northern Malawi and has been sending out goods and equipment. The minister referred to ordinary Scots making a difference, and that has been happening in Malawi over the piece.
I am pleased that one of the projects that has been funded—I think that the University of Edinburgh will carry out the work—is a Scotland-Africa directory, so there will be a database that shows exactly what is happening. I hope that the minister can confirm that smaller voluntary groups that are not attached to non-governmental organisations can have their work added to that database, so that we have an overall picture of what is happening.
Another big issue in Africa and in Malawi in particular is the lack of a democratic structure. That cannot be denied when we talk about Malawi. I would like to praise the work of a Westminster-based organisation, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, which believes that properly functioning political parties are the key to an effective pluralist democracy. The WFD funds, to varying degrees, political parties that have representation at Westminster—the SNP is a beneficiary of those funds.
I recently went out to Malawi with the WFD along with my colleague Pete Wishart to see whether there were political parties with which the SNP could logically join up. It was a very interesting trip and we met a lot of people, but one thing that stuck out was that there are no grass-roots organisations that lead into politics. Political parties are formed from the top down. For example, as soon as the current president was elected, he left his political party and started another party because he fell out with the first one. I say as an aside that it is interesting that the Liberal Democrats are linked to both parties—that is a very Liberal Democrat thing to do.
The SNP has agreed that we will link with two of the smaller parties: the People's Progressive Movement and the People's Transformation Party. We will head back out to Malawi fairly soon to carry out training for women and youths—that work is very important for the future of any democracy. People say that it is ridiculous to fund political parties, but they can be the bedrock of a society that will grow and become a functioning democracy.
I am getting hard looks from the Presiding Officer because my time is up. I would love to say much more as there is so much to be said on the subject, but I will stop now. I have the privilege of closing the debate for the SNP group, so I can say everything else then.
I apologise, as I will have to leave the debate before the closing speeches. I tend not to do that if I can avoid it, but I will speak later this afternoon at the school prize giving at Webster's high school in Kirriemuir. The school has asked me to talk about developing links with schools in Malawi.
I was part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association group that went to Malawi in February. The number of schools, church groups and other community groups that have been in contact and asked me to give them more information about building links with similar groups in Malawi has been enlightening. There is clearly a great deal of interest among the public in restoring the historic relationship. I commend the work that the Scottish Executive is doing to encourage development links with Malawi. I do not always commend what the Scottish Executive does, but I make an exception on this occasion.
When I visited Malawi I was struck by the affection that there is for Scotland among the people there. I have been to Africa on several occasions in the past. I had expected that when we engaged with people in public life in Africa there would be a degree of resentment towards us westerners because of the period of colonisation, but the reverse is true. It is striking that the Malawi that the early Scottish missionaries such as David Livingstone visited was not a land of happiness and peace; it was a land ravaged by the tyranny of the Arab slave trade. The early Scots pioneers who came to Malawi were seen as liberators because they were coming to protect the people of Malawi from the slave traders. That was David Livingstone's great vocation.
In addition, of course, David Livingstone and others brought Christianity with them. Malawi is now one of the most Christian countries in Africa, if not the world, and its people value their religion. While I was there I had the privilege of attending two services of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, which has close links with our Church of Scotland. The style of service and worship would be familiar to anyone who has been at a Church of Scotland service. Clearly, there are historic links that are much to be valued.
Malawi's problems are significant. There is hunger; although there is not at the moment famine in Malawi, many people do not get basic meals every day. There is a lack of clean water for drinking and washing, and a lack of water to support crops. A drought can cause serious problems for the maize harvest.
Education is basic. There is universal free primary education and the teachers we met were excellent and dedicated. However, they work in school structures that have leaking roofs and mud floors and there are no desks, so the children must sit on the floor. The children have very few or no schoolbooks, and there is little in the way of equipment, other than a blackboard and chalk. The standards are basic and teachers struggle to do their best. However, the children put a great value on education, which is refreshing for those who have encountered youngsters in this country.
Finally, and perhaps most serious of all, there is a huge problem with a lack of basic health services. That is epitomised in the heartbreaking problem of HIV/AIDS that affects one in seven of the adult population of Malawi—according to official figures—although I suspect that the actual figure is higher than that. We see households headed by children as young as seven, who are bringing up younger siblings because the parents, and sometimes also the grandparents, have died and there is simply nobody else to look after them. Frankly, the scale of the problem is immense.
What can we do to help? Well, as the minister said, we can support fair trade. As the minister mentioned, when we were in Malawi, Mark Ruskell and I visited the Kasinthula sugar producers, who are part of a fair trade project. The difference that the fair trade premium made to that project and the work that it was able to do in the community was obvious to us on the ground. However, we cannot just stop at supporting fair trade. That is growing and there is greater consumer demand, but we must consider tariff reform. I think that that will raise serious issues for many of us here in the west, particularly for the way in which we protect some of our industries from imports from the third world. Those are difficult questions for us to address.
Of course, we can help Malawi directly. A huge amount of work is taking place on the ground in Malawi through charities and non-governmental organisations. It is clear that there is a great desire there to get volunteers from Scotland and other parts of the UK to go and help, particularly if they have a background or experience in medicine and education. I very much welcome what the Executive has been doing to encourage people with experience in those fields to go out to Malawi. I know that that scheme has been a great success and I hope to see it expanded. There are many in Scotland who may have had a career in teaching, teacher training or medicine, and who have taken early retirement, who could, in fact, make a huge contribution towards life in Malawi. Perhaps, with a little bit of assistance, they could be encouraged to go out there and help the society along.
We need to encourage school links, too. A great many schools in Scotland want to link with schools in Malawi. It is clear that what to us are worthless items, such as old schoolbooks and old pieces of equipment, would make a huge difference to schools in Malawi—as would, indeed, very small sums of money—and would be gratefully received.
In addition, we must help develop a political culture in Malawi—the minister referred to that in her speech—that underpins and stimulates everything else that we are trying to do. It is sometimes easy to forget that Malawi has been a multiparty democracy only since 1994. We in this country have had a multiparty democracy for hundreds of years and we can sometimes feel impatient and say, "Why haven't they improved their system? Why are they not enforcing the rule of law more rigorously?" However, we can help Malawi develop institutions. We are developing parliamentary links; as the minister said, we have collaboration between the ombudsmen of our different countries.
We must help Malawi to build strong institutions because people want to invest in it. There are huge opportunities to invest in economic development and tourism, but Malawi will get foreign investors only if there is a secure system in which the rule of law is enforced and the investors know that their investment will be safe; government institutions must be in place to make that work. As a Parliament, we can provide practical help to achieve that.
The scale of the problem in Malawi can sometimes daunt us, so great is the need in that country. However, the fact that we cannot do everything does not mean that we should not try to do something. I think that the Scottish Executive would accept that it provides a tiny sum of money in comparison with the DFID budget for Malawi, but it is still worth providing that money.
The Presiding Officer is scowling at me, so I will make my final point. I remember listening to a radio interview a few years ago with the late Jackie Ross. He was a Highland minister who set up Blythswood Care, a charity that assists people in eastern Europe and throughout the third world. The interviewer said, "All that you do is just a drop in the bucket. What is the point?" Jackie Ross replied, "Yes, it is a drop in the bucket, but by doing a little we can make a real difference to people's lives. Are you telling me that that isn't worth doing?"
We are making a difference to people's lives in Malawi and I encourage the Scottish Executive to carry on with its work.
I was fortunate to be able to visit Malawi twice with the Scottish delegation of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The money that the Scottish Executive is putting into Malawi is beginning to make a real difference. International development aid enhances global welfare and enables people in poverty to become productive and active and to contribute to their community's economic and social development.
Urgent action is required to achieve the United Nations millennium development goals by 2015, which include tackling global poverty, providing universal primary education and combating HIV and AIDS. A small amount of money can make a huge difference. For example, the money that was raised at last year's journalists' dinner went to schools in Dedza, a part of Malawi that we visited the first time we were in the country. The money has helped to build a school and housing for teachers in an area that did not have a school. It was good to learn last night that a similar amount was raised this year. It is a small amount of money, but we hope that it will go towards an equally worthwhile project.
Additional resources are vital, but there is also a need for reform in the delivery of aid, to ensure that it is efficient and effective and reaches people who are in need. Aid should seek to promote good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
If there is to be long-term sustainable development, developing countries must be given the opportunity to trade fairly, as the minister said. We all have the opportunity to buy fair trade products. Student efforts at the University of Edinburgh have led to the university becoming a fair trade university and I congratulate the Co-op on becoming one of the first supermarkets to display a substantial number of fair trade products on its shelves. A number of churches and voluntary organisations in my constituency, Edinburgh South, promote fair trade produce.
When we were in Malawi, several delegates visited a successful fair trade sugar producer, as we heard. Mark Ruskell and I visited a coffee producer, who was not yet involved in fair trade but was heading in that direction. A number of members are working hard on fair trade. For example, Sarah Boyack does a lot on fair trade in Edinburgh Central. We must encourage such work.
The UN set an aid target for the G8 countries and European donors of 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2009 and 0.7 per cent by 2013. We are on the way to reaching that target, but much needs to be done before we can meet it. At the G8 summit last year, £28.8 billion was pledged for Africa over the next five years. That is an ambitious target, which we must all do our bit to achieve. Last night I heard Gordon Brown talking on the radio about his commitment to Africa and I congratulate him on the efforts that he has been making over a considerable time to ensure that the targets for Africa are achieved. The biggest news on that front was the pledge to cancel 100 per cent of the debt that many African countries owe to multinational institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, and to other countries. We heard last week that good progress is being made in that regard.
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to tackle a number of issues. We want to establish better donor co-ordination mechanisms and increase the effectiveness of aid delivery by avoiding unnecessary duplication and improving co-ordination with regional and sub-regional organisations. We need to ensure that there is greater transparency and accountability in how funds are distributed in recipient countries. We have all heard stories about how aid disappears and it is sad that that remains a problem in some countries.
We need to improve the predictability of aid, to allow poor countries to plan effectively and to take control of their budgets in their fight against poverty. Basic services that are funded by development assistance must be provided in ways that guarantee access for the poorest and most marginalised in the recipient countries. There must be a concerted effort to ensure gender equality and to tackle gender-related poverty. The Parliament has been active in doing that.
The Scottish Executive is to be congratulated on committing £4.3 million to be spent in sub-Saharan Africa. Much of that, as we have heard, is being spent in Malawi, which has twice been visited by a Scottish delegation of the CPA. The co-operation agreement with Malawi will involve Scotland offering serious, practical help in the main areas of health, education and economic development. The involvement of the University of Strathclyde, the University of Stirling and other institutions is to be welcomed. They are working very hard on a number of projects in Malawi.
The Scottish Executive money is now funding a considerable number of projects. I apologise for arriving too late to hear the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, but I think that she said that there are 36 projects in Malawi now. For example, there is a project based in Limbe in the south, known as Mary's meals, which runs school feeding projects. There is the Mamie Martin fund, which supports the education of girls in northern Malawi. We have heard about the links between the St Magnus festival and Orkney and Malawi. We saw people involved in that in the garden lobby recently—they were fantastic.
A number of projects address HIV/AIDS in Malawi, but I would like to focus on just two. First, we visited an extremely good project at Likhubula House. The project uses Scotland's pre-eminence in outdoor education to help create a world-class outdoor education facility for all the youth of Malawi. The project supports orphans and their carers by providing them with holiday breaks and different types of learning. Expertise from sportscotland is helping to add value to the running of Likhubula House. The Scottish Executive has funded the project to the tune of £195,000 over three years. When we were there, we saw just what a difference that money was making. Each week, 50 young people enjoy Mulanje mountain, which is a wonderful place—anyone going to Malawi has to go to Mulanje mountain—and the resources and facilities of Likhubula.
Secondly, I will mention the project that I got closely involved with, at Bottom hospital. The first time we went, it was a depressing place. It was much better the second time, however, as some money had been spent there. Graeme Walker and a group of midwives from across Scotland are bidding to deliver the ALSO programme—Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics—to help in maternity care. The team has now been in Malawi four times to deliver that new course, through which nurses are being trained to become trainers. In the long term, the project will substantially improve the level of maternal health in Malawi, which is currently among the worst in the world. I met Graeme Walker and the midwives recently. Graeme said that he has never seen a maternal death at the Simpson maternity centre in Edinburgh but, when he is in Malawi, he sees more than one a week. In the longer term, the ALSO programme will help greatly reduce the incidence of maternal death in Malawi.
A substantial amount is being done, and a lot is being achieved by many people, but the efforts of them all to improve the lives of people in Malawi and elsewhere in Africa and the rest of the world have really only just begun and we all have to do much more.
I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate, to reflect on the year that has passed and to look forward to the future, particularly in developing our partnership with our friends in Malawi. I welcome the contribution of the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport to the debate and the detailed work that has gone into developing the agreements involving the various strands, both here in Scotland and in Malawi.
I particularly commend to members the health development plan, which has pulled together a range of activities in a planned, co-ordinated way. The plan deals with the value that we in Scotland can bring to training Malawians and enhancing their activities, as well as with what Scots can gain from their involvement in Malawi. There must be a two-way process—it should not be seen as us imposing ourselves on another country.
There is undoubtedly a real challenge in delivering health services in Malawi. Anybody who has been there will testify to that. Last year, we saw that only one of the doctors who was trained in Malawi remains working in the Ministry of Health there. That gives an idea of the scale of the challenge facing the health service in Malawi. In Chikwawa district, I visited a district general hospital which is operating without a qualified doctor. That district has a whole range of illnesses and challenges.
I want to focus on how we can develop the education plan. Work is being done on that plan, but I would like to offer some ideas gained from my experience and that of others. I hope that they will be beneficial.
As Murdo Fraser said, primary education in Malawi is free but, without doubt, it is underresourced. In developing the education plan, key challenges must be addressed with our partners in Malawi. The first and the most important will be to build the capacity of the teaching staff. There are far too few teachers. Of those there are, many do not have formal teaching qualifications. Many have gone into teaching because it was the only job they could get, not because it was a vocation. Those teachers have had little if any professional development since they began teaching in the classroom.
There are Scots working in Malawi. My constituent Tina Deans, who is in the public gallery today, is working in the Zomba district to provide some continuous professional development to teachers in 14 district centres. Her work covers more than 100 schools, so members can understand the scale of the challenge. It is formidable, and Malawi is a country where teachers are undervalued in many ways.
In Malawi, 85 per cent of the people live in rural areas—such as the Zomba district where Tina works. In the worst-case scenario in the Zomba district, 485 children will be taught by one teacher. In a normal situation, the figure is 130. Building the country's capacity to train more teachers is key. The minister may wish to reflect on what we can do here in Scotland to support teacher training in Malawi and to increase the number of teachers who can be trained. In any one year in Malawi, more teachers die or leave the profession than can be trained. The challenge is immense.
I urge the Executive to consider—and to discuss with our Malawian partners and with DFID—how we can incentivise teaching in rural Malawi. People are faced with a choice: they can take a class of 60 and live in a house in the city with access to shops and clean water, intermittent access to an electricity supply, and access to transport; or they can take a class of 130 in a rural area, with no accommodation, with water a walk of miles away, and with no electricity, no shops and no access to transport. Members can see why most people choose to teach in urban Malawi, where only 15 per cent of the population live, while the rural areas become further disadvantaged.
The minister may wish to consider teachers' housing, to consider whether pay incentives can be used to encourage people to teach in rural areas, and to consider how we can encourage children in remote communities to get the education that we all acknowledge will be the key that allows them to get out of poverty.
Numbers of pupil books and teaching guides are limited; some subjects cannot be taught because of a lack of teaching guides. Teachers are told to improvise, but if they have not been trained and if they do not have any resources, with what can they improvise? That is a real challenge.
Yes, there is a need for buildings—the physical infrastructure is important—but I am convinced that qualified teaching staff, with the resources to provide an education programme, will be far more important. We can help with that.
I have mentioned a link with my constituency. Carnwath primary school, where Tina Deans was a teacher, recently held a Malawi day. The whole community was involved in learning about and celebrating Malawi. Schools such as Glengowan primary school in Larkhall and others in the Biggar area are linking with schools in the Zomba district. However, it needs to be a genuine partnership. This is not about us giving things to Malawi; we can gain from the partnership too. Our children can gain knowledge as global citizens. They can learn about life in Malawi and can share experiences with their counterparts in the developing world; and the children and young people in Malawi—who are so enthused about Scotland and who love Scotland so much—can learn from their relationship with young people here in Scotland.
I look forward to the lesson plans that Tina Deans has prepared for primaries 1 to 7 being rolled out across my constituency so that children in our primary schools, from the youngest to the oldest, can begin to get an idea of what life is like, to understand the challenges that young people elsewhere in the world face and to appreciate that there is far more to life than whether they have the best game for their PlayStation 2.
We can take action to change the world through fair trade and sharing resources more equitably. The four words on the Parliament's mace—justice, compassion, wisdom and integrity—are on it for no small reason. They sum up the reasons for our partnership with Malawi and I hope that they will provide the focus for our work in the years to come.
As the minister said, it is fitting that we should have such a debate as the first anniversary of the Gleneagles G8 summit approaches and stock is taken of whether any improvements have taken place in the plight of the citizens of African countries such as Malawi. The prognosis is not good. If we are to believe reports on this morning's "Today" programme on Radio 4, the gap between rich and poor countries is widening rather than contracting. That is a familiar tale under Labour, both internationally and nationally.
The situation in Malawi has been well documented to the Parliament, not least by my late friend and Scottish National Party colleague, Margaret Ewing, who led a delegation to Malawi in February last year. It was a measure of her stature and influence in the Parliament that the First Minister, to his credit, took on board virtually all the recommendations of Margaret and her group.
As other members have mentioned, given our history, it is fitting that the Parliament should focus on Malawi. It would be great if every developed country twinned with an African country to assist with lifting it out of poverty.
I hope that the member accepts that the group that went to Malawi a year ago was a cross-party delegation and that the recommendations were not just Margaret's, but were the entire group's.
The member should have listened to what I said; I said, "the recommendations of Margaret and her group." I recognise that it was a cross-party delegation.
The G8 summit and the make poverty history campaign raised awareness and heightened expectations, but the task is huge. It was stated that the United Nations target of halving the number of people who live in poverty should be reached by 2015, but on present trends it will be 150 years before that target is reached.
Is it not the case that there is still a mindset difficulty? At governmental level, there is still a patronising and paternalistic attitude to international aid. Conditions are often attached to aid money. For example, countries are told that they must buy our goods and services in return. In addition, the World Bank dictates too much to developing countries, some of which are told that they must implement water privatisation. Debates about the ownership of the water industry must seem a distant prospect to people who do not even have water.
The minister said that she was impressed by the number of ordinary Scots who want to help and that help is coming from all our communities. In my area of Deeside, over the past 18 months, Drumoak and Durris church has raised £10,000 to help rebuild and refurbish the kitchen at Likhubula House, which is the outdoor centre at the foot of Mount Mulanje to which Mike Pringle referred. Ros, Liz, Claire and three sixth-year school leavers—Lyn, Amanda and Ellie—went out last summer to help with the work. While they were there, they did teaching, helped with after-school clubs and cleaned and painted school rooms. They took out a load of equipment, including medical supplies from Aberdeen hospital.
As Mike Pringle mentioned, Likhubula House is the only outdoor centre in Malawi. My friends and their church thought that supporting it would be a worthwhile, practical and long-term investment. It is hoped that tourism will enable the centre to become self-financing in a few years and, if possible, it will be managed solely by folk in Malawi. In the next few years, the church hopes to send out smaller amounts of money to pay for orphans' carers. The youngsters in the group were struck by how difficult it was for people to rise out of poverty because many families had to look after youngsters from extended families, whose parents had died of HIV/AIDS or hunger.
The visit was a life-changing experience for the group, as it was for the many groups from Scotland that have gone to Likhubula, including people from Dunblane and Paisley, some of whom we met the other week when the Malawi choir was at the Parliament. One of the church group, whose name is Amanda, e-mailed me when she found that I would be speaking in today's debate. She said:
"Something we in Scotland could do is not necessarily help more just help in a more informed way. Sending 20 school bags out to school children in Malawi helps those children in the short-term, yes. Greater support would come from sending money into the country so a bag producer in the country can get the work from it hence helping the children and the economy. Also needless to say for the amount of the school bags and P+P you would spend you could get double the amount of bags (if not more) by just supporting local business in Malawi."
Group members were struck by the corruption that they found at all levels and throughout the country. When they donated money, they found that they had to do it in a very public way so that the money could not be siphoned off. They told me that the immense hardship in the country means that when builders are asked to build a house and are given the necessary funds, some of them siphon off the money that should have been used for the foundations. People find that their house has shaky foundations or that it was not constructed properly. There is still a get-rich-quick attitude in Malawi, although perhaps that cannot be helped if life expectancy in the country is 40. The only way of dealing with corruption is through education and by working effectively to stamp it out.
I say to the minister that the task is huge, but we must not give up. People in Malawi are so happy with so little; their optimism must be realised. We must do more, not less. Since 1970, SNP policy has been for 0.7 per cent of gross national product to be given as development aid. As yet, the United Kingdom Government has not reached that target; indeed, it does not expect to reach it until 2013. We believe that the target should now be 1 per cent and that it should be met by 2009. Again, I say to the minister: let us raise our level of commitment. In that way, we will meet the desire of Scots to assist and of those in Malawi to help themselves.
In the developing world, pregnancy and childbirth kill a woman every minute. Since the debate began we have lost 50 women, many of whom died with no trained midwife or doctor to help them.
Each year, 4 million children die in the first month of their short life. Half of all child deaths are the result of malnutrition; dirty water and inadequate sanitation kill 6,000 children each and every day, while each year malaria kills 1 million people, tuberculosis 2 million and AIDS 3 million. Those are real statistics for real people whose lives are blighted by a global economic system that is inequitable and unfair, and which condemns people to an absence of education, poor health, continuing poverty and an early death.
In many parts of the world, individuals suffer from acute physical instability. People hide because they are frightened of going out and there is a fear of violence because they are threatened by guns and wars. That is particularly the case for children, who can either be swept up into wars or sent away from their homes to protect them from wars. I am thinking of parts of Africa such as Darfur. That situation is fundamentally and morally unacceptable. The world has a responsibility—Scotland has a responsibility—to ensure that something is done.
The something that should be done is not something that should be done by somebody else—in the end, each of us is responsible. We have a responsibility to ensure that our view of the way in which the world works is not only understood but taken forward by politicians—our politicians and other people's politicians. Scotland, or the UK, cannot solve the issue on its own; the whole world must be involved. The developed nations need to acknowledge that the way in which we appropriate and use the best part of the world's resources to build our wealth and prosperity is the cause of the poverty in the third world. We need a fundamental change to take place. That will not be painless for us, because it will involve a change in our aspirations, lifestyles and standards of living—those will have to alter to give other people in the world a fair opportunity.
Many people talk about the issues as though they are somebody else's fault; they think that they can carry on doing what they are doing and with the political views that they have. To them, it does not matter that there is a compartment between that aspect of their thinking and what needs to happen in the third world. Such compartments are dishonest. We can take account of the plight of people in the third world only if we accept that we have to make a contribution. I am proud that the Scottish Executive has decided to make a contribution through the international development strategy and that the UK Government has increased significantly the amount of money that it is providing in aid, is removing debt and is providing other support for third-world countries. Despite what people say about that not being enough, we are making a start and are trailblazing for other European countries and the United States.
We must encourage our politicians, not denounce them. When Gordon Brown or Tony Blair make announcements on the matter, or when Hilary Benn talks about what he is doing on good governance and other issues, or when Patricia Ferguson talks about what the Executive is doing in Malawi, we must say that that is good. Our criticism might be that we would like them to do a wee bit more and to involve more people. However, it is not fair for people in politics to say that it does not matter what they think and simply to denounce others and blame them for what is wrong. We must get involved in the issues.
One encouraging aspect of Scotland's approach is that many individuals and groups in our society are realising that they must make a contribution, whether that is a personal contribution of giving money or volunteering—which increasing numbers of people are doing—or getting involved in civic society and church organisations to agitate on behalf of the third world. We want to build a healthy democracy in our country and a healthy democracy is one way of making progress to help the cause of people in the third world. The issue has a resonance out there. As I am sure happens to other members, people come to my surgeries and ask me to do something about the issue. My answer is that we all need to do something—I need to do it, they need to do it, everyone needs to do it—and that is the way in which we will secure change. However, we should not think that that will be painless and that we can just put the onus on somebody else to act on our behalf. We must all become engaged.
One issue that arises from the Malawi initiative is that the idea of pairing with other people to offer expertise and to contribute directly in a sustained partnership over a period of time offers a new and promising way forward. That process of sustained engagement with people to help them develop as they want to—not by saying that they must do it our way, but by offering to provide skills and resources and to work with them to improve health, education and governance—is the way in which we can support people in places such as Malawi. Scotland is trying an experiment in Malawi. We are at the early stages of the experiment and we are not sure whether we are getting everything right at this stage, but we are doing something unique by working with a country of a similar size to ours and with people who want to work with us to try to achieve something through a sustained process. That process deserves an opportunity. We should support the Executive for taking the chance and running with the experiment.
If saving a country such as Malawi from the grinding poverty that it obviously suffers from was easy, perhaps it would have been achieved already. The idea that the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive should have a policy that is designed to assist countries such as Malawi seems strange to some people, yet those who know the true history of Scotland's involvement with and support for Africa, through the churches and other means of assistance, know that Scotland has a long-term commitment, which is entirely worthy of Scotland's devolved Government. It is entirely appropriate, therefore, not only that we should have a policy, but that we should have the opportunity today to discuss seriously the problems of that small country and our experiences of it. I am one of the few who have spoken so far who have not had the opportunity or the privilege to visit Malawi, therefore my understanding of the facts about Malawi may not be entirely the same as those who have had more experience. However, the concerns that I noted down prior to my speech seem to have been reflected in much of what has been said.
I wanted to raise one issue for which I was trying to find the appropriate word. As the word that I wrote down has been used already in the debate, I will use it too. That word is corruption. If we are to assist Malawi or any other nation that has similar problems, there is always the problem of what happens with the resources that are given to it by whatever means. I do not like the word "corruption", particularly in relation to what goes on in Africa. We have different standards. Decisions that are made by Government and quite often by individuals, whether they are involved in Government or simply as part of the economy of a country such as Malawi, are often provoked not by any desire to get rich quick—another phrase that I do not like in this context—but simply by the necessity to survive in a difficult environment. It is therefore difficult for us to balance the imposition of standards and structures that we see as appropriate with our parallel commitment to permit self-determination within a pluralist democracy. I am not entirely sure how we can walk that tightrope. The Executive has my good will in trying to achieve that.
I am well known in the chamber for believing in markets. I genuinely believe—in this country and internationally—in the concept of the redistribution of wealth through trade. In her opening remarks, Patricia Ferguson appeared to support that concept. I have no doubt that she supports it in principle, but she went on to talk about the contribution that the fair trade system is making to the economy of countries such as Malawi. It is entirely appropriate that if we drink tea or coffee, or use sugar or cotton, from a country such as Malawi, we should pay a fair rate for what we are buying. It is ironic that a country such as Malawi is suffering from the reduced demand internationally for tobacco; Malawi's tobacco is not returning the profit that it used to return in the past. I raise that point not to criticise what the minister said—I support her in so far as that goes—but to raise an on-going problem, not only in Malawi but in many other east African countries. The economy of those countries is so agriculturally dependent that they are veering towards the production of cash crops and against the production of the domestic crops that can be staples in their diet.
A piece of history that comes to mind, relating to events much closer to home many years ago, is the Irish potato famine. If we study the history of the famine, we discover that there was no shortage of food in Ireland; the problem was that the vast majority of food that was produced in Ireland at the time was exported to the British mainland. When the potato crop failed, there was starvation in a country that should have been able to feed itself many times over. It is essential that we take steps to boost growth in the economy of Malawi and other east African countries.
However, we must take into account the fact that the pressure that we put on the Malawians to grow their economy—the pressure that we put on them by ensuring that they get a good return for the cash crops that they grow—also has the effect of putting them more and more into the dangerous position that Ireland experienced in the past. For that reason, although we need to join in the commitment that the Executive has made to trade with Malawi and other small African countries, we must prioritise that to ensure that growth in those countries happens across a broad spectrum of the economy—even if it is in the manufacture of schoolbags, which we heard about a moment or two ago.
If we force the Malawians to depend on agricultural output, they may achieve a little growth—they may achieve a lot of growth if we pay them a fair price for their products—but we could imbalance their economy yet further. Any attempts that we make to encourage economic growth in Malawi must also support non-food production, for both internal and external reasons.
It is a pleasure to speak, in the last debate before the summer recess, on a topic that is close to my heart. It is disappointing that there are not more members present. I notice that no members of the Scottish Socialist Party are present, although they proposed a debate on the subject last year.
A year ago, the spotlight was on the G8 summit and the practical contribution that Scotland could make to improve the plight of people in Africa. At that time, there was a great deal of scepticism about whether we were in this for the long term and whether we could deliver in a practical way. A little bit of that has come out in the debate today, which is disappointing. As Des McNulty said, we have travelled a long way since the First Minister's innovative speech of June last year. I find it a little bit churlish—I was not going to mention this, but I feel that I have to—that some have tried to score political points, as I feel that we have come a long way.
I do not want to dissipate the good cross-party working that has gone on in the Parliament, which the Malawian high commissioner and the consular officer mentioned to me only this week. As members will be aware, the consulate office for Malawi is based in Irvine, and Cunninghame South has a long and proud history of association with Malawi. Indeed, Malawi has had consular representation in Scotland for more than 20 years. No other sub-Saharan country has shown that level of commitment over such a period of time. The high commissioner felt that a good deal of cross-party working was going on in the Parliament, and it is important that we build on that.
I take this opportunity to praise the work of St Michael's academy in Kilwinning and Irvine rotary club. The minister will know that they have fostered the kind of school-to-school and community-to-community links that are desperately needed to develop infrastructure, improve attainment and encourage sustainable development for the people of Malawi. As other members have said, the Malawians do not want aid; they want sustainable jobs. That point was also emphasised to me on Tuesday, when I met the high commissioner in my constituency.
A year ago this month, the First Minister spoke about Scotland's unfinished business with Malawi. I am proud of the fact that ordinary people in the communities that I represent and in communities throughout Scotland are contributing in an extraordinary way to making the lives of people in one of the poorest countries—65 per cent of the Malawian population are living below the poverty line—a little bit better.
Members have spoken about the need to improve health and education in Malawi. The pupils of St Michael's academy in Kilwinning have been involved in an exchange with St Peter's school in Mzuzu, which has enabled people in Ayrshire to get a close look at the education system in Malawi. It was difficult for us to grasp just how much had to be done and how much pupils at St Peter's valued their education. Many children walk miles to school each day.
There was a question-and-answer session involving the children from St Michael's and the children from St Peter's. The children from St Michael's asked, "What do you have for school lunches?" but school lunches do not exist in Malawi. They also asked, "What kind of clothes do you change into at the end of the day?" That practical interaction with children gave pupils from St Michael's a real grasp of what life is like in Malawi, which is important.
As we have heard, secondary education in Malawi has to be paid for—in a country where money is tight for every family. I have not been fortunate enough to visit Malawi, as some of my colleagues have, but I know from the discussions that I had with the visitors from St Peter's that their whole-school assemblies are held on the football pitch, that many classrooms have no windows, that pupils share desks and chairs, that classes include more than 70 pupils and that pupils are keen to learn and value education.
St Michael's in Kilwinning is in the process of setting up an orphan scholarship scheme through which the provision of secondary education can be supported by the donations and commitment of staff and parents. I am so proud of that kind of work at a practical, grass-roots level. Small monthly donations will allow the provision of desks, chairs and basic education to orphans.
I want to raise with the minister an issue that the high commissioner, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Irvine on Tuesday night, mentioned. The Scottish Executive is doing a huge amount of work that the consular officer and the high commissioner praised enormously—that is why I have found some of the comments that have been made inappropriate. They told me that it is essential that the money that is being put in can be absorbed in the communities. They asked whether, instead of sending officials out for a week, two weeks or a month at a time, it would be possible to have an official located in Malawi permanently, so that a door would be open and someone would be available immediately to sort out any logjams in the system. I promised to raise that issue with the minister. Members will be aware that we have opened Scottish Executive offices in Brussels, Beijing and Washington DC. Why cannot we open one in Malawi, where we could facilitate a partnership approach with the communities there?
We must not underestimate the difficulties of ensuring that bureaucracy does not get in the way of delivery and implementation.
I turn briefly to tourism and transport links. There is a huge opportunity to develop facilities on Lake Malawi. I have said in previous debates that it would be helpful if officials and members who travel to Malawi could use the local airline—Air Malawi. Through such actions, we can assist sustainable development.
I am running out of time, so I will conclude by saying that the people of Scotland stand ready to assist. The young people of Scotland are eager to be involved. It is important that the Scottish Parliament—the people's Parliament—facilitates that partnership.
I commend the tremendous work that has been done over the past five years at Currie high school, which has links with South Africa, and the fantastic project that is going on in Inverkeithing high school—it is a week-long, whole-school, whole-Africa project. The Executive would do well to find out what has been done.
The fact that I have not managed to grace the cross-party group on Malawi with my presence is no indication of my lack of support for what it is doing. Des McNulty summed up admirably why I am so excited about what the group is doing. I am passionate about Africa. In the late 1960s, I went to Kenya as an education officer for two years. While I was there I was head of a science department in my first year and head of a history and English department in my second year. At the moment, I am supporting a student through two years of forestry college in Uganda and in a few weeks' time I hope to be engaged as a trustee of an education project in Kenya. I have visited Soweto on two occasions. I am committed.
Mark Ruskell sends his apologies for not being available to take part in the debate; he was one of the cross-party group of MSPs who visited Malawi in February and I know that the visit affected him deeply. A few weeks ago, he became a father and he cannot be here today because he is on paternity leave. I believe that he is very much enjoying the company of his young son.
Most of us are familiar with the statistic that if everyone on the planet lived as we in Scotland do, we would need the equivalent of three planet earths to support the population. In stark contrast, if we all lived as Malawians do, we would need only half of the planet's resources. However, we would be in extreme poverty. There is clearly a huge imbalance in our use of resources to sustain our quality of life and it is clear that that imbalance must be redressed.
Industrialised countries such as ours give aid money for health programmes, industrial development and so on, but the real way out of poverty is, as Alex Johnstone said, through internal economic development. To be stable and long lasting, that economic development must be environmentally and socially sustainable and not entirely dependent on monoculture, export-designed cash cropping.
There is in Africa an opportunity to develop in a sustainable way that we largely missed out in our history. Malawians might not have to make some of the mistakes that we in western society have made since the industrial revolution. Malawi might be able to move straight to solutions that we are only starting to put in place in Scotland. For instance, Malawi currently has only a relatively low demand for electricity and energy, but that will have to grow if the country's economy is to grow. Its energy provision could, however, come from decentralised, renewable energy resources rather than wasteful and polluting centralised fossil-fuel power stations. It is obvious. We can export the expertise that is needed to support that. In that regard, I draw members' attention to the "EuroSun 2006" conference that is going on in Glasgow at the moment.
We could have a direct impact through fair trade, which has been mentioned several times this afternoon. When Mark Ruskell visited Malawi, he and Mike Pringle visited two very different enterprises: the sugar producers and the coffee producers. The fair-trade sugar producers have an impressive organisation that even has the capacity to trade with the United Kingdom. In contrast, the struggling coffee producers in the north of the country do not yet trade with the UK under a fair trade agreement. The benefits of the fair-trade premium are truly striking in terms of the investment that the sugar producers' organisation has managed to make in health care, education and other areas that benefit its community.
On a side note, I learned yesterday that some outlets that sell fairly traded chocolate are putting incredible mark-ups on it. People think that the money is going to the producers, but it is not; they get the original price and the extra money goes straight into other people's pockets. That needs to be addressed.
Malawi's Government has relatively little to spend each year, so it is absolutely obscene that it is still paying back debts to wealthy nations and having its development hampered. Although the UK has cancelled some debt, Jubilee Scotland's estimate is that £14 million is still outstanding. That debt really should be cancelled. I call on the Executive and the First Minister to use their influence with the UK Government on that issue.
Does the member accept that some of the debt that Jubilee Scotland has highlighted is owed to private companies and that there should be some public pressure on those private companies, not just on the Government, to cancel that debt?
That is a fair point.
The west has a moral imperative to reduce the impacts of climate change on countries such as Malawi. We in Scotland must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and press other industrial nations to follow suit. I would like the Executive to help Malawi and other developing countries by pledging to cut our overall net greenhouse gas emissions rather than pledging to make cuts only in particular areas. Africa will suffer more than any other continent if global warming gets much worse.
In summary, there are specific actions that we in Scotland can take to support international development: encouraging economic development that is truly sustainable, facilitating free trade and reducing climate change impacts. I urge the Executive to focus at least some of its efforts in those areas.
A lot of people have mentioned the importance of getting expertise into Africa. Many organisations specialise in that and I urge the Executive to give such non-governmental organisations, especially those that give business and teaching help, as much support as possible.
We can take great pride in the institutional links that are now working between our country and Malawi. I quote the First Minister, Jack McConnell, with approbation. He said:
"If we are not part of the solution in Africa … we exacerbate the problem." —[Official Report, 1 June 2005; c 17383.]
I agree, and I suspect that everyone else does.
However, it is the personal links that disperse the value of our connections throughout society both in our country and in Malawi. Those links entrench the value beyond the period in office of a single Government and beyond a single session of Parliament.
In my case, the links are twofold. Dr Hastings Banda won his first election here in Edinburgh. He stood for, and won a seat on, the council of the University of Edinburgh union when my father was the president of that body. I have to say that they learned different lessons from their experience. Hastings Banda learned to be captivated by the power of elected position and became a vicious despot. My father was rather different. He was always conscious of duty over power. That is a lesson that we must all learn with humility while in office. It is a gey hard task that has to be learned by each new generation of politicians. We can say with honesty that there are encouraging signs of that approach taking root in Malawi.
My other personal connection—a relatively small one—is through a gentleman called Dr Wilson, who was my father's locum. My father was a general practitioner in Fife and Dr Wilson came for a few weeks in the summer each year so that my father could get away. Dr Wilson happened to be Livingstone's grandson, so occasionally we talked about life in Africa.
I turn to the challenges and the new responses that we have to think about. First, it is a myth that trade solves all the problems. The Department for International Development in London states on its website:
"A ‘successful' outcome to the World Trade Organisation … round is likely to result in Malawi losing 11% of its export earnings. Malawi has lost its preferential access for sugar to the European Union … Malawi's main export is tobacco whose market is vulnerable to increasingly widespread health concerns."
Progress brings challenges, and we must not assume that simple-minded knee-jerk reactions will be the solution. The absence of trade is of course a problem, but it is also an opportunity. The imposition of a perfect free market is a bigger challenge than steady, careful progress.
Another myth is that money solves the problem. Used wrongly, money can make the problem a great deal worse by separating those who have in society even further from those who have not. In local manufacturing, money is often used to import products—often engineering products—that could more appropriately be produced locally, which would build capacity and be sustainable in the long term.
There are other myths about money. One of the great myths played a part in one of the great lost opportunities for the banking industry. When apartheid ended in South Africa, none of the banks would go into Khayelitsha or the other squatter camps and lend people money for houses. They thought that that was a no-no. The reality was that people who had not used credit before were always desperate to repay loans that were made to them, and the indigenous banks that sprung up have been successful. The microcredit movement, which exists throughout the world, is the way forward for money in less developed economies. I commend it—and any support that we can give it—to the minister. Although money is valuable, our individual time is invaluable by comparison.
Another myth is the idea that we in the west innovate and people in the less developed world do not. I point to the honeybee network, which began in India, primarily in Gujarat province, but is spreading outside India. It is a network of village innovators who produce simple innovations. The network is designed to ensure that the lessons that are learned in one village are passed on to others. It is being mentored, led and supported by some of the top profs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By using the modern communications that are available, they need not visit Malawi to mentor and support innovation in villages.
I will give examples of what has happened. A power-free water cooler has been developed and is being sold abroad. A motorcycle has been adapted to create a tractor from almost no money, simply by recycling. A new design of pulley makes it possible to draw water from a well in a way that is more effective and involves less effort.
The third world has much to teach us. Perhaps one point is that we must stop calling it the third world, because it will overtake us by avoiding some of the mistakes that we have made. We must support it in that journey. Only a few of us will make the journey to Malawi in body, but we can all connect in our minds and in our spirit, and we must do that.
It is good to participate in what has been, by and large, a remarkably consensual and non-partisan debate. We have honestly recognised that, when set against the problem, our contribution and our effort are small. However, that is a start. As Des McNulty said, we are beginning to raise the public's awareness that it is not just for Governments—for others—to do something, but for each and every one of us as individuals, regardless of our political allegiances, status in society, religious affiliation or anything else, to play our part and not just talk about it. It is sad that Scottish Socialist Party members could not be with us today, particularly given the stance that they have historically taken on some of the issues.
It is tempting to take as our starting point the G8 summit last year, but it is important to remember that much of the work that we are discussing has been carried out over many years—many members mentioned that. The minister spoke of the generosity of the Scottish spirit and the collaborative work that Scotland has for many years done with the UK Government. The minister said that the spirit of G8 built on work that was under way, which includes activities to improve health care, education and the economy in the developing world. Many speakers have alluded to all that.
Those are perhaps the best-known activities—the activities that are most readily appreciated, understood and supported in our communities and best reported in the press. Perhaps less well appreciated and understood and certainly less widely reported, although not necessarily less supported, is the work that is being done in Arabic and other nations—particularly in nations with Sharia law—to improve administrative, judicial and penal systems. I congratulate the people from Scotland—officials and practitioners, not politicians—who have put a lot of effort into that work, supported by the Executive and by the various institutions in Scotland.
Given the scale of the problem, perhaps our biggest challenge is to use our relatively small resources where they will do the most good, so that we contribute to the big picture that Linda Fabiani spoke about and, as Murdo Fraser said, make our little do a lot.
In my final two and a bit minutes, I will highlight three examples from my constituency of how Scotland's international development effort is being helped by young and old, by churches, by education, by the public and by the private sector. Pupils at Auchmuty high school in Glenrothes were so struck by the pictures that they saw from Sri Lanka after the tsunami that they teamed up with a local company called Ardmel, whose founder is Sri Lankan, and with other local companies and Fife Council. They succeeded in raising £80,000 to ship out and provide a new junior school for a village in Sri Lanka. The pupils went out there to help to set up the school and to give teachers initial support in setting up classrooms. That relationship continues to develop.
Next Monday, Newcastle primary school will present a petition to me and my Westminster colleague John MacDougall MP in support of the give my friend a teacher campaign, which, as many members will know, seeks to bring more teachers to schools in rural areas and to develop more local teachers. Indeed, Karen Gillon spoke eloquently about that very issue.
Finally, Ian Macaulay, the head teacher of Pitteuchar East primary school in Glenrothes, was given the opportunity by the Executive, the British Council and Fife Council to go to Malawi for a year. From that initial visit, he has sustained a relationship with a primary school in Namadzi that has resulted not only in collaboration between the schools but in a project in the village that teaches the community how to use e-mail. That allows people to exchange resources and information and to request, for example, guidelines and other materials to be printed out here and posted back to Malawi. It will also support local commerce, which might help not just Namadzi and Malawi but other countries in the developing world not to make the same mistake that we made. After all, by allowing and encouraging people to move to more urban areas, we have reduced the employment potential in our rural areas. That has caused great problems in rural Scotland, and we do not want Malawi to make the same mistake.
On Monday evening, the pupils of Pitteuchar East primary launched a DVD that shows what they have learned about Malawi and what the children of Namadzi have learned about Scotland. Indeed, the minister has been invited to visit the school and see the DVD for herself. Our children learned that, in Namadzi, a pencil, a piece of paper and a book are precious. On the other hand, the children of Namadzi learned about Scotland, its weather, the closeness of the sea and the wildlife. Interestingly, they somehow have the impression that there are lions in Scotland—I am not sure that that is particularly advantageous. However, that work shows that from little acorns, big trees can grow. From these small beginnings, we can ensure that we play our part in supporting the developing world and in improving the world for us all.
It is entirely appropriate that in the final debate before the summer recess we should lift our eyes to far horizons. Like some other members who have spoken this afternoon, I have not visited Malawi. However, I have learned a great deal from this afternoon's high-quality speeches and, in the time available, I want to touch on as many points as possible.
The minister provided a very good round-up of where we have reached and where we are aiming to go and reminded us of some important statistics, including the target of increasing aid to Africa by $25 billion a year by 2010, and the importance of targeting grants at small-scale projects. Indeed, other members touched on that issue. The minister also highlighted the area of fair trade and the evident and tangible desire of ordinary Scots—rich and poor, young and old alike—to make a difference.
Linda Fabiani touched not only on the international development fund but on public health, which is the major issue for most of Africa, and raised the interesting prospect of China being a future trade partner of Africa. She also highlighted the lack of a democratic structure in Africa and, in particular, in Malawi.
Murdo Fraser quite correctly reminded us that Dr Livingstone and his followers went to Malawi to protect the people from the slave trade. He also highlighted the strong link with Christianity and the Church of Scotland, which is something that the two countries can build on in their work together.
Mike Pringle told us that at last night's Scottish Parliamentary Journalists Association dinner a sum of money was raised for Malawi, which demonstrates that good can come out of all kinds of events. I believe that he was the first to talk about full debt cancellation, and he also made some very interesting comments about the outdoor facilities at Likhubula House.
Karen Gillon put it simply when she said that we should do what we can to change the world and Maureen Watt very kindly paid due tribute to the First Minister for grasping this issue. Ms Watt also mentioned the potential for tourism, which I believe runs parallel to Alex Johnstone's point about trade. If I read Alex Johnstone right, he was stressing the importance of not polarising or upsetting the internal market in Malawi. There are checks and balances that we have to think of when we consider tourism.
Des McNulty gave us the chilling statistic that 50 mothers would have died since the beginning of the debate by the time that he spoke. Goodness knows how many must have died by now. That is the reality of the tragedy and it is something that we would do well to remember. He was also wise to say that we are learning as we go along. International aid is comparatively new territory for this Parliament, but providing that we learn and that we do an audit to see what we have achieved and what we could have done better, we will be able to improve.
I return to what Alex Johnstone said, because I must give him credit for raising a crucial point about corruption. He said that corruption is often based on fleecing the system for the sake of it, but in some cases the simple, bleak necessity of surviving drives people to corruption. Some of those people have no choice. However, I would like to make my own contribution on this matter. How dare some countries be so hypocritical as to wave the finger at Africa for corruption, when we read about the tragic case of a banker who took £20 million from a bank in our own country or about the man who collapsed a bank in the far east? The money that can be nicked out of the system here, tragic as that may be, would make such a difference in some parts of Africa. Corruption and breaking the law are, unfortunately, to be found all round the world, and we should not suggest that Africa has a monopoly on them.
Irene Oldfather drew our attention to the consular presence in Scotland, and Jack McConnell's own expression last year was that supporting development in Africa was Scotland's unfinished business. Irene Oldfather talked about what is being done at St Michael's academy in Kilwinning, and that underlines the fact that young people are keen to be involved, which gives one enormous hope for the future.
Robin Harper talked about lifestyles that use the resources of three earths and lifestyles that use the resources of half an earth. I hope that it is not true, but if there is anything at all in what he said about fair trade profiteering, that is indeed reprehensible. I ask the minister to look into the issue. If there is nothing in it, there is nothing in it, but if there is something to the notion that people are profiteering, shame on them.
Stewart Stevenson took us on a truly awe-inspiring tour of his experience and knowledge. There is never a speech that he makes that does not make me sit up and come away with something that I had not expected, and now I know about Dr Hastings Banda. I thought for a minute that Stewart Stevenson was claiming to be Dr Livingstone's grandson, but the minister put me right on that. I thought that he must look younger than he is.
Christine May reminded us that this is a non-partisan debate, and that is hugely important. I started my contribution by saying that we have lifted our eyes to far horizons. There are not many watching us from the press gallery, but we can say privately that our involvement in Malawi is something that we can be proud of. It is not a huge amount of money, but we are giving what we can and we are targeting it. We have the noblest of reasons: if just one life is saved—or perhaps better—that is an inestimable reward for those who regard life as sacred, as I do. That is why our small contribution makes the difference between despair and hope for those who are being helped.
It has been a real pleasure to take part in the debate. It only remains for me to wish my colleagues a relaxing and restful summer before we come back refreshed to debate matters further in September.
Jamie Stone summed up the theme of the debate when he talked about the importance of making a difference. The debate has been of the highest standard and it has served an invaluable purpose in highlighting the special relationship between Scotland and Malawi.
I became aware of that special relationship on visiting the museum dedicated to David Livingstone in Blantyre, adjacent to Hamilton in Scotland. David Livingstone was not just a great explorer; he was a man who repeatedly confronted the slave traders, whom he regarded as the scum of humanity. His expeditions in Malawi were those of a man who had set forth from Scotland with nothing more than the clothes he wore, his medical equipment, his bible and his moral fervour, all of which stood him in good stead. The friendship that followed between Malawians, missionaries, doctors and teachers became an important part of our mutual history, which is highly valued in a great many quarters both in Scotland and in Malawi.
The Executive is now working with Voluntary Service Overseas to find successful ways of enabling Scots teachers and education managers to work up educational development proposals that will help Malawi. In addition, other Scots are contributing substantially. For example, the Strathclyde partnership is distributing 32,000 school books in Malawi and it has provided computers that talk to visually impaired children at Montfort College. Similarly, the primary objective of the Malawi millennium project is to train the trainers by providing sustainable tertiary education in priority areas of need. That will have long-term results as it will provide Malawi with more skilled employees.
I am glad that the CPA branch in the Scottish Parliament has built up a strong and enduring relationship with the Malawian Parliament. It is particularly pleasing that the first major visit to Africa by a Scottish Parliament CPA delegation was to South Africa and Malawi and that all its significant recommendations were acted on. I cannot help expressing pride that my friend and colleague Ted Brocklebank was able to complete the donation of many bags of golf clubs to Malawi's new golf course through the most ingenious use of the diplomatic bag.
Maureen Watt touched on the sensitive subject of corruption in Africa. The issue has been a problem not only for this Administration but for successive Governments since overseas aid became a reality of modern life. The President of Malawi dealt with the subject on his visit here, when he spoke from the Presiding Officer's seat. One way of dealing with the matter is to ensure that funds are awarded for agreed projects or to charities with clear purposes. I hope that the funds from the Scottish Administration, which amount to £2.4 million, will reach those for whom they are intended. Perhaps the minister can reassure us on that point. I am sure that she would wish to do so.
It would help if the Executive gave its support to the development of business and trade communications between Scotland's business community and that of Malawi. It would also help if the Executive assisted businessmen in Scotland to provide scholarships for Malawians to gain the necessary expertise in Scotland before going back to Malawi. I ask the minister to confirm that she would give her blessing to such possibilities.
We welcome the fact that the £2.4 million will go to projects such as the University of Stirling's project to empower local communities by giving them relevant education and practical knowledge to make their farming and fishing more sustainable and productive. The University of Strathclyde's goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality in a cluster of villages in the Chikwawa district of Malawi is necessary. Through means of a separate programme, it plans to provide basic health training to health workers and better facilities at the local hospital. A further example is that funds going to Tearfund UK will reduce the impact of AIDS on affected individuals, families and communities that are unable to cope.
Of course, we could do a great deal more. Karen Gillon and Irene Oldfather mentioned the importance of tourism, transport and infrastructure developments and Robin Harper talked about internal development. I mention to the minister the pressing need for teaching courses for teachers and health workers.
In February, the second parliamentary group that went to Malawi heard from the staff of the nursing and midwifery training colleges that they would welcome twinning or support from health institutions or colleges in Scotland. I ask the minister whether there are specific plans in place for a greater exchange of students to study medicine and teaching in Scotland. In her opening speech, the minister made comments that seemed to point in that direction.
I will deal quickly with the argument that whatever we do is a drop in the bucket. I do not accept that argument. If everybody puts a drop in a bucket, it adds up to a surprising amount. The Parliament can act as a catalyst to draw in a great deal of extra help from other sources. After all, politicians should be dealers in hope. If we succeed in our purpose, it will result, as Mike Pringle said, in serious, practical help.
We express profound gratitude to those generous individuals in Scotland who sustain charitable links with Malawi. We believe passionately that what has happened so far has built sure and certain foundations for future progress. However, as Karen Gillon relevantly pointed out, this must at all times be done on the basis of a willing and genuine working partnership between our two nations. We wish to broach this subject with humility but also with commitment and conviction. If we are allowed to do that, I believe that the special relationship will flourish.
This has been an interesting debate and I have enjoyed every speech. There is much to be answered. I will do the big UK picture first because I feel that the things that were said about that require answers.
Mike Pringle talked about the UK's commitment to achieving the UN target for aid of 0.7 per cent of gross national income. There is no reason why that target cannot be achieved now—after all, we signed up to it decades ago through the UN but never achieved it. Des McNulty spoke about the UK being a trailblazer. Although I think that Gordon Brown has done rather well, I would not go beyond that. I put it to members that the Scandinavian countries have been the trailblazers because they, unlike the UK, met the UN target some time ago. Small independent countries throughout Europe have also met that commitment and Scotland, too, could do that. Many members spoke of what people do, and have been doing for years, to help in Malawi, other parts of Africa, and, indeed, in places all over the world. I suspect that what is now happening is that the Government is falling behind the aspirations of the people, who are looking for much more.
I am going to be nice now because the holidays are coming up. We will finish on a positive note. As I said, there were many interesting contributions to the debate. Murdo Fraser, Karen Gillon and Irene Oldfather, particularly, spoke of school links. I was also interested in what Murdo Fraser said about households in Malawi being headed by seven-year-olds. I learned a lot about that during my short trip to Malawi.
Karen Gillon said that primary education is now free in Malawi. That is great and it is wonderful that Malawi has achieved that, but when I was there I learned that in many rural areas people still pay for primary education because knowledge about the law that such education should be free has not filtered through to those areas. That relates to the lack of a democratic and governmental infrastructure to feed information to people. Even if education is free, how can a seven-year-old who heads a household go to school to take advantage of education if their day-to-day existence involves trying to earn a living to be able to feed their siblings? I welcome the statistics, but I think that we should look behind them and recognise that there is still a lot to do.
I was particularly taken by one of Karen Gillon's stances. Other members mentioned this, too, but she started the strand of discussion on the point that we cannot be seen as imposing ourselves on others, which is right. One thing that always concerns me is the perception that we get from the media here that Africa is always in trouble and needing handouts and that Africans are not quite able to manage things for themselves. Some of the most vibrant, educated people whom I have ever met, who are spot on about how to achieve things, have come from African communities. It is a shame that Africa is never shown in a positive light in countries such as ours but always portrayed negatively. It is also patronising to assume that what we regard as the best way of life in our countries and the best way of doing things should just be imposed on others.
When I was in Malawi, quite a few African folk spoke to me about another aspect. The discussion, which I found fascinating, was about the dependency culture that can be created when the west comes in with great intentions and imposes things. A Malawian chap gave me an example of that. He said that although it is wonderful to see secondary schoolchildren from Scotland—or France, Germany or Spain—taking part in a project to build a small rural school, when that happens the Malawian schoolchildren stand and watch. The Malawian children do not have the opportunity to volunteer and take part in a joint effort, which does not promote the sense of the common good that is required if communities are to be able to build themselves up. We are getting better at acknowledging that aid of all types must be delivered differently.
Alex Johnstone talked about cash cropping, which was a huge issue under corrupt Governments in Latin America, where people starved while asparagus and other crops were shipped round the world to people who could afford to buy them. Such cash cropping remains an issue in Africa. We must learn from the mistakes that were made in the past and, thankfully, Latin America is turning a corner in that regard—politically and environmentally.
As Alex Johnstone said, food is sometimes available but unobtainable. I talked to a fantastic woman from the north of Malawi who is a community activist. She told me that in her area some fruit is not recognised as food, although it would be a sustainable food. Folk in the village think that only animals eat the fruit, so she is taking part in a project through which fruit trees are planted in people's gardens and well-known, respected local people are recruited to go about eating apples and bananas, so that the villagers start to regard such fruit as normal food. I was fascinated to learn about that project.
Another form of cash cropping leads to the environmental degradation of Malawi's forests. The sale of charcoal across the border to Mozambique is a huge problem. The trade is illegal but represents an example of a law that cannot be properly enforced, for various reasons—it is easy to criticise that from a secure standpoint. As Irene Oldfather said, there is a need for sustainable jobs, so that people do not have to degrade their environment and living conditions in order to feed their families.
James Douglas-Hamilton talked about health training, which is crucial. Hospitals and clinics are needed, but health staff must also be trained so that they can work with people in rural communities. I was fascinated to hear about a project at the University of Dundee, which provides distance learning for nurses in Eritrea and Kenya. I hope that nurses in Malawi will be able to take advantage of that project. People do not need just a standard health course; they need to learn about the health care that their communities need.
In Malawi, we should aim for security in jobs, food, energy, health and the environment. When there is a measure of such security, we will be able to say that we have made a difference.
I thank members for their speeches in an almost entirely positive debate, which has demonstrated that it is possible to reach a broad consensus on how Scotland should try to alleviate international poverty.
I hope that no member would disagree with the fact that, as Des McNulty said, we all have an obligation to look beyond our borders and support the countries of the developing world in meeting the challenges that they face. I hope that no one would disagree that the historic values of fairness, equality and mutuality should continue to drive forward our international development policy today.
The debate has focused on the huge amount that Scotland has to offer in terms of skills and knowledge. There are a number of people in the Parliament today who are now quite familiar with Malawi and with the enormous challenges that are faced by the country, which is one of the poorest in the world. I particularly value the support from members of different parties for our common goal of building a better future for Malawi.
I will probably not have time to respond to all the points that have been made and I apologise to members in advance if I do not manage to do so. However, I will try to write to members about any substantive point in the debate that I do not manage to respond to now.
In her opening speech, Linda Fabiani asked whether the database that the University of Edinburgh is working on is to include small agencies. I understand that the directory is intended to focus on institutions in Scotland with a specific expertise in Africa, as well as bodies and associations that aim to represent Africans in Scotland. In the discussions that my officials and I will have with the university, we will take up that issue and find out whether there is some possibility in that regard.
Murdo Fraser has had to leave us, for understandable reasons, but I put on record my thanks to him, both for his considered speech today and for his support for the work that we have been doing on fair trade. That has been worth while and Murdo Fraser has played an active part.
As a member of the Co-operative Party—as are many of my colleagues—I thank Mike Pringle in particular for his reference to the Co-operative Society's early commitment to fair trade products. It has led the way and has encouraged people to realise that fair trade works and that it is not just about charity.
It is important to reiterate a point that Linda Fabiani and Maureen Watt made about the Westminster Government reaching the target and fulfilling its obligation on assistance. It is important to mention that this is the first Government ever to have such a target. The fact that we have a target is a measure of the commitment that our Westminster colleagues have shown. Gordon Brown has been pivotal in that regard and he deserves a great deal of praise from us, which I am happy to give. Anyone who heard Hilary Benn speaking in the chamber last week should have no doubt about the commitment of our Westminster colleagues to ensuring that those aims are reached and the wider agenda is addressed.
Mike Pringle was right to focus on the issue of maternal health. We can help a great deal there. We have an obligation to focus on that area in a country where women have a one in 25 chance of dying in childbirth. As with many other aspects of our work in Malawi, we do not want simply to train midwives; we want to train the people who train the midwives. By training the trainers, we can fan out the effect, allowing that training to trickle down into the country in a way that will not be achieved simply through training individual midwives.
Karen Gillon correctly identified the partnership approach that we are trying to take to our work with Malawi. A good, early, practical example is the relationship that has been built up between Minga community day secondary school in Malawi and Sanday community school in Orkney. The relationship that was formed between those two schools was partly responsible—along with the great work of Glenys Hughes of the St Magnus festival, who has also visited and worked in Malawi for a time—for ensuring that this year's St Magnus festival had a focus on Malawi.
We have heard a lot about the fact that primary education is now free in Malawi, whereas secondary education still has to be paid for. I asked people at Minga school whether that factor inhibited children from completing their education. It does, of course, particularly if there is more than one child in the family, and girls will perhaps come off worse than boys. I asked how much a year's education at Minga school would cost and learned that it translates to approximately £21 per annum. That brings home to all of us the fact that small actions can achieve a great deal in our work in Malawi and that we can all play a part. That amount of money should not be an inhibitor to anyone's education—not when we have such resources at our disposal.
As Karen Gillon rightly said, teachers and midwives are dying. That is a great problem. There is the proliferation of AIDS and the average life expectancy is only 35. We are therefore concentrating on programmes for training the trainers, to help the numbers to reach a critical mass.
I say to Maureen Watt that the President of Malawi is dedicated to wiping out corruption. He has made that a keystone of his Administration. However, to be frank, the existence of corruption is not a reason for us to do nothing. Alex Johnstone was right to say that the corruption that Maureen described in Malawi is not about people getting rich quick but about people being able to find the next meal for their family. The choices are that stark. We are talking about people who are often surviving on the equivalent of 6p a day. For them, the opportunity to get some other money will always be a huge temptation.
I congratulate Des McNulty on a particularly thoughtful speech but also on the leadership that he has shown in the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on international development. He is right to emphasise the responsibility that we all share. I hope that our approach to our relationship with Malawi—which is about partnership, not about the building of a large hospital or school that the people cannot then populate or use—will ensure that we can build capacity at an early stage.
Irene Oldfather mentioned the Malawian High Commissioner; I too had the pleasure of meeting the High Commissioner. I congratulate the schools in Irene's constituency on the good work that they have done.
I want to mention one thing that the High Commissioner told me when he was here on Monday. A key thing that his President asked him to do while in Great Britain was to make the co-operation agreement with Scotland a priority. We welcome the fact that the High Commissioner and the consul are committed to the work that we are doing.
Robin Harper mentioned Currie high school and Inverkeithing high school, which should be congratulated. Robin's comment about Malawi learning from our mistakes was very interesting. I had a similar conversation with one of my counterparts in Malawi. We were talking about trade and the conversation drifted on to the subject of packaging. I suggested to him that one thing that Malawi must not do is replicate the mistakes that we have made in that and in many other areas.
Stewart Stevenson gave us an interesting family history of his connections with Malawi—I have to say that it came as no surprise to many of us. Stewart's story was similar to that of many people in Scotland, which is one reason why our partnership with Malawi is so important. Links go back a long way, as can be seen in the missionary graves of 150 years ago. People as young as 24 died while trying to help Malawi.
I say to Stewart Stevenson that the Malawian finance minister, in a recent report to Parliament when he was presenting his budget, said that he hopes that Malawi will be able to have its debt cancelled very soon. He believes that the country is very much on track towards meeting the criteria.
Christine May mentioned schools in her constituency. I know that Pitteuchar East primary school has issued me with an invitation, and I would very much like to go—not least to talk to the teacher who has spent time in Malawi. At lunch time, I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Karen Gillon's constituent who is in the public gallery for the debate. I heard about her experiences in Malawi. I have now visited Malawi myself and feel that I understand the country a little better, but it is always good to hear from people who have spent a considerable amount of time working in the country. Their experience is particularly valuable.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton asked for reassurance on how money that the Executive has given to projects is being used. He is right. Our approach is to give it to organisations that work on the ground. Although we work with the Government in support of its objectives and priorities, money goes directly to projects.
It is important that we do not forget the challenges that we still face. The wave of public support for the make poverty history campaign brought those challenges right to the top of the political agenda and sent a stark message to the world leaders who met at Gleneagles. A year on, we need to keep up the fight and, as representatives of the Scottish people, we have a duty to respond to the demands that have been made and to keep the issues of aid, trade and debt on the agenda.
I am delighted to have had the opportunity to speak to the Parliament and to provide an update on the Executive's international development policy and, in particular, the progress of our work with Malawi. I am rightly proud—as I am sure we all are—of the tremendous contribution that Scottish organisations and individuals make in that area.
Our commitment to Malawi is long term. My visit to Malawi and today's debate have reinforced my view that our approach and the priorities that we have set are the right ones. Through our unique relationship with Malawi and our wider international development policy, we will continue to encourage Scots to learn more about global issues and to act where they see injustice.