I was being a bit facetious, cabinet secretary.

Just to clarify, I did not say there had been no progress since Christie.

That is very clear. Where are you fixed for being able to deliver on the community investment and community prescribing agenda?

I, too, want to thank Clare Adamson for securing today’s debate. I also thank Gordon MacDonald for standing in to kick off the discussion, and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum for all its work.

It is timely that we meet so recently after Fairtrade fortnight to highlight the benefits of fair trade, but we also need to focus on it all year round. Fair trade is crucial in ensuring that goods are produced ethically, and it is a key tool that we, as consumers, have in knowing that the price that we pay delivers for our environment and in relation to fair work principles for producers. Fair trade directly benefits the communities that the producers live in.

The Corana RI Irupana co-operative in Bolivia provides a brilliant example of the benefits of fair trade for people and communities. Research shows that the co-operative is in a stable situation that has resulted in 60 per cent of its members being able to access electricity, 97 per cent recycling their organic waste, an impressive 86 per cent believing that they are better off in the organisation than they were before being in it, and 54 per cent having jobs created in their community. The delivery of high-quality sustainable products, easier access to credit for smallholders and investment in community services, including food security and scholarships, are but a few of the many benefits that fair trade has for consumers and producers worldwide.

A couple of weeks ago, at our cross-party group on fair trade, it was inspiring to hear from producers. There was the story of Sholi Coffee in Rwanda, which started as a small association of 30 women and has not stopped growing since. We heard about the contribution of the Kasinthula Cane Growers’ Association from Malawi, which managed to convert largely unproductive land to sugar cane production, thereby providing an income for 282 subsistence farmers and employment for nearly 800 permanent and seasonal field workers. We then heard about the positive impact of fair trade in supporting producers and their communities in Palestine.

As other members have said, however, the challenges that have been posed by the pandemic have had an impact; they have left producer organisations struggling to cope, and have affected the livelihoods of their workers. Research shows that Covid-19 significantly affected the business viability of fair trade producers, with a majority of producers reporting a decrease in production and lower fair trade and non-fair trade sales in 2020 than there were in 2019. A significant minority experienced lower prices and fewer buyers. The Africa and middle east region was the worst hit, with almost 70 per cent of the sampled producer organisations there reporting declines in production and sales.

There is much more that we need to do. Fairtrade has made a difference to the lives of more than 500,000 farmers and workers in nearly 60 countries. As the second country in the world to be named a fair trade nation, Scotland is ahead of the game, but there is so much more that we need to do. It is not us just about signing the pledge as individuals; we must also consider how ethical public sector procurement can make the maximum possible difference. It is about looking at what we as consumers can do to support local fair trade shops.

I am proud of the fact that Edinburgh has been a Fairtrade city since 2004. We have fantastic shops such as Hadeel, with its focus on Palestinian fair trade crafts, and the One World Shop, which brings in fantastic sustainable and fairly traded goods from across the world. We have, on our high streets, access to fair trade products in Oxfam shops, which have products from more than 70 countries around the world. As Gordon MacDonald said, we also have Co-operative Group and Scotmid shops on our high streets across Scotland. At the recent meeting of the fair trade cross-party group, we also focused on the fact that we can all buy fair trade goods online, wherever we live in Scotland.

There is much more that we can do. Let us hope that today’s message is a positive one. It is a call to action for all of us that we can all buy fair trade goods. I encourage everyone to go online, check out their local shops and support communities across the world. They need our trade and our investment, which is transformative.

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to offer home fee status to refugees and other people displaced from Ukraine who wish to study in Scotland. (S6O-00881)

I welcome that commitment to address the situation. Refugees and family members who are studying in Ukraine will be coming within days, so everything that we do will be important.

What discussions has the Scottish Government had with universities and colleges to make sure that those students have the chance to keep studying and that they can be matched with appropriate degree and college classes, so that they do not miss out?

We all hope that the invasion will be over as soon as possible but, given that people’s homes and buildings have been destroyed across Ukraine, does the minister agree that helping those students to continue learning will be important in helping Ukraine to recover and rebuild in the future?

The First Minister mentioned the importance of the need to learn lessons from supporting people who came to Scotland from Syria. In research findings, employability and welfare rights were mentioned by 78 per cent of respondents. What work is the Scottish Government doing with employers to prepare them to offer jobs to Ukrainians coming to Scotland, and what work is it doing to support digital connectivity, so that people can access welfare support, keep connected for learning and access support networks?

The Ukrainian consul general was clear at committee last week that many Ukrainians will want to return to Ukraine to rebuild their country, but we do not know how long that will take, given that many of them have homes that no longer exist. We need our businesses to be able to reach out to Ukrainians so that their skills can be matched with potential employers and they can support their families. What is the First Minister doing to make that a reality?

I thank you all for the work that you are doing. It feels like yesterday but, just before Christmas, we had a briefing from the Disasters Emergency Committee about the work that you are doing in Afghanistan. The amount of work that you have done in the past couple of weeks is incredible.

I want to pick up Sue Inglish’s point about older people. We have rightly been focusing on women and children who have been fleeing their homes but, on “News at Ten” last night, there was an incredibly moving piece about older people who had wanted their younger relatives and children to escape but, because things are so bad, they are now moving, too. There were images of people in wheelchairs or on crutches trying to escape. They are in a different set of circumstances, and the support that they need must be very different.

One thing that struck me was that people with heart conditions, diabetes or other long-term conditions all need medicine now, not in a couple of weeks. How on earth do you make that intervention on the ground to support those very specific needs? It is not about what happens in a fortnight; it is about getting people safe routes to somewhere else. How do you support local agencies on the ground to go from nothing to providing that detailed support overnight?

I do not know whether Sue or Madara is the best person to start on that.

That takes me on to what happens next, once you have supported people to either stay safely or to move. In such a fast-moving crisis, it must be incredibly difficult to provide support on the ground. I am not sure who the best person to ask is but, after the immediate support and the disaster appeal, where do you go next?

It was right to mention right at the start that there are lots of other crisis situations in the world that have less publicity. How do you ensure that you have investment in the right places with all the local organisations and that the raft of expertise is available on the ground? How do you make that work, and what more can we do to support you in that process, whether it is getting our constituents to donate or working on the strategic relationships on finance with the Scottish Government that you have referred to?

That is helpful. As well as the immediate humanitarian crisis, as a couple of you have mentioned, there is also the issue of rebuilding afterwards.