Celebrating 21 Years of the Intergovernmental Agreement Between Scotland and Malawi

That the Parliament celebrates the 21st anniversary of the signing of the intergovernmental agreement between Scotland and Malawi on 3 November 2005 by former First Minister, Jack McConnell, and the then President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika; sends its congratulations to the presbyteries in Orkney, the Malawi Music Fund and the citizens in every constituency in Scotland and their Malawian partners where the two nations have thriving people-to-people and community-to-community links; pays tribute to the positive transformation in the lives of individuals, families and communities in Malawi, and to the learning and valued friendships gained by people throughout Scotland, resulting from the Scotland-Malawi funding of successive Scottish Governments and the efforts of civil society Scotland-Malawi champions and changemakers; recognises the value of the two-way learning resulting from exchange visits by parliamentarians and clerks from both Parliaments; acknowledges the longstanding and enduring strength of cross-party support for Malawi, reflected in the Scottish Parliament’s Malawi Cross-Party Group, and for civil-society links with Malawi, recently voiced by MSPs of all parties in the Members’ Business Debate held on 6 October 2026, and commends the work of the Members, staff, trustees, Hon Co-Presidents and Hon Co-Patrons of the Scotland Malawi Partnership and its Malawi-based sister organisation, MaSP, as valuable networks worth protecting because of their role in encouraging collaboration and reducing duplication of effort across our two nations’ distinctive people-to-people links.