International Development 2019-2020: contribution report

Chapter 3: Other Funding and Activities

3.1 Humanitarian Emergency Fund

Scotland has a longstanding history of contributing aid to humanitarian crises and since 2005, Scottish Ministers have responded to international crises including those in Yemen, Gaza, Syria and West Africa. In 2016 Scottish Ministers committed to delivering a Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF). The HEF was established from April 2017, supported by an expert Panel comprising representatives from eight leading humanitarian aid organisations based in Scotland. The HEF is administered by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

From April 2019 to December 2020 the HEF supported six humanitarian emergency responses:

• In July 2019, £200,000 was awarded to help relief work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This funding was split evenly between British Red Cross and Christian Aid to help stop the spread of Ebola.
• In October 2019, £100,000 was awarded to SCIAF to help more than 6,000 people (displaced families) fleeing conflict in north-west Syria, with essential items such as blankets and mattresses.
• In March 2020, £338,000 was shared equally by Tearfund, Christian Aid and Oxfam for the Ethiopia Locust Infestation and Food Insecurity.
• In July 2020, the HEF supported a DEC Appeal for an emergency response to the COVID-19 crisis, with the initial focus of the appeal to support displaced communities and refugees in 7 key countries.
• In September 2020, £300,000 was given to support those affected by the explosion in Beirut, shared between British Red Cross, Christian Aid and Tearfund.
• In December 2020, £100,000 was allocated for Niger, to Save the Children to help communities affected by devastating floods.

Annual reports and individual reports of each activation can be found here.

In 2019 an independent review was undertaken to explore the success of the HEF so far and make recommendations on how the fund could improve. The review considers the period since the HEF’s establishment (Spring 2017) to the summer of 2019 and is based on a range of interviews with key stakeholders and sector experts, as well as desk review of HEF documentation and publications from leading agencies, thought leaders and think-tanks working on humanitarian assistance. The recommendations of the report with be implemented from 2021 onwards.

3.2 Climate Justice Fund

The Scottish Government is committed to playing its part to support the global transition to a net-zero emissions economy that helps deliver the SDGs, and to do so in a way that is just and fair to everyone. We recognise there is a global climate emergency and we have a moral duty to respond accordingly.

The Scottish Government takes a climate justice approach, recognizing that it is those least responsible for the global climate emergency that are being affected first and most severely by it. We launched the world’s first dedicated Climate Justice Fund (CJF) in 2012, and committed to making a total of £21M available through to 2021 to support 

some of the world’s most vulnerable people in becoming more resilient to climate change. In 2019-2020 the fund has been primarily directed through the Climate Challenge Programme Malawi and the Climate Justice Innovation Fund. A third funding stream of the CJF goes to the Water Futures Programme.

Climate Challenge Programme Malawi

The Climate Challenge Programme Malawi (CCPM) supports a group of rural communities in Balaka, Chikwawa, Machinga and Zomba in Malawi, to identify and implement their own solutions for adapting to and building resilience against the worst effects of climate change. This contributes directly to Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.

Case study

CADECOM National Office

CADECOM National Office is implementing the advocacy component of the CCPM programme. It aims to improve the understanding of people’s human rights in relation to climate change, and to engage local and national government in Malawi and generate an improved understanding of citizens’ human rights in relation to climate change. It is working with CCPM communities to identify climate-related concerns and petition local governments for action. This year, they organized local government engagement activities in all four districts in order to build community-government alliances and tackle climate injustices facing the communities.

 In Zomba, Group Village Head Kathebwe and the Advocacy Team delivered a petition to the District Commissioner’s office. After delivering the petition Kathebwe and chiefs from 23 villages held a series of meetings to plan climate change interventions. The communities agreed to mobilize through their chiefs to work towards the rehabilitation of a waterway embankment. The embankment had been incapable of shielding the communities from rising water – during the 2019/2020 rainy season part of the waterway was washed away, destroying houses and crop fields. The waterway improvement work began on 28th August.

Climate Justice Innovation Fund

• The Climate Justice Innovation Fund supports projects developing innovative solutions for strengthening communities in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia against the effects of climate change. It is administered by the Corra Foundation and more information can be found here. Three projects have been funded in the 2019 round of the CJIF:
• From Plant to Plate – Malawi Fruits: addressing the post-harvest losses in northern Malawi (Mzimba) and generating increased farming profit for women farmers and persons with disabilities through combining training with the establishment of a co-operative and solar-powered cold store.
• Community Advocacy for Sustainable Rural Water Services in Malawi – SEPA: empowering women, youth and other vulnerable stakeholders in southern Malawi (Chiradzulu) to hold water service providers to account. Awareness raising and training to support engagement and partnership between communities, service providers and regulators, thereby helping ensure the long-term sustainability of rural water supplies.
• Development of sustainable clean cooking facilities to boost resilience to climate change in Malawi – University of Glasgow: addressing deforestation in southern Malawi (Machinga) through delivering a sustainable biofuel production (biogas and biosyngas) and utilisation unit for clean and efficient cooking, manufacturing and maintaining the bioenergy kit in Malawi and attracting attention from local business.

Water Futures Programme

The Water Futures Programme in Malawi supports the Government of Malawi to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: Access to clean water and sanitation. The programme works with four main work streams:

1. Rural Water Asset Analysis and new Urban and Peri-Urban Asset Analysis;

2. Policy Support (National Water Resources Authority);

3. Capacity Building; and

4. Research and Knowledge Exchange.

In December 2019 the programme completed the first National Dataset for Rural Water Supplies in Malawi and in January 2020 began the same data collection for all Urban and Peri-Urban waterpoints not managed by Malawi Water Boards. Despite delays arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic this is now largely complete.

Stakeholders across Malawi are gaining access to training that enables them to use the Water Management Information System (MIS) in which a total of 120,989 unique rural water points have been identified. A total of 287,052 sanitation facilities that are co-located with these water points have been mapped as potential risks of contamination (sources). A total of 10,363 co-located solid waste sites have been mapped as potential risks of contamination (sources).

3.3 Global Citizenship

Scottish Government is enhancing global citizenship by:

• Working in partnership with NHS Scotland and Scotland’s global health community to deliver the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Programme
• Promoting fair trade in Scotland, including through our core funding from the IDF for the Scottish Fair Trade Forum
• Inspiring our communities and young people to realise their roles as good global citizens, including through our contribution from the IDF to funding Scotland’s Development Education Centres
• Supporting partnerships and collaboration with civil society, valuing the network of connection that Scotland has built up with Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan. This includes funding the Alliance, the Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP) and Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP)
• Taking a holistic approach to sustainable development, including a “do no harm” approach in policy development and seeking to go beyond that by identifying other government policies which can contribute positively to development outcomes and impact; and promoting the Beyond Aid agenda outside of government.

Global Health

The NHS Scotland Global Citizenship programme aims to increase NHS Scotland’s global health contribution by making it easier for all NHS staff to participate in global citizenship, both in Scotland and overseas.

The Programme reflects and supports the Scottish Government’s international development commitments to partner countries, particularly in relation to capacity strengthening in the area of health. A snapshot of key achievements include:

• NHS Education for Scotland (NES) began the provision of ongoing Quality Improvement (QI) training and support to the Scotland Malawi Mental Health Education Partnership in Malawi and Zambia.
• A new ‘Global Citizenship’ category was added to the Scottish Health Awards annual programme in recognition of the commitment shown by health & social care to advancing healthcare systems in low and middle income countries. 
• New approaches to HR to support global health volunteering by NHS staff being tested – this includes a new initiative to combine NHS Consultancy posts in the Highlands and Islands with one or more overseas postings. This work is being taken forward in partnership with the Global Health Academy in Edinburgh University.
• Publication of ‘Doing It Well Guide’ providing advice and guidance for NHS Boards and staff about how to get involved in Global Citizenship.
• NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Annual Conference 2019, ‘Developing Sustainable Global Health Partnerships’. This event brought together individuals working in healthcare from across NHS Scotland, partners and stakeholders to share developments and best practice in global health work.
• Delivery of online event ‘Imagining Better Futures: Global Citizenship within NHS Scotland’, organised through The Global Citizenship Programme’s partnership with Bridge 47 and Edinburgh-based Development Education Centre, Scotdec, bringing together staff from across the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship network for an opportunity to explore global issues. This is the first of a number of Active Global Citizenship resources which will be delivered over the coming year.
• NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Virtual Conference 2020 – this online event was attended by over 300 people from across the NHS and broader global health community to reflect on the impact of COVID-19 on global health volunteering and partnership working.

Case study

Working differently to build capacity during COVID-19

NHS Tayside has been involved in the Zambia Anaesthesia Development Program (ZADP), a partnership between Zambian and international anaesthetists, working together to develop anaesthesia training in Zambia. Lesly-Crichton of NHS Tayside explains: “For almost a decade we have had a rolling presence of teaching fellows (usually anaesthesia trainees) in Zambia, along with shorter visits, and remote support for teaching, training and development. The COVID pandemic meant that all international volunteers had to return home, and the hands-on support we were able to provide was significantly reduced. We quickly discovered that out of necessity, we were able to move our teaching sessions to an online platform, and that trainees in Zambia were able to access these even with limited hardware, and the constant challenges of power cuts. We were even able to run high-stakes exams with remote support. We are now planning remote teaching fellow roles and research into the effectiveness of such support.”

Case study

Donation of medical equipment during COVID-19

To support a hospital in The Gambia during the COVID pandemic, medical equipment has been sent from Scotland to The Gambia. Mai Drammeh of NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde explains: “In order to make it possible for the equipment to be successfully delivered to the Gambia, it required the collaborative efforts of working partnership that includes logistics, medical physics team and the Scottish Global Health Citizenship Unit. I was liaising with them under one umbrella, what better way of having effective and efficient partnership, an indication of a great way of highlighting the extraordinary work done by NHS staff by volunteering. There is no doubt that the hospital in The Gambia would make best use of the equipment in the delivery of good quality care to its community. In collaboration with the hospital and a charity in The Gambia, we have setup a task force to monitor and provide feedback on use of the equipment.” 

Global Education

Scotland is increasingly linked to people and places across the world: socially, culturally, environmentally, economically and politically. It is more important than ever that Scotland’s people take a critical, informed look at global issues, and their roles and responsibilities as active, engaged citizens. Global citizenship education addresses this need, offering an overarching approach to engaging people of all ages with the global social justice issues at the heart of international development.

Global citizenship education is embedded within Scottish Education. It is explicitly referenced, along with sustainable development education and outdoor learning, as a constituent part of the cross-curricular theme of Learning for Sustainability. To support global citizenship education the Scottish Government provides core funding to the six regional Development Education Centres (DECs). The DECs offer practical support for educators, professional development opportunities and innovative learning and teaching projects for global citizenship education. The six centres work both individually and collaboratively with other members of IDEAS, the third sector global citizenship education network, to provide: locally accessible and face-to-face support for education practitioners; and training to early years practitioners and college lecturers. In addition to the above, each centre also works with local councils and schools to develop bespoke offerings to meet local needs and educational priorities. This work supports educators across Scotland to incorporate citizenship education into their curriculum delivery.

In 2019-2020 research has been conducted for the Scottish Government to gain more insight into one of the ways global citizenship education takes place in schools: by establishing school links with developing countries. A literature review together with qualitative interviews in Scottish schools and a rapid quantitative assessment in Malawian schools showed the value of partnership for both Scottish and Malawian schools. These partnerships seemed to have a two-fold aim: to improve education in the partner (non-Scottish) school and to let students learn about other cultures. However, the focus on establishing funding and support for the schools in the developing countries does sometimes obscure the necessity for a critical reflection on development, power and poverty in the Scottish school. The study shows the importance of equal partnership and the need for a critical understanding and continuous reflection of social justice, stereotypes and inequalities, something reflected in the current review of the International Development programme.

Fair Trade

Since 2010 the Scottish Government has provided core funding to the Scottish Fair Trade Forum (SFTF) to promote fair trade in Scotland, with the aim of achieving and then maintaining Fair Trade Nation status. In 2013 Scotland achieved Fair Trade Nation status, which was renewed in 2017. The achievement of Fair Trade Nation status indicates to the world that Scotland takes an active leadership role in challenging global poverty and recognises the dignity and rights of producers, through a commitment to fairness in international trading.

The Fair Trade Forum brings together and supports those in Scotland interested in buying, selling, campaigning for and learning about Fair Trade. Its activities include the supporting of regional Meetups, promoting Fair Trade businesses and Fair Trade procurement within the Scottish public sector and partnering with Fair Trade producers to promote awareness and purchasing of Fair Trade products. In 2019-2020 the Forum was awarded network membership of the World Fair Trade Organization. Other contributions included:

• Supporting the Fair Trade campaign network through a national events programme
• Connecting Fair Trade suppliers with private, public and third sector buyers at a Meet your Fair Trade Supplier
• Supporting the promotion of Fair Trade in colleges and universities by delivering guest lectures, workshops, contributing to panel discussions and providing resources
• Disseminating a promotional video on Rwandan Fairtrade coffee, to raise its profile, as part of the Rwandan Coffee project led by Challenges Worldwide

In 2019 a review commissioned by the Scottish Government has looked at Fair Trade in Scotland. The aim of the review is to further progress Scotland’s potential to achieve inclusive growth through the delivery of increased sales and awareness of Fair Trade, as key actions in achieving the United Nations International Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Four points of consideration were formulated for the future of Fair Trade in Scotland: 1) Fair Trading messaging, to re-boot its radical approach to reduce inequalities through trade; 2) Influencing behaviour change, through education and upskilling focused on government, public agencies and business groups; 3) Visibility and access to product range, improving the supply chain access to Fair Trade products for consumers; and 4) Coherent Policy for Sustainable Development, to ensure that across the Scottish Government there is a greater coherence in the approach to trade, human rights, procurement, exporting and importing.

Networking organisations

In addition to our support for the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, since 2005 we have also provided core funding to two other networking organisations, Scotland’s International Development Alliance and the Scotland-Malawi Partnership (SMP) to:

• work with developing countries, including our partner countries;
• support third-sector links between countries, including our partner countries;
• help build the capacity of NGOs and the wider international development sector in Scotland;
• provide a focal point for sharing information and promoting best practice in development work, including our partner countries.

Scotland’s International Development Alliance is the membership body in Scotland for everyone committed to creating a fairer world, free from poverty, injustice and environmental threats. It unites the international development sector in Scotland to promote effectiveness, influence the policy agenda and strengthen the contribution of Scottish organisations to reducing inequality and poverty worldwide. It advocated for the Sustainable Development Goals and Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development. It has organised (online) events such as their conference, in 2020 specifically focused on “Global Development beyond COVID-19”, roundtables and workshops on project management.

The Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP) is the national civil society network in Scotland for co-ordinating, supporting and representing the people-to-people links between Scotland and Malawi. Together with their sister-network the Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP) they work to establish partnerships, solidarity and friendship between Scotland and Malawi. Some key activities of both SMP and MaSP in 2019 and 2020 involved:

• Hosting events and engagements for example Malawian Language and Culture workshops; Renewable Energy Forum and (virtual) stakeholder meetings to discuss COP26
• Hosting the Members Awards Ceremony and School Awards Ceremony
• Supporting new membership initiatives and partnerships, such as supporting links between the STAR festival in Malawi and Edinburgh Science Festival, supporting visa applications, and supervising a PhD on policy implications of the Cyclone Idai in Malawi
• Profiling organisations through videography, news bulletins and social media
• Engaging with young people, both in Scotland and Malawi through schools and youth organisations

For more information view the end of year report 2019-2020 and mid-year report 2020-2021.

Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development

In addition to our annual £10 million IDF and CJF, we are increasingly seeing and shaping our international development work through the lens of the “Beyond Aid” agenda. This agenda recognises that development assistance and other initiatives funded under our IDF and CJF are one part of international development work, and that some of the greater benefits to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable can be brought about through policy changes.

Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) means working across government policy areas, and with global partners, to face the challenges and maximise the impact on developing countries of all Scotland’s actions (for example, our climate change targets): firstly through a “do no harm” approach, and secondly through positive development contributions by other policy areas.

We continue to identify other Ministerial portfolio areas to work with collaboratively, and to co-create where possible with our civil society partners on PCSD. For example, Scotland’s new Trade Vision is in development to which we contribute on global citizenship and ‘do no harm’ by taking a PCSD approach. The International Development team is also a member of the Scottish Government COP26 Working Group, as there will be a spotlight on Scotland during this time including from our international development partner countries.