Contribution to international development: report 2021 to 2023

11. 2021 Review Outcomes and Future International Development and Humanitarian Programming

In earlier chapters of this Report, we have referred to our work to deliver on our commitments to prioritise health, education, equalities and renewable energy investment within our future international development work, that has been developed during the period of this Report. This Chapter discusses our future approach and programmes following our review of our approach to international development in 2020/21. That review focused in particular on our IDF spend, but many of its outcomes including our evolving approach also apply across other areas of the Scottish Government's work that contributes to international development outcomes, in particular humanitarian assistance and Climate Justice.

11.1 Outcomes: Review of International Development Programme

The Scottish Government’s international development programme has evolved significantly since its inception 2005, but our central focus on partnership to address poverty reduction remains constant. In 2021, following the review of our approach to international development, we outlined how we will continue to contribute to sustainable development and fight against poverty, injustice, and inequality globally by embedding the Sustainable Development Goals in how we work.^[42]

Our new approach to international development was reinforced in Scotland’s International Strategy^[43], that we will continue to develop our progressive policies on contributing to international solidarity and enhancing global citizenship, through our commitment to:

• Align all of our work with our International Development Principles. An outcome of our review in 2021 of our approach to international development, co-developed with civil society, these Principles set out our commitment to partner country-led and inclusive development, to collaboration and partnerships, to equality, to amplifying Global South voices, and to inclusion and diversity.
• Take a respectful partnership approach with our partner countries, and with the organisations that we fund. This supports our commitment on power equalisation.
• Champion a feminist approach to development, by ensuring all our overseas development spending and work seeks to challenge existing power structures, contributes to gender equality, and advances the rights of women and girls and marginalised groups.

Through this approach, we are working hard to ensure that as far as possible we put the Global South in the driving seat for our policymaking, programming, strategy development and delivery and implementation.

In 2021, following our Review of our approach to international development, we also committed to champion a Feminist Approach to International Development as part of Scotland’s new Feminist Approach to International Relations committed in the 2021-2022 Programme for Government. Underpinned by extensive consultation, as briefly outlined at 4.4, a position paper was published in November 2023 that sets out how we will work across the four key themes (international development and humanitarian, climate justice, trade, and peace and security) to deliver a feminist approach to all of Scotland’s international work.

Our feminist approach to international development is underpinned by two key approaches: equalising (or shifting of) power; and the advancement of equality, with an immediate focus on gender equality. This aligns with the outcomes of our 2021 international development review and international development principles.

Equalising power refers to active antiracist and anticolonial policy that commits to the transfer of decision-making power and resources directly to Global South actors.

That is why we have established a world first Global South Advisory Panel, with the current remit to advise the Scottish Government on international development policy and programming. Over the next year, we will look to review with the members of our advisory Global South Advisory Panel and others the future membership and remit of the Panel.

This approach also means working in tandem with our partner countries and leveraging Scottish expertise for the global good to make a distinctive, positive and impactful difference to the lives of those most in need. A key consideration for us has been where we can provide not only financial investment, but where Scotland can provide added value through existing expertise in relevant subject areas.

That is why we have adopted a thematic and strategic approach to international development programming. Following extensive consultation with our partner country governments and specialists in civil society, we committed to work closely with our partner countries on the following thematic areas of focus:

• Develop new health programmes in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia, partnering with them to build stronger health systems and tackle the world’s leading cause of death and disability - non-communicable diseases, illnesses linked to poverty, pollution, diet, tobacco and alcohol use, which pose a huge and increasing threat to the health and livelihoods of people in the Global South.
• Develop new education programmes in Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan, partnering with them to support inclusive education, particularly advancing access to education for the most marginalised, especially girls and learners with additional support needs.
• Implement a new Equalities Programme in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia, partnering with them to support the advancement of gender equality and the rights of women and girls, and on the protection of vulnerable groups.

In line with our commitments on health, education, and equalities, we are also considering with our partner countries future options for providing wraparound programme support on WASH. This is in recognition of the growing evidence regarding the rollback of funding for access to products, facilities and services for women and girls sexual and reproductive health, which also continues to be one of the greatest barriers in access to education for girls.^{[44] [45]}

Further, in response to the asks from our African partner countries, we will also continue to contribute to Renewable Energy, through our support and investment in our Global Renewable Energy Centre (see Chapter 6, Case Study RE2).

We will also retain our commitment to supporting Global Citizenship in Scotland. As set out in Chapter 10, we provide core funding to four international development networking organisations: Scotland’s International Development Alliance, Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP), and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum in Scotland, and the Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP) in Malawi. We have also continued to provide funding to support global citizenship education in Scotland's schools and across areas of the Scottish public sector such as NHS Scotland. Beyond this support we provide to civil society in Scotland through these civil society networking bodies, we have also considered how we can further and best support small iNGOs/CSOs in Scotland and in our partner countries in future. In particular, in terms of capacity building (in particular governance) and smart/targeted advocacy: having run a series of focus groups with small civil society organisations to understand their needs, we are working to offer new funding through a new Global Solidarity Fund for small CSOs targeted funding. We will also continue to work in partnership with medium sized iNGOs in Scotland, who do so much to promote and maintain a spirit of global citizenship in Scotland.

In developing these new sectoral programmes, we are working to embed participatory methodology, where possible, into programme design, implementation, and evaluation processes to ensure decisions on our new programmes are driven by local expertise, including those who are ‘experts by lived experience.

“Scotland’s International Development Alliance welcomes the important steps the Scottish Government has taken towards committing to a more inclusive, feminist and decolonial approach to international development following its review in 2021 and its commitment to a feminist approach to international relations. As we have noted in our new report “From talk to transformation – how governments can really ‘shift the power’ towards global justice” there is more to do to ensure these principles are put into practice, but the Scottish government is moving in a positive direction.” Frances Guy, CEO Scotland’s International Development Alliance, April 2024

During 2021-23, whilst providing continued support to our existing cohorts of projects in our partner countries described in the preceding Chapters, we have worked with our partner countries to develop our new underpinning approach to our work and the following new programmes:

11.2 Equalities Programme Starting in 2024

The 2021 Review of the Scottish Government’s Approach to International Development established as a key outcome a commitment on Equalities:

• to introduce a new cross-cutting Equalities Programme across our partner countries, with a particular focus on supporting the promotion of equality and empowerment of women and girls; and
• to support the advancement of equality, with a particular focus on gender equality, which is reinforced by our commitment to develop an effective Feminist Approach to International Development.

This commitment on gender equality recognises the well-documented disproportionate impact the pandemic had on women and girls, exacerbating pre-existing inequalities.

In line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, to support the advancement of gender equality, we are seeking to adopt a twin-track approach of mainstreaming gender equality throughout our international development portfolio and creating dedicated gender equality focused programmes. This includes:

1. Providing investment through our International Development Fund’s new Equalities Programme which consists of two strands:

Equalities Strand 1: Women and Girls Fund: The overall aim of the £3 million Fund is to provide direct funding to support women and girl-led organisations in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda, with the advancement of gender equality and the rights of women and girls as a principal objective. In line with our international development and feminist principles, taking a participatory approach, this fund will be co-developed by women and girls as experts in our three Sub-Saharan African partner countries.

Equalities Strand 2: Police Scotland Peer-to-Peer Partnership Programme with the Police Services of Malawi and Zambia: We have committed to continue support for the Police Scotland Peer-to-Peer Partnership Programme with the Police Services of Malawi and Zambia on the protection of vulnerable groups, with a particular focus on the areas of gender-based-violence and child protection. The next stage of this work will be informed by the results of an in-country review of the 2023-24 programme.

“Working with the Scottish Government’s International Development team and our

Global South partner countries is undoubtedly one of the most positive experiences for Police Scotland officers. Each officer has returned and described the life changing opportunity that they have experienced and have returned with a renewed enthusiasm which they take back with them to their respective roles. The important learning that has been taken from their time deployed has also been remarked on, particularly that deeper understanding of cultural differences that exist between our countries and how this learning can then be used to enrich the policing of diverse communities within Scotland. We look forward to our continued collaboration and playing our part in working towards the realisation of the United Nations SDGs which this work supports.” - Chief Superintendent Alan Gibson, Police Scotland

2. Mainstreaming gender equality within our wider international development work

This requires building more gender-responsive, and gender-transformative international development programmes across our sector portfolios. To support the delivery of this commitment, we will score our new bilateral and (earmarked) multilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding for the implementation of specific projects against the OECD DAC gender equality policy marker. Recognising the intersectional inequalities that exist, and the ways in which gender intersects with other protected characteristics, we will seek to apply an intersectional lens to our approach. This new mainstreaming approach will equally apply to our new health and education programmes.

Key Activity during Reporting Period 2021-23

Global South Advisory Panel

A practical step we have already taken in support of our commitment to equalising power is our establishment, in September 2022, of a Global South Advisory Panel to the Scottish Government on international development policy and programming, the world’s first such panel. The Panel held a series of meetings in 2022/23 on our new approach to international development and programming, and feminist approach to international relations. In line with our commitments on FAIR, we will continue to work with the Panel and our other partners in the Global South to consider the future purpose, structure and remit of the Panel as we seek to build strong Global South consultation mechanisms for Scottish Government policy and programming.

Reflecting on our Global South Advisory Panel, Letty Chiwara, Head of UN Women Malawi congratulated the Scottish Government for establishing the unprecedented Panel. In more than 25 years of working in international development, she had never seen a government establish a panel bringing together experts from the Global South and the diaspora as they begin a strategy. The Scottish Government is to be congratulated on this approach.

You can read more on Letty’s reflections here: International development: Global South Panel minutes - September 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Women and Girls Fund

Ahead of International Women’s Day in March 2024 we launched our new Women and Girls Fund , by the Scottish Government's Minister for International Development. This announcement followed a competitive procurement exercise. The lead delivery partner for the Fund is the international research consultancy Ecorys, working in collaboration with FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationalists) in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. This contract is for an initial period of 4 years and began on 1 April 2024. Phase 1 of this contract is the participatory design of the Fund.

“The funding opportunity cannot be coming at a more opportune time, as women and girls are still struggling to have voice in decision making processes and with the global economic downturn, they continue to be the face of poverty.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) capacities to respond to the many emerging global and national issues affecting women and girls needs to be built and what is exciting is that the fund is planned to be participatory with CSOs themselves co-creating the funding mechanism.” Mpala Nkonkomalimba, Ecorys Team Leader in Ecorys’ news release to announce the contract award.^[46]

Gender Equality Mainstreaming

Following the 2021 ID Review, we have begun to develop our new approach to mainstream gender equality within our international development work leading to the publication in February 2024 of our new guidance note: ‘Mainstreaming gender equality in Scottish Government funded international development projects and programmes’. This guidance note outlines our minimum criteria for scoring future applications to SG funded ID (and CJF) projects and programmes. Using this tool will increase transparency on how the SG’s ODA spend promotes gender equality and women’s rights.

“The publication in February 2024 of very clear guidance on gender mainstreaming is a definitive statement of intent: as a former gender advisor I fully endorse the necessity for ensuring a gender analysis forms a key part of project proposals.” Frances Guy, CEO Scotland’s International Development Alliance, April 2024.

11.3 Inclusive Education Programmes Starting in 2024

From discussions with our partner countries, it is clear that education, in particular for girls, is a key area within their national development plans as they build back from the COVID-19 pandemic. Girls’ education also supports SGD5 – “achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls” - and was a particular priority for all our partner countries’ governments. Our Inclusive Education programme will principally support SDG4 - to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

We also recognise inclusive education as a matter of human rights, and as a vital building block for prosperity and human development in each of our three partner countries. We subscribe to UNESCO’s statement that inclusive schools which include disabled children in mainstream settings (rather than special schools) are the best way to safeguard the rights of all learners.^[47]

Finally, as suggested by the success of Scotland’s previous partnerships on international scholarships, the high international ranking of its tertiary education institutions, the requests made by partner countries governments, and recent interest from UNESCO and the World Bank in Scottish experiences and lessons, inclusive education is an area of comparative advantage for Scotland. Scotland’s is therefore well-placed to support partner country government aims and objectives.

The inclusive education programme comprises four main programme strands:

• IE Strand 1: Support a higher proportion of disabled learners (and girls in particular) to complete primary and secondary education in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia.
• IE Strand 2: Support, through scholarships, a higher proportion of young women to complete secondary education and transition from secondary to tertiary education and TVET in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia.
• IE Strand 3: Support national policy-makers to strengthen their inclusive education policy skills and remove barriers to inclusive education in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. This includes the Inclusive Education Policy Academy in partnership with the World Bank.
• IE Strand 4: Pakistan scholarships programme supporting women and girls to enrol and complete education covering secondary school, bachelor’s and master’s programmes in the fields of education, agriculture and food security, sustainable energy, health sciences, and STEM. From 2025 this programme will be funded competitively.

Key Activity During Reporting Period 2021-23

Inclusive Education Policy Academy

In January 2024, following the design phase, the Scottish Government signed an agreement with the World Bank to provide up to £764,000 funding for the Foundational Learning Compact (FLC) Umbrella Multi-Donor Trust Fund over the next three years for the Inclusive Education Policy Academy (EIPA) to be conducted in our partner countries. The funding to IEPA will help make quality education accessible to all in our partner countries by strengthening the capacity to design and implement sound inclusive education policies. Themes of focus for the Academy are tailor-made based on the demand from each country ensuring that initiatives from the academy are driven by our partner countries.

In an announcement on 16 March, Luis Benveniste, World Bank Global Director for Education said:

“We are thrilled that the Foundational Learning Compact is the first World Bank fund to receive support from the Scottish Government. Children everywhere will welcome this new ally in the fight to strengthen and improve inclusive access to quality education."

Competitive funding: Call for Proposals

In February 2024, the call for proposals for the Scottish Government’s Inclusive Education Programme was published. The Call for Proposals is aimed at organisations with the capacity to deliver inclusive education programming in our partner countries between 2024 and 2029 and will begin in mid-2024.

Supporting this, we also published in February 2024 the underpinning analysis and evidence supporting inclusive education programming in our partner countries.

11.4 Health Programmes Starting in 2024

In alignment with our International Development Principles, commitment to equalising power, discussions with global health stakeholders in Scotland and our partners countries, and the emerging evidence on the impact of the pandemic on health in the Global South, our new portfolio will support better health outcomes in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda through three core portfolio strands:

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) Programme

In the Scottish Government 2023-24 Programme for Government, we committed to ‘Be a global champion in tackling non-communicable diseases – the world’s leading cause of death – by developing new programmes with Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda to build stronger health systems for those in the Global South, developed by those in the Global South.’

Globally, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death and disability, killing around 41 million people each year. This accounts for around 74% of all global deaths^[48]. Across the African continent, countries are facing a rapid demographic and epidemiological transition that includes a shift in health profile with many countries now facing a dual burden of communicable and non-communicable disease. NCDs are widely reported to be the largest unmet need in health financing.

For example, since 2001, it is estimated that only 1-2% of total Development Assistance for Health has been targeted towards NCDs^[49]. Our Health workstream will leverage Scottish and partner country expertise to tackle the growing burden of NCDs through multilateral, national, and local level programming, in line with the World Health Organisation’s Package of Essential Non-communicable Disease Interventions (WHO PEN) and PEN-Plus. For example, through:

• Investing up to £2.5 million over five years to the Health4Life Fund, a United Nations Multi Partner Trust Fund that drives Global South-led action to increase funding and resource coordination for NCDs, and mobilise targeted technical support for the prevention of NCDs at a country level.
• Providing finance to the Malawi Health Services Joint Fund, to directly support the Government of Malawi’s efforts to coordinate donor funding and deliver better health outcomes on NCDs.
• Competitive grants to fund an implementation research pilot for high-quality community-based palliative care in Rwanda and to increase the capacity and coverage of health workers able to deliver quality NCD services in Zambia.

NHS Health Partnerships Programme

The new Health Partnership Programme (HPP) aims to build on the success of the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Programme, to provide a strategic platform and financial investment to support the development and delivery of health partnerships to drive forward health systems strengthening in line with partner country priorities. The HPP will be managed as a competitive contract, with the delivery partner engaged for an initial period of up to three years to run the programme. HPP will create opportunities for exchanges of skills, experience and knowledge, with an emphasis as HPP develops on bidirectional learning between health institutions in partner countries and Scotland. HPP will prioritise, a relational and equity-centred approach, including shared access to decision-making processes.

In line with our commitment to partner-led development, the HPP will prioritise partner-country ownership, alignment with country priorities and systems, and managing for results and mutual accountability.

Continuing the partnership with Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS)

In recognition of our 15-year partnership and the priorities of the Government of Malawi, KUHeS will continue to be prioritised in our programme, with ongoing funding on a non-competitive basis. This was announced to the Scottish Parliament by Minister Gilruth (then-Minister for International Development) in March 2021.^[50] This funding will be awarded on a long-term basis.

This strategic partnership funding is proposed to be implemented as four main work strands: Improving Governance, a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, the MalDent project (to set-up Malawi’s first undergraduate dental programme) and the Blantyre-Blantyre clinical research facility (see Case Study H2).

Key Activity During Reporting Period 2021-23

NCD Evidence Base

In January 2024, following engagement with a range of stakeholders, we published the evidence base for our new NCD programme, ‘International Development Fund: non-communicable disease programme’, which outlines the methodology utilised to design our NCD programme, and the proposed shape of the programme. The evidence base has been developed in alignment with our International Development Principles, with the ambition of delivering more strategic, impactful and evidence-based programming. This includes specific focus on partner-led design and delivery and gender mainstreaming.

Health4Life Fund

In September 2023, the Scottish Government pledged up to £2.5 million over the next five years to the Health4Life Fund – which supports global action and progress on the prevention of non-communicable diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and cancers. The fund is coordinated by the WHO, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF. The investment will drive Global-South-led action to support countries to build stronger health systems by tackling non-communicable diseases, which continue to be a leading cause of death and disability globally.

The WHO invited Scotland to take a strategic and technical leadership role within the Health4Life fund following our successful collaboration with Global South partners on tackling non-communicable diseases, including through our work with Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and The University of Glasgow on the Blantyre-Blantyre project

“On the subject of chronic diseases, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Scottish Government for providing funds for the next five years to support the Health4Life Fund, a joint initiative between WHO, UNICEF and the UN Development Programme, to catalyse action on noncommunicable diseases and mental health in low- and middle-income countries. Noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, are the world’s leading cause of premature mortality. And 86% of premature deaths from NCDs occur in low- and middle-income countries, largely because of the inequalities those populations face in accessing the care and medicines that are more easily accessible in high-income countries.” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General in a keynote address at the University of Glasgow on 5 March 2024

11.4 Underpinning of Our New Approach and International Development Programmes

In designing our above new programmes supported by the IDF, we have therefore been guided by the underpinning approach set out in this chapter, which includes a focus on: applying our new International Development Principles, pursuing an equalising power agenda, and the advancement of equality, all of which aligns with our feminist approach. Together, our commitments ensure that we embed a human rights-based approach within our international development work.

In order to support the development of our future international development portfolio, and as set out in the Scottish Budget, we are now utilising a small percentage of our official development assistance spend on staffing to support our new scaled up international development programme. This is in line with standard practice among donors. Countries that spend on development attribute on average 7% of their finance on staffing, including the FCDO. This increased resource will enable us to ensure high quality, impactful spending.

11.5 Looking Ahead - Humanitarian

In 2024, the Scottish Government will undertake a review of the Humanitarian Emergency Fund, to inform the future shape of our humanitarian work: taking forward our progressive approach in terms of our commitment to align all of our ODA spend and work with our International Development Principles, supporting an equalisation of power, and the advancement of equality in line with our feminist approach; and in recognition that there is perhaps more unrest and uncertainty globally than ever before.

11.6 Looking Ahead – Climate Justice Fund

Chapter 7 provides further detail on the future work under the Climate Justice Fund. The funding for both ongoing streams; Climate Just Communities, and Non-Economic Loss and Damage was awarded during the period of this report. These programmes have been developed in line with the Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Principles, International Development Principles and have sought to mainstream gender equality considerations.

11.5 Contact Us

Thank you for reading this fourth Report on the Scottish Government’s Contribution to International Development covering calendar years 2021-23. We welcome continued input and dialogue from all stakeholders as we seek to build on and improve this effort to capture the contributions to international development made across Scottish Government Ministerial portfolios and activities.

Should you have any questions, contributions or comments on this report, please contact the Scottish Government’s Central Enquiries Unit at ceu@gov.scot or on 0131 244 4000.

You can also write to the International Development Team at:

International Development Team

Scottish Government

2H South

Victoria Quay

Edinburgh

EH6 6QQ

Finally, please do follow us on X @ScotGovID, where we share news and activities undertaken throughout the year.