International development programme - review: summary report

Why undertake a Review

We are living in a time of extreme change. The year 2020 was like no other and across the world, we have all had to adapt and make changes to the ways we live and work. The work of the Scottish Government has, like others, been affected by COVID-19 and this includes our international development programme. It is clear that COVID-19 will remain a threat for some time to come. Faced with this new and unexpected challenge, we saw the need to pause, reflect and take stock, to make sure we future-proofed our international development programme against this new global backdrop.

For that reason, we set out in the Scottish Government's Programme for Government in September 2020 the intention to review our approach to international development. This was to ensure that we focus our work on areas where we can make the biggest contribution and positive difference in our partner countries. 

Last year also saw demand for change from the Black Lives Matter movement.  Reflecting on this movement has also become a major factor in how we have undertaken this Review in our approach to international development. This therefore also presents a real opportunity to consider how the Scottish Government's international development programme, which is a key part of Scotland's global contribution within the international community, can be refreshed to better meet the needs of our partner-countries in the future, as determined by them.