Meeting the Scottish Executive

On Wednesday, I met Gerry Hendricks of Malawi Scotland Development at the Scottish Government offices. Gerry indicated that the Scottish government will continue to provide significant aid to Malawi (GBP 3 million), and that some increase could be seen in the coming year. While appreciating this gesture by the Scottish government, I pointed out that the government should also be supporting civil society groups working from the grass roots on governance issues if any aid for education and health is to come to fruition. I suggested two ways forward.

First, that a decent amount of money should be earmarked for civil society partnerships. (Gerry had indicated that the Executive had recieved almost no applications for this in previous funding rounds, but clearly there is the possibility of being more pro-active, and earmarking money could ensure this.) Secondly, I suggested that another way to drive this forward might be to create a substantial funding pool for a Malawian CSO network like HRCC or CONGOMA (Council for NGOs in Malawi) to distribute to our civil society organisations. This could be supported by a single Scottish civil society NGO.

I will write to Gerry, and to the Scottish Parliament's Inquiry, to develop these points further.