SMP Annual Gathering & AGM: Friendship & Global Citizenship
Thank you for joining us...
The Scotland Malawi Partnership welcomed all members to the 2023 Annual Gathering themed 'Friendship an Global Citizenship'. Members participated in an inspirational, interactive and enjoyable afternoon at the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow on Saturday 11 November.
Members had the opportunity to engage with friends old and new who shared their passion for Malawi!
We were delighted to receive a video from Humza Yousaf, First Minister of Scotland and a letter from Dr Lazarus Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi.
It was a great joy to welcome the Scottish Government’s Minister for International Development, Christina McKelvie MSP; Malawi Minister for Tourism, Hon. Vera Kamtukule; Malawi Deputy High Commissioner to the UK, Justice Agnes Patemba and Honorary Consul for Malawi in Scotland Dr. Peter West.
Acting on members’ feedback, the SMP designed more networking time into the programme which enabled further meaningful new connections as well as greater opportunity during the networking sessions.
Our members' marketplace was filled with vibrant stalls. Activities for the day included themed discussions led by experts were members were able to exchange insightful ideas, fabulous live music from the Moyenda band, amazing prizes provided by our partners and we finished off the day with some delicious Malawian food and Malawi G&T.
The draft minutes from the event will be added at a later date. These will be formally approved by members at the 2024 AGM.
We have created a folder of images, you are welcome to download your choice of images from the day here.
(Thank you to Kirsty Stroma for the photography and Alan Jones for the videography.)
Humza Yousaf
We were delighted to hear this pre-recorded message from Humza Yousaf, First Minister of Scotland. Click to watch.
Justice Agnes Patemba
We were delighted to hear from Justice Patemba, Malawi Deputy High Commissioner to the UK who read the letter on behalf of Dr Lazarus Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi. Click to watch.
Christina McKelvie MSP
We were delighted to hear from Christina McKelvie MSP, Scottish Government’s Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development. Click to watch.
Hon. Vera Kamtukule
We were delighted to hear from Hon. Vera Kamtukule, Malawi Minister for Tourism. Click to watch.
We were privileged to have some inspirational speakers throughout the afternoon, including:
- Humza Yousaf, First Minister of Scotland
- Christina McKelvie MSP, Scottish Government’s Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development
- Hon. Vera Kamtukule, Malawi Minister for Tourism, Government of Malawi
- Justice Agness Patemba, Malawi Deputy High Commissioner to the UK
- Stuart Brown, SMP Interim CEO
- Stella Masangano, Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP), CEO
- Prof. John Briggs, The University of Glasgow
- Prof. Heather Cubie, SMP Chair
- John Fanning, SMP Audit & Finance Committee Chair
- Ian Mitchell, SMP Youth & Schools Officer SMP
We were pleased to have an afternoon celebration of all things Malawi and Scotland with some freshly made Malawian style samosas and mandazis with Scottish canapes pairing the dishes with a Malawi G&T.
We danced the afternoon away to some lovely live music by the Nat Chalamanda and the Moyenda Band. Members had the opportunity to partake in a raffle draw with some exciting prizes from Malawi Tourism partners.
Empowering Girls
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- How to empower girls to take control of their bodies and understand when they are being abused. Also how to include men in the gender debate
- Girls self knowledge varies with age. Development of empowerment should be staged
- The cultural problems that inhibit the empowerment of girls in rural areas
- Masa fumbi
- Problems of initiation camps. Lack of knowledge of what is abuse.
- Continue the conversation with women in positions of influence in Malawi and support initiatives where possible
- Education
- Listen to Malawi girls and encourage them to have space to speak. Engage with men.
- It was fabulous. Illuminating and lively discussion
- Inspirational leader of the discussion
- It was extremely interesting and full of energy
- Look at Rwandan community men engagement.
Income Diversification
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- How to diversify income streams
- Opportunities for products and services
- Target group, how to market products and utilise existing resources
- How to analyse your organisation’s business advantages?
- Product development
- How to bring in income from new products and services.
- Involve Malawian examples of good practice
- Work more closely with Scottish Fair Trade forum
- Tailored Community engagement, incentives to engage businesses to further develop products sold overseas
- Networking opportunities
- Collaborate with partner organisations to diversity income generation options.
- Good to break out into less formal mode
- Very close overlap with the challenges faced by SMP i.e. How do you justify funding from the SG.
- The case study was not specifically Malawi related… I thought it was going to be more about income diversification within Malawi.
Mental Health
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- Breadth and depth of mental difficulties in Malawi, contrasting with mental health challenges in UK
- Lack of trained staff and support/training /resources in Malawi
- How best can the SMP address these issues?
- Continue to support SMMHEP, support capacity building for mental health training in Malawi.
- Enjoyable, thought-provoking discussion.
School Partnerships
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- How to justify the cost of taking teams to Malawi against simply sending that funding to Malawi
- What research has been done to demonstrate the value of visits for the children in Malawi /Scotland
- How can Partnership contacts be sustained when the principal contact leaves the school
- Promote the Guide to Partnerships which outlines the questions to be considered
- Involve PHD students looking for research subjects which make a difference
- Encourage development of a committee at each school to ensure children continuity
- A very interesting and challenging discussion but it felt a little that done of the participants were not fully aware of the range of activities already in place across the member groups in supporting schools in Malawi
- I thought having the hour to chat was very helpful.
Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- NCD Prevention, culture, and politics
- Sugar, salt and cars (trauma)
- Importance of prevention | Impact of inequalities | Add oral health to WHO list of NCDs
- Acknowledging effect of NCDs
- Support efforts to address NCDs. From emergency treatment to chronic disease management and prevention
- Poverty and road traffic accidents
- Poverty and NCDs can't be separated
- Causes of NCDs.
- Awareness and advocacy
- Maintain on the ground clinical partnerships with focus on prevention
- No obvious ways
- Reinforce SG IDF focus on NCDs including trauma injury and support preventative measures
- Keep talking
- In country links
- Take a holistic approach
- Community engagement and co-designing interventions
- Please sustain work on this issue
- Well chaired and a good, wide-ranging discussion.
- Longer to explore key issues
- Politics is a huge issue
- Take the views of ordinary Malawians not the elite.
Volunteering, Global Citizenship & Solidarity
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- Volunteering is a good thing to do. It is humanity at its best: looking after each other at times of crisis, but also to sustain communities
- We can learn from each other
- Kuthandiza - giving something free, volunteering in Chichewa
- Be mindful - don’t impose, impact on climate (flights)
- Foundation of global citizenship - people helping people
- Volunteering becomes part of who you are (quite a powerful message that merits some thought)
- Voluntourism perceived negatively
- SMP could promote positive case studies of mindful volunteering
- Most interesting for me was the discussion on how Malawi communities depend on volunteering for social cohesion and social protection. Mary’s Meals for example has a network of 80,000 Malawians who deliver the feeding programme on the ground in Malawi. I presume this is what their business model is built on - depends on - that volunteers contribution.
WASH - A whole systems approach
What were the most pertinent issues raised during the discussion group?
- The idea of whole approach to climate change for me, though the discussion was based on WASH
- Great discussion on the access to clean and safe water Challenges faced by NGO's operating in Malawi
- Clean water and access to water. - sanitation and hygiene. - addressing the geographical specific circumstances when applying water and sanitation projects
- LISTENING, Community, unexpected links which will impact importance of listening; of engaging political arena; and challenges of scaling up
- Unsustainability of vertical aid approaches
- Need for change to be community-led, sustainability of WASH projects
How best can the SMP address these issues
- Having different discussion groups coming together. There are issues that are cross-cutting
- Listening to the needs of the community.
- Installing clean energy pumps for water. - promote Water harvesting projects.
- ALWAYS ENCOURAGING NETWORKING ACROSS SILOS. Perhaps time to think differently about our FORUMs
- Encouraging networking, building partnerships; highlighting need for partners in Malawi and Scotland to build culturally appropriate behavioural change and scaling up interventions
- Communicate with communities regarding what would be helpful to them, and advocate for NGOs to listen to these issues when designing aid tactics
- Ensure projects are community driven
- It was quite informative
- SMP, to encourage their members to involve the community in their respective projects
- EVEN WITH LONGER PEOPLE WANT MORE. Getting to know more about folks’ thinking in a small setting remains valuable
- Really interesting group & welcoming facilitator - thank you! Would have liked more time for discussion
- Would have benefitted from slightly longer discussion time
As ever, the Members' Marketplace has consistently been one of the highlights of past Annual Gatherings / AGMs.
This year's dedicated space was filled with vibrant stalls from the SMP's membership. It was a fantastic opportunity to network and share your organisation’s activities.
The Annual Gathering included the SMP’s AGM as its Core Business. We offered SMP members the opportunity to join the AGM remotely.
During the AGM the following business was conducted:
- The minutes of the SMP’s 2022 AGM were agreed (proposed by Claire Martin and seconded by Tracy Morse).
- The SMP’s 2022-23 Annual Accounts were approved by members.
- The election of trustees were approved (proposed by Dr Christine Campbell and seconded by James Kelly).
- Live recorded video is available here.
- Chat log available here.
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission remembrance presentation.
- MaSP 2023 Documentary Highlighting Best Practices and Impact of SG Funded Projects video can be found here.
Thank you to our partners
We were grateful to have such remarkable support from the tourism industry in Malawi and we continue to promote the industry in our aim to show what an incredible tourist destination Malawi is. We had some great prizes from our partners that were offered at our 2023 Annual Gathering and AGM thanks to some very generous donations.
