The SMP and all our members are accountable to working within these principles.

Amy Blake, CEO of Classrooms for Malawi comments,

We really encourage all school partnerships to commit to working within these principles, ensuring this isn’t just a box-ticking or semantic exercise but really drives behaviours, with each side able to challenge the other.

Do embed these Principles within your Partnership Agreement.

Regularly review your Agreement with both partners encouraging honest and challenging feedback on both sides.

Beath High School partnered with Mapanga and Njale Primary Schools said,

The Scottish Government-commissioned study looking at: ‘School Partnership and school visits in a Global Citizenship Context’ reflected that:

The first of the report’s recommendations is for schools to:

The report encourages teachers and learners to invest in building strong foundations, with critical understanding of related issues of inequality, before starting a school partnership. This understanding is perhaps the best preparation for navigating some of the challenges and key decisions which might then come up in a school partnership.

We know that establishing active, critical thinking in sensitive and complex areas such as global inequalities, the structures of power and poverty, and social justice, may seem a daunting proposition for teachers but we (and others) are here to help. There are a whole range of brilliant resources and much support for schools to build these strong foundations of understanding before embarking on a school partnership.

We especially recommend our forthcoming critical learning resources and lesson plans in the following areas (each of these can be delivered by schools themselves or, in many cases, the SMP can arrange a Malawian speaker to deliver the work in person or digitally):

• Power and poverty, a critical understanding
• Use of images and video: the narratives we construct
• Scotland and Malawi: Understanding our shared history
• Partnership vs charity
• Critical dialogue groups (with QMU and StekaSkills)
• Understanding the ‘White Savior’ complex
• Do No Harm: exploring intended and unintended consequences
• The case for Climate Justice
• Understanding Malawi: its language and culture

We also really recommend that schools use the brilliant “Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway” satirical videos, produced by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ Assistance Fund (SAIH), as a way of supporting learners to reflect on stereotypes and oversimplifications. These videos include:

• Corporate video parody
• Charity single parody
• Fundraising campaign parody
• African child actor parody [Language warning]
• Who wants to be a volunteer parody
• Social media use parody
• Fundraising App parody

The StekaSkills/QMU report ‘An alternative to voluntourism: how Youth Solidarity Groups in Malawi empower young Malawians and Scots’ paints a powerful picture of how, when you scratch below the surface, some interactions between young Scots and young Malawians can do real damage if not carefully structured. The report includes testimony from young Malawians who had been involved in well-meaning but ill thought through visits, which at times left the Malawians feeling disempowered and disrespected:

The report sets out a technique which groups can use as young Scots and young Malawians meet -Youth Solidarity Dialogue Groups – which ensure power imbalances are addressed by giving ownership and agency to the Malawian participants.

The Youth Solidarity Dialogue Model is specifically designed for young people and works by taking them through stages of building awareness and agency so that they are motivated to try and bring about social change in solidarity with their allies. The first stage is about helping them be critical about circumstances they often accept as ‘normal’ so don’t challenge; the second stage is about becoming brave enough to voice their real opinions with other young people who are very different from themselves; and the third stage is where they have built relationships, see each other as human beings instead of stereotypes and have enough knowledge and motivation to want to bring about change.

The report gives inspiring case studies and helpful, practical advice. We really recommend all those involved in in-person visits between partner schools, or live digital engagements, read the report and the consider adopting the approach. The SMP can offer support, training and advice.

There are lots of cultural differences between Scotland and Malawi but, transcending all of these, is a shared humanity which unites us. Unless directly proven otherwise, it’s always safest to assume that those at the other side of the partnership will have the same emotional response as you, if placed in the same situation.

So keep asking yourself this question, ‘how would I feel if it were me’, and look to really understand the lives of your partners, their day-to-day challenges, priorities and motivations, as mutual understanding and empathy are the best ways of building a strong foundation for your partnership.

There are lots of cultural differences between Scotland and Malawi but, transcending all of these, is a shared humanity which unites us. Unless directly proven otherwise, it’s always safest to assume that those at the other side of the partnership will have the same emotional response as you, if placed in the same situation.

So keep asking yourself this question, ‘how would I feel if it were me’, and look to really understand the lives of your partners, their day-to-day challenges, priorities and motivations, as mutual understanding and empathy are the best ways of building a strong foundation for your partnership.

Equal partnerships sound easy on paper but in fact it can be a challenge when we live in such an unequal world.

The ‘School Partnership and school visits in a Global Citizenship Context’ report flags that, “there is a risk of reinforcing paternalism and dependency, and pity rather than empathy for the partner country”.

Here are some of the risks and issues that partnerships can come up against:

• Disempowering people, by promoting pity for a poorer country
• A focus on charity or aid
• Creating dependence
• Instilling attitudes of ‘feeling bad about our privilege’
• Using ‘othering’ language, of “them” and “us”
• A belief that Scotland has more to give than Malawi
• Cultivating attitudes of superiority or inferiority
• Too heavy a focus on difference
• The reinforcement of harmful stereotypes
• Avoiding issues of global injustice
• Being unwilling to have uncomfortable conversations

Penicuik High School partnered with Namadzi CDSS reflect,

Ryan, SMP Youth Committee Member said,

We really believe that youth and school partnerships should be about two-way educational outcomes and global citizenship, rather than mini-development projects. There are a great many risks when youth and school partnerships become too focused on fundraising, charity and projects, not least the risk that a narrative of pity and poverty, or donors and dependence, can undermine a dignified partnership.

The Irma Arts (2020) report highlights that:

If we believe listening is key to partnership, how should we react when our partners tell us they need help? Is there a risk that teaching global citizenship by highlighting extreme inequalities but then insisting that nothing should be done to challenge and change this very inequality, actually encourages a state of acceptance rather than activism? We recognise these are credible arguments and there is no right answer in this space.

We strongly recommend that youth and school partnerships are, first and foremost, built as a two-way education link rather than a development initiative.

However, we recognise that there is a gross inequality between Scotland and Malawi, in terms of wealth, power and privilege: we believe extreme poverty is the great moral outrage of our time. We recognise that it can be easy to say that school partnerships should be about education and not development, but hard to reconcile this with the principles we hold dear.

MaSP’s visit to 17 school partnerships in Malawi in January 2022 revealed that, “it is important for Scottish schools to share their mutual benefits to signify that partnership are not just about donations”.

The crucial thing, from our perspective, is that every effort is made to ensure that negative stereotypes are not reinforced and that all activity is contextualised as being part of the overall educational experience.

Beath High School partnered with Mapanga and Njale Primary Schools, add,

Pity

Most importantly, as with all Scotland-Malawi interactions, it must be about two-way partnership driven by solidarity, not one-way charity driven by pity. The Partnership Principles are, therefore, key. Both sides of the partnership should contribute to the activism and, ideally, both should benefit (albeit likely in different ways) from the partnership.

Our advice

• Start as an educational partnership
• Make sure this is the core of what the relationship is about
• Invest in the early dialogue: a strong partnership agreement and a critical understanding of related issues around poverty and power

Irma Arts (2020) says:

We still want to fundraise, how could we do it better?

Your partnership could have both schools or groups involved in fundraising for activities being done together including travel. It is likely that one will raise more than the other, but the main thing is that the project is joint. Do speak with your partners in all cases to see if a fundraising activity is appropriate at all for their local community in either country.

There is a difference between fundraising to provide general aid for a partner school and fundraising to support the partnership itself. For instance, people from both schools can raise funds to cover partnership expenses.

Amy Blake, CEO of Classrooms for Malawi shares,

If you are fundraising, we really recommend you engage the young people in reflections around the language and images you use as part of this. The ‘Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway’ website, by the Norwegian Students' and Academics' Assistance Fund (SAIH) is a brilliant resource for this. They have a host of, funny parody videos exploring themes around negative stereotypes which can be used in lessons with young people, including their ‘Golden/Rusty Radiator Awards’. They also clearly outline what they see as the best way to communicate in a fundraising campaign in ways which are nuanced, creative and engaging, without using stereotypes.

Assess each other’s capacity

In cases where money is involved, schools and youth groups need to assess each other’s capacity and ability to manage resources.

There needs to be very careful discussion and clear agreement about the processes that will be followed.

We have seen a number of school partnerships fall apart once money has become involved as trust breaks down and suspicions within the local community arise.

Amy Blake, CEO of Classrooms for Malawi mentions,

MaSP’s January 2022 visit of 17 Malawian schools with Scottish partnerships identified many excellent links and considerable positive impacts on the ground in Malawi. However, it also identified some of the issues that can arise when school partnerships start involving money. There have been instances of Malawian schools lacking appropriate governance structures and safeguards to ensure due accountability. It can be difficult to ask a partner about such systems, without feeling you are risking causing offence, but it is essential that both sides have strong understanding of, and confidence in, governance structures before any fundraising begins

Amy Blake, CEO of Classrooms for Malawi mentions,

It is essential to have funds kept in a recognised group bank account, with all processes clearly agreed, and with the appropriate school/community committees structures used.

The SMP and MaSP are able to give advice and support to school partnership which need to handle funds.

Irma Arts (2020) notes,

Discussion questions for working group, if considering raising funds:

• How does charitable fundraising affect the equality of the relationship between our partner schools?
• How can your school partnership best manage the tensions between expectations of financial aid and educational aims?
• Does money equal quality work?
• How might raising funds for the partnership affect its wider communities?
  

Money can easily distort equal partnership and perpetuate longstanding issues of aid, dependency, and power – the very things partnerships exist to try eliminate. It is essential to set out clear expectations in your partnership agreement and regularly revisit this.

Quotes:

Other different opinions on fundraising from members in a recent Forum meeting:

“Some fundraising will be required no matter what the principles.”
“funding should not be the primary activity”
“there is more benefit in exchanging ideas or challenges”
“focus should be on capacity building for both teachers from both sides”
“Funding is the most important thing! But needs a sustainability plan”
“Don’t think of it as fundraising, make it more intertwined with building bonds and strengthening. Eg. Into an event, create different teams, Malawians can also learn from experience of fundraising.”
“Do sustainable projects like a social enterprise or exchange recipe books to make and sell”
“People donating need to be actively involved in something that connects them to Malawi/Scotland”
“I sold chickens eggs and raised £1000 for my partnership! It could have been something both sides of the partnership could do. Why not choose a fundraising activity both sides can get involved in and have fun?”