President and First Minister address SMP conference

03 October 2020

Dr Lazarus Chakwera, the newly elected President of Malawi, gave a passionate call for the Scotland Malawi Partnership to grow as he gave the Keynote address in a digital conference between the two countries. First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, similarly celebrated the bonds of friendship between the two countries, at this critical time.

Speaking as the Hon. Co-Patron of the Partnership, alongside HRH The Princess Royal, President Lazarus Chakwera used his keynote address to give Scotland three ambitious challenges:

  • First, to scale up the Scotland Malawi Partnership, from 1,200 bilateral civic links to 1,500, and to increase the total number of Scots and Malawians involved from 300,000 to 500,000.
  • Second, for Scotland to host, within five years, a high-level conference, to track and celebrate and progress made in the implementation of the vision set down in the September 2018 ‘Malawi and Scotland: Together for Sustainable Development conference.
  • Third, to ignite a movement of climate change activists amongst our peoples and capture the imagination of Malawian youths. “The time has come to escalate the sense of urgency among our people regarding the threats to our indispensable relationship with nature”

The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, said:This is a great opportunity to explore the key issues facing our two countries and the ways in which we can work together to address them.” She continued: “We are determined to engage ever more closely with our partners in Malawi. We want to ensure all the work we do is guided, first and foremost, by Malawi’s priorities and needs.”

“Scotland remains committed to the [Scotland-Malawi Global Goals Partnership Agreement]. It is important not just to our countries’ governments but to hundreds of businesses, charities, universities and organisations in both our countries.” She continued: “Since 2005, our relationship has made a lasting and beneficial difference to the lives of thousands of our people. We want to build on those shared achievements in the years ahead. That’s why I very much welcome events like this.”

The event was attended by around 350 organisations and key individuals across Malawi and Scotland, including churches, universities, NGOs, businesses, diaspora groups and communities, as well as MPs, MSPs, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and former First Minister Lord Jack McConnell. Guests came from all walks of life in both Scotland and Malawi, and all were able to contribute equally, sharing their vision for the future of the people-to-people and nation-to-nation friendship.

The afternoon was a digital discussion event, in which hundreds of different people, in both nations, were able to share their views and experiences of the bilateral relationship and help to forge a vision for the future. Discussions included: the impact of Covid-19; how to further build diversity and representation; how to support governance strengthening in both nations; the climate crisis and the opportunities around COP26; how to grow the nation-to-nation friendship in this new digital world; and how to ‘build back better’.

The President of Malawi committed to working closely with Scotland to fight climate change, including at the global climate conference, COP26, which will be hosted in Glasgow in 2021. The President said: “I am eager to see this partnership between us become an example to the world of two nations approaching climate change with the sense of urgency, and in the spirit of collaboration, commensurate with the existential threat this truly is.”

The President’s inspiring and energizing speech, urged participants to re-double efforts, as the two countries stand together at this challenging time, in friendship and solidarity. He praised the work of the Scotland Malawi Partnership in helping coordinate and support Covid-19 cooperation over the last six months, despite Scotland’s own domestic battle with the virus: “It is remarkable that in the midst of Scotland’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic Scotland has still been working side-by-side with us in our own fight here in Malawi. The impact of your support to us in raising funds and coordinating efforts has been far reaching and inspiring. Thank you.”

The afternoon also specifically looked at themes around Black Lives Matter, including diversity and representation. It was timed to coincide with the start of Black History Month. There was a strong sense that the longstanding commitment to working in dignified, two-way partnership - a partnership of equals - gave the bilateral relationship strong foundations in this regard.

Since 2005, all Presidents of Malawi have accepted the ex officio honorary title of Co-Patron of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, alongside HRH the Princess Royal. The Partnership is very grateful for this support, and the vision, energy and passionate that Dr Lazarus Chakwera brings to the role.

The Scotland Malawi Partnership recognises this a key moment in the bilateral relationship. As Covid-19 continues to define our lives, with Scotland-Malawi travel dormant but digital engagements revolutionising how we work; as Malawi’s new government takes office, with a strong focus on new leadership and governance strengthening; as the debate around Black Lives Matter poses important questions about diversity and representation; as Scotland prepares to host COP26, its most significant global summit to date, with the unique opportunity to help define the global response to the climate crisis; and as the Scottish Government reviews its international development policy, it is more important than ever that, as a network of 1,200+ organisations and key individuals, we come together to listen, share and discuss the next chapter in the bilateral friendship.

David Hope-Jones, SMP Chief Executive said:

“It was wonderful to have so many across Scotland and Malawi come together for this afternoon of discussion and sharing. We were able to take some of the hardest, most serious, issues of the day and listen to hundreds of different views: from primary school children to the President.


Everyone was united in a shared vision for the future, a belief that while there are many challenges, and there will undoubtedly be changes, there are also a great many new opportunities open to us in 2020 and, together, the future of the Scotland-Malawi friendship remains brighter than ever.”

The afternoon was designed to uplift and inspire, and it ended with a special one-off, live performance by perhaps Malawi’s most famous comedian, Daliso Chaponda. Daliso joined for all the event, taking part in the discussion groups and sharing his own views and insight on the nation-to-nation friendship.

Since reaching the Britain’s Got Talent finals, Daliso Chaponda has been perhaps one of the most famous Malawians in the performing arts. His two outstanding BBC Radio 4 series (Daliso Chaponda: Citizen of Nowhere), have explored serious themes of identity, representation, global citizenship and migration in genuinely light-hearted and engaging ways. He has been an inspiring Malawian voice on the airwaves and on the television.

About the Scotland Malawi Partnership:

The Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP) is the national civil society network coordinating, representing and supporting the many people-to-people links between our two nations. We represent a community of 109,000 people in Scotland with active links to Malawi. This is part of a shared history that dates back 160 years to the travels of Dr David Livingstone.

We believe the hundreds of partnerships which unite Scotland and Malawi represent an innovative new approach to international development. This is an approach based not on 'donors' and 'recipients' but on long-standing, mutually-beneficial community-to-community, family-to-family and people-to-people links, each on its own quite modest in scale but, together, a formidable force for progressive change.

We exist to inspire the people and organisations of Scotland to be involved with Malawi in an informed, coordinated and effective way for the benefit of both nations. We do this by providing a forum where ideas, activities and information can be shared on our website, through our online mapping tool, publications and through regular forums, training events and stakeholder meetings. In this way, we harness experience, expertise and enthusiasm from across Scotland and help inspire each new generation of Scots and Malawians to become involved together, in a variety of innovative new ways.

The SMP is core funded by, but independent of the Scottish Government, as part of its own outstanding Malawi Development Programme. We are extremely grateful for this far-sighted investment by successive governments.

We are a membership organisation representing more than 1,220 Scottish organisations and key individuals, including half Scotland’s local authorities, every Scottish university and most of its colleges, 230 primary and secondary schools, dozens of different churches and faith-based groups, hospitals and health boards, businesses, charities and NGOs, and a wide range of grass-root community-based organisations. Our work permeates almost all aspects of Scottish civil society. Any Scottish organisation or individual with a link to, or interest in, Malawi is welcome to join the Scotland Malawi Partnership. It is quick and easy to join online.

By creating a single space for all organisations and individuals in Scotland currently engaged with Malawi to come together, we help reduce duplication of effort, add value to Scotland’s historic civil society relationship with Malawi, and contribute towards poverty alleviation in Malawi.

A 2018 University of Edinburgh study estimated that the SMP membership contributes over £49 million in time, resources and money to their links with Malawi each year. This activity directly benefits 2.9 million Malawians and 260,000 Scots annually. In total, more than 208,000 Malawians and 109,000 Scots are actively involved in links between the two countries, making the SMP one of the UK’s largest cross-community networks engaged in international development.

A separate 2018 paper, by a University of Glasgow researcher, working from a randomly selected sample of 449 Scots, found that roughly 45% of Scots could name a friend or family member with a connection to Malawi, and more than 75% of Scots were supportive of these links, with less than 1.5% opposed. There is arguably no comparable north-south, people-to-people bilateral relationship with this degree of public engagement and support.

The Partnership continues to be buoyed by the growth in both the quantity and quality of civil society connections between Scotland and Malawi. The difference these links make in terms of combating poverty in Malawi and inspiring greater awareness in Scotland has been widely recognised from the outset as something immensely worthwhile.

We are an energetic coalition of civil society actors who believe in sustainable development through dignified partnership. We asked around 200 Scottish and 200 Malawian organisations to identify the principles which underpin such a partnership and were excited to find a great convergence of opinion. This has been enshrined in our eleven Partnership Principles: we, and all our members, hold ourselves accountable to these published principles.

Our work is not confined by a conventional understanding of charity and international development, with donors on one side and recipients on the other. It is about partnership, joint-working and friendship. In keeping with this model, we have a sister network in Malawi (the ‘Malawi Scotland Partnership’) that manages all coordination in Malawi and is 100% Malawi-owned and Malawi-led.

The SMP is itself non-governmental and politically neutral. We are, however, active in representing our members’ work in Holyrood (where we provide the secretariat for the Malawi Cross Party Group) and in Westminster (where we provide the secretariat for the Malawi All Party Parliamentary Group). All 59 Scottish MPs have SMP members in their constituency and all 129 MSPs have SMP members in their region or constituency. There is unshakeable all-party political support for Scotland’s historic friendship with Malawi amongst Scotland’s elected leaders (see overleaf).

We are led by our members and exist to support them to inspire the people and organisations of Scotland to be involved with Malawi in a way which benefits both nations. We are active in coordinating, representing and supporting two-way dignified partnerships across a diverse range of areas including: cultural links; diaspora leadership; environment and renewable energy; faith links; further and higher education; gender; governance; health links; local authorities; primary and secondary education; sport; sustainable economic development; tourism; trade and agriculture; water; and youth.

We plan on a triennial basis, led by our members’ priorities (to which we seek to respond on a daily basis) and our capacity to add tangible value. Tangible impacts are being delivered through our 2017-20 Theory of Change, and we are actively consulting members and partners for our next strategic period of 2020-2023.

Our project is to build connections and collaboration on a multi-sectoral basis between two small nations in ways that are transformational for both. There is no template for doing this. So far as we know, we are the first to develop this model of partnership.

Our work is delivered by a small but highly effective staff team, and governed by a large, experienced and committed Board of Directors, elected from and by our Membership.

We work to be as transparent and engaging about everything we do as possible. Every six months we publish an Activity and Impact Report detailing exactly what work the Partnership has been engaged in and what this has been achieved. The most recent such report covers April 2018 to March 2019, running to 147 pages, it includes the full detailed report of our independent expert assessors, the Corra Foundation, who scrutinize all our work.

Every month, we deliver an ambitious series of diverse, high impact events and activities, attended by members, partners, civic leaders, policy makers and other key stakeholders. Events such as our Youth Congress are co-designed by the SMP’s Youth Committee. We share information and updates with our members and partners through the regularly updated news pages of our website, through a dedicated weekly electronic bulletin, and through social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube).

More information on the Scotland Malawi Partnership and our work can be found on our website (www.scotland-malawipartnership.org). We also recommend Rev Prof Kenneth Ross’ excellent new book ‘Friendship with a Purpose: Malawi and Scotland for Sustainable Development(2018) which sets out the historical and contemporary context of the SMP, and the Official Report from the September 2018 High Level Conference in Malawi, which articulates Malawi’s vision for the next chapter in the bilateral friendship, and updates the 2005 Malawi After Gleneagles conference in the Scottish Parliament.

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