Sep
28
2018

Malawi and Scotland: Together for Sustainable Development Conference

The Malawi Scotland Partnership and the Scotland Malawi Partnership, with the Scottish Government, the Government of Malawi and both Parliaments, delivered a major high-level national conference in Lilongwe on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September 2018, celebrating the friendship between our two nations and discussing the next chapter in the bilateral relationship.

The Malawi Scotland Partnership and the Scotland Malawi Partnership, with the Scottish Government, the Government of Malawi and both Parliaments, delivered a major high-level national conference in Lilongwe on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September 2018, celebrating the friendship between our two nations and discussing the next chapter in the bilateral relationship.

In April 2018, during a visit of H.E. President Arthur Peter Mutharika to Scotland, an updated cooperation agreement, the ‘Global Goals Partnership Agreement’, was signed between the two Governments. This agreement set out how the two governments would work together in the coming years to support the delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Malawi and Scotland: Together for Sustainable Development conference brought together, and listened to, a range of key stakeholders across civil society, the private sector, government and parliament to explore how best to effectively implement the Global Goals Partnership Agreement.

It mirrored the detailed discussion and planning which took place at the 2005 Malawi After Gleneagles conference, hosted in the Scottish Parliament, as the first Scotland-Malawi Cooperation Agreement was signed.

The enduring appeal and success of the Malawi-Scotland friendship is not just the significant shared history our two nations enjoy but also the constructive synergy and collective effort across government, parliament and civil society, and the spirit of dignified two-way partnership as opposed to simply one-way charity.

This is widely seen as an innovative new approach to international development and is increasingly being emulated elsewhere. Bringing together government, parliament and civil society, this conference helped ensure the Global Goals Partnership Agreement continues to follow this model of collaboration, goodwill and cooperation, expanding to become a country-to-country and people-to-people process, rather than just a government-to-government agreement.

In this way, the conference helped further re-energise the bilateral relationship and established a direction of travel and ways of working for this next exciting chapter, in a genuinely consultative, cross-cutting and engaging manner.

Read the full Conference Report which summarises the key outcomes from the various discussions over the two days, including the Conference Statement which was unanimously agreed by all who attended (Click on the 'Full Screen' button below).

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