Following a cabinet reshuffle, Jenny Gilruth MSP has been appointed as Minister for Europe and International Development, replacing Ben Macpherson MSP.
The new Minister will be joining Alliance Board members and staff at their upcoming board meeting on 11 March 2020.
Alliance CEO Jane Salmonson said:
‘We warmly welcome the Minister to her new position and look forward very much indeed to working closely with her in the years ahead. I am delighted that she is able to join us to meet with Alliance Board members and staff so soon after taking up office. I know that she is also attending four other meetings convened by Scottish Government officials, one each for stakeholders under the four main grant programmes supporting development in Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and the Humanitarian Emergencies Fund (HEF). This gesture of support, in making time available to meet with us all at such an early stage, despite a heavy workload on Europe at this time, is hugely appreciated.’
On announcing the appointment on 17 February, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said:
‘Jenny Gilruth will join government for the first time – having proven herself as a talented and hard-working MSP – and takes on the role of Minister for Europe and International Development. She will have the important task of promoting Scotland, building new links in a post-Brexit environment and delivering on our global responsibilities – and I know she is more than up to that challenge.’
The full text of the announcement can be found here.
Brought up and educated in Fife, Jenny is a graduate of Glasgow University, where she studied Politics and Sociology, and of Strathclyde University, where she studied for her Postgraduate in Secondary Education (Modern Studies).
Prior to being elected in 2016, Jenny worked for over a decade in education, most recently as a Head of Department in a Fife secondary school. Prior to that, Jenny worked at Education Scotland as NQ lead for Social Studies, supporting the development of the new qualifications and also as a Modern Studies Teacher.
More information about Jenny can be found at her website, by clicking here.
Alliance members have been meeting in roundtable discussion format with Scottish Government Ministers and officials at quarterly intervals, as part of an agreement made by Lewis Macdonald MSP Convener of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on International Development, and the then Minister for Europe and International Development, Dr. Alasdair Allan MSP. An early agenda item for the Alliance will be to ask the new Minister if she is willing to continue with this format, which facilitates good, open channels of communication between the Scottish Government and representatives of civil society engaged in international Development.