An Alliance of organisations working in global sustainable development is calling on the Scottish Government to produce a strategy for global solidarity. Scotland’s International Development Alliance has, today, published a set of recommendations to improve Scotland’s impact on global sustainable development.
The proposed Global Solidarity Strategy would replace the 2016 International Development Strategy and fit with the Scottish Government’s new Global Affairs Framework, broadening the ambition of Scotland’s role as a good global citizen, working through a feminist approach with others elsewhere in the world for mutual benefit to enhance the wellbeing of the planet.
Frances Guy, Scotland’s International Development Alliance CEO, said
“Despite our relatively small international development budget in Scotland, we can take the lead in showing genuine solidarity. This means shifting power structures and building truly equitable partnerships. Scotland must ensure that our own domestic objectives support global redistribution and self-defined global sustainable development, and support restorative climate justice. A consultation on a new Global Solidarity Strategy is the starting point we need to clearly demonstrate Scotland’s role as a good global citizen.
Scotland has the opportunity to demonstrate the value of small states in terms of leadership, ambition and effectiveness, when it comes to supporting sustainable global development.”
Alongside a Global Solidarity Strategy, the Alliance makes a number of other recommendations to the Scottish Government to strengthen Scotland’s role in supporting global sustainable development. These range from ensuring all grants are awarded in an open and transparent manner; developing ways of funding organisations in partner countries directly; and taking strong, public positions where UK and Scottish views do not align.
The Alliance’s report will underpin their activities over the coming months, and many of the recommendations will be discussed at their upcoming hybrid Annual Conference exploring global citizenship, to be held in Edinburgh on 20 September and open to all. The full report is available here.