Information Released in Response to an FOI Request
| Title | Scottish Executive spending to support the Co-operation Agreement with Malawi |
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| Description | Scottish Executive spending to support the Co-operation Agreement with Malawi, including the application forms for each of the projects which support Malawi. |
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| Publication Date | September 26, 2006 |
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| Charge | Free. |
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Note: If you have difficulty accessing the documents on this page and would like copies in a different format, please e-mail foi@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Funds provided to charities and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) to support the Scotland-Malawi Co-operation Agreement and how these funds are being spent
Total amount channelled through charities and NGOs to Malawi is: £1,211,813
The Scottish Executive's Finance and Central Services Department, through the International Development Fund (IDF), is currently funding 17 projects which directly support Malawi. A total of £2,847,743 has been committed to support these projects over three years. This is broken down as:
- 2005/06 - £1,211,813 (all grants for 2005/06 have been claimed)
- 2006/07 - £931,584 (grants for 2006/07 are now available)
- 2007/08 - £704,345
As these funds are claimed in instalments, only the 2005/06 figure has been used to calculate the answer to question 1. A breakdown of those who received grants and how much each project received can be found on the Executive's website at the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/News-Extras/intdevfundnov2005 . The application forms for each of the projects which support Malawi are provided here. The applications provide details of how and where money will be spent as well as the objectives and outcomes of each project.
In addition, the Scottish Executive's Education Department have provided grants to the following organisations:
British Council Scotland £53,769
This grant was given to the British Council to organise the visit to Malawi by Sanday School in Orkney who were the winners of the Scottish Schools Africa Challenge. They also arranged the return visit by the pupils from Minga School in Malawi.
Link Community Development (LCD) £63,889 for 6 months of financial year 2005/06
This grant was used by Link Community Development for the set up costs to deliver a Global Teachers Programme and the Link Schools Programme in Malawi.
League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers (LECT) £39,020 for 6 months of financial year 2005/06
LECT were given this grant to provide Continuous Professional Development opportunities and to organise group study visits to Malawi.
Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS)
As well as the funds detailed above, £220,000 has been made available to LTS for the financial year 2006/07. This will replace the grants given to LCD and LECT in 2005/06.
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Proportion of Funds allocated to administration/general charity costsand whether they are spent within or out with Malawi
Applicants to the IDF were required to breakdown spend against their project objectives only. They were asked to demonstrate that their objectives would be delivered in as cost effective a way as possible. They were not required to indicate whether funds would be spent out with Malawi or on administration costs. However, given the nature of the projects, we anticipate that most of the funds provided under the IDF will be spent within Malawi. This is also true for all other grants provided in relation to Malawi. The Executive therefore currently holds no information on administration costs or whether funds are spent out with Malawi. IDF projects have only recently started up and will be going through their first review. However, as part of the reporting process, financial reports will be made available and may indicate sums spent within and outwith Malawi.
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Funding for other groups/organisations involved in Malawi
The Humanitarian Health Fund (HHF) is currently supporting a total of eleven healthcare professionals at a total cost of £41,065. Eight of these 11 are working in Malawi. Of the £28,565 committed to support these eight people working in Malawi, £16,671 has been claimed to date. Further details on the fund and recipients can be found on the Executive's website through the following links:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/International-Relations/internationaldevelopment/humanitarian-health-fund/introduction
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2006/05/24102335
The Executive was keen to make a contribution to alleviating last year's famine situation in Malawi. Following advice from the UK Department for International Development, we made £150,000 available to UNICEF to contribute to their programmes on alleviating extreme hunger and food shortages in Malawi.
The Scotland-Malawi Partnership received funds totalling £65,896 to run the Scotland-Malawi Partnership conference 'Malawi after Gleneagles: A Commission for Africa Case-Study' in November 2005. This figure included bringing opposition Malawian politicians, members of Malawian civil society who would otherwise not have been able to participate, and expert speakers to Scotland
Total: £232,567
As well as the funds detailed above, between 2005-08, as part of Voluntary Service Overseas partnership with NHS Scotland, the Executive has made available to VSO, up to £50,000 to cover pension contributions for 10 NHS volunteers working in Malawi. These placements will each attract a further service delivery grant (of up to £5,000), up to a total of £50,000 between 2005-8. These service delivery grants are for the purchase of medical equipment that is relevant to local needs within Malawi. Note: the exact proportion of the overall £100,000 being spent on volunteers based in Malawi will depend on the amount required to cover the individual pension contributions of the 10 selected volunteers. This will also depend on the number of volunteers taking up this opportunity.
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Costs of official and Ministerial visits to and from Malawi
The cost of each visit to and from Malawi is listed below.
February 2005
An Executive Official accompanied a delegation of MSPs on a visit to Malawi at a cost of £4,865.
April 2005
Two members of staff from NHS Lothian were in Zambia looking at partnership initiatives with developing countries. The Executive asked that they extend their time in Africa and conduct a Health Needs Assessment in Malawi to scope the potential for engagement in the health sector. The cost of the visit to Malawi (from Zambia) and work undertaken to produce the assessment was £2,498.
April 2005
The winners of the Scottish Schools Africa Challenge visited Malawi in May 2005. A recce visit was undertaken by 1 Executive official and 2 British Council officials to prepare for the visit of, and ensure the safety of, the school children who won the contest at a cost of £10,588.
May 2005
Costs relating to the First Minister and Executive officials during his visit in May 2005 have been disclosed already and can be found at the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/FOI/Disclosures/2006/04/fmmalawi
There were costs incurred in relation to this visit that did not fall under the scope of this previous FOI request. These costs amount to £8,044.
July/August 2005
The Executive commissioned an expert in the field to produce a report on the possibilities for building capacity within the Higher Education sector in Malawi. The cost of the research, including a visit to Malawi in late July/early August, and the final report was £2,000.
August 2005
The Executive commissioned an expert in the field to produce a report on Primary Education in Malawi. The research included a visit to Malawi in August 2005 which cost £2,879.
August/September 2005
This visit, by 3 Executive officials, and a representative of the Scottish-Malawi Foundation (on the visit as an expert advisor), consisted of: familiarisation and establishing contacts, development of the Co-operation Agreement and preparations for the visit to Scotland by the President of Malawi.
Cost of visit - £16,445.
October 2005
A feasibility study was undertaken on the possibility of extending the 'Alive and Kicking' programme, already active in other African countries, to Malawi. The programme is aimed at creating sustainable livelihoods through the production of African leather footballs that carry health messages for the children that receive them. The study was undertaken by an advisor already working in Africa. The cost of the feasibility study, including a visit to Malawi was £1,000.
February 2006
This visit, by 4 Executive officials, consisted of: liaison with officials on the development of the Action Plans arising from the Co-operation Agreement, visits to projects funded under the International Development Fund and engagement with Malawian government officials on the production of their government website.
Cost of visit - £17,244.
March 2006
This visit, by 1 Executive official and 1 NHS Lothian members of staff, was undertaken at the invitation of the Malawian Government and DfID, to attend the review of the health Sector Wide Approach (SWAP) and to review progress of the development of the health strand of the Co-operation Agreement.
Cost of visit - £7,698.
April 2006
This visit, by 1 Executive official, consisted of: Liaison with officials to review progress on the development of Action Plans and preparation for the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport's visit in May.
Cost of visit - £4,294.
May 2006
The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Patricia Ferguson, visited Malawi in May 2006 along with 4 Executive officials to review progress on Action Plans arising from the Co-operation Agreement and visit projects funded under the International Development Fund.
Cost of visit - £28,108.
Visit of Malawian President (2000 and 2005)
There have been two separate visits to Scotland by two different Presidents of Malawi. One in 2000 and another in 2005. The cost of each visit by the Presidents of Malawi and their delegations were mostly met by the Malawian Government. Costs incurred by the Executive during both these visits total £18,745.
Total cost of publicly funded visits to and from Malawi - £124,408
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Administration costs (including staffing) of Scotland's involvement in Malawi
All staff (except one temporary employee engaged on a six month contract) that work on our relationship with Malawi are also involved in other areas of work, so it is impossible to put an accurate figure on the time spent on this one policy and therefore staff costs in relation to our work with Malawi. The following information will provide an indication of the staff numbers and grades involved in implementing our Co-operation Agreement with Malawi.
The Education Department's 'New Educational Developments' team (which has responsibility for international education) have members of staff at B3, B1, A4 and A1 levels who have spent a small proportion of their time on Malawi. The B1 was employed for a six month period and is the only member of staff across the Executive to work solely on Malawi.
The Health Department have two senior civil servants and a C2 member of staff who spend a small portion of their time on developing our engagement with the health sector in Malawi.
The Finance and Central Services Department's 'Scotland-Malawi Development Team' have the policy lead for the Executive's engagement with Malawi and spend the most time working on the relationship. This team, however, are also involved in a number of areas outwith Malawi, including G8 Africa events, a Commission for Africa conference, Fair Trade, International Volunteering and work on areas affected by the Tsunami and Asian earthquake. Therefore, again, it is impossible to provide an accurate figure for staff costs in relation to the teams work on Malawi. The Scotland-Malawi Development Team has regularly changed its configuration to meet priorities at any given time since February 2005, having originally been set up, primarily, to facilitate a series of African themed events in the run up to the G8 meeting. To give an idea of the staffing levels within this team since February 2005, a timeline can be found at Annex A. Annex B shows the average staff costs for staff grades across the Executive.
As detailed above, (and as part of the Executive's general aim to raise awareness of the problems faced in Malawi and what Scotland can do to make a difference) the Scotland-Malawi Partnership received £65,896 to run their conference, 'Malawi after Gleneagles: A Commission for Africa Case-Study'. After a tendering exercise, conference organisers were appointed to administer the event at a cost of £23,411. Ancillary costs of £18,727 were also incurred. The total cost of the conference was £108,034.
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Total cost of Scotland's involvement with Malawi
The total cost of the Scottish Executive's and its agencies involvement with Malawi to date is: £1,853,506. Only the IDF, the contribution to UNICEF and the HHF costs (£1,228,484) are taken from the £3 million per year International Development budget.
This is broken down as:
| Grants to Charities and NGOs | £1,368,491 |
| Other organisations involved in Malawi | £232,567* |
| Visits to and from Malawi | £124,408 |
| Administration costs | £42,138 |
| General costs (not covered elsewhere in this request) | £85,902** |
*For these purposes the £65,896 that the Scotland-Malawi Partnership received has been counted under other organisations involved in Malawi.
** This figure covers various costs not covered elsewhere in this request. For example: launch packs, posters and a website for the Scottish schools Africa challenge, printing costs for 40,000 copies of Africawoman and set up costs related to the Scottish-Malawi Foundation, formerly the Scottish-Malawi Appeal Fund.
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Amount of this total cost spent out with Malawi
As indicated above, the Executive does not hold information on whether the £2,847,742 allocated to NGOs and charities under the IDF will be spent within or out with Malawi (although, given the nature of the projects we expect that most of these funds will be spent in country). For costs in relation to:
The HHF;
UNICEF programmes on alleviating extreme hunger and food shortages in Malawi;
Visits to and from Malawi;
Administration costs; and
General costs
Our total costs for these areas of expenditure is: £485,015.
Funds spent within Malawi: £196,054
Funds spent out with Malawi: £288,962
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