Global Solidarity Fund: equality impact assessment results

2. Background

2.1 The Global Solidarity Fund seeks to strengthen global citizenship participation by enabling an informed, engaged and effective global citizenship community in Scotland to stand alongside partners in the Global South to address global challenges and achieve the SDGs.

2.2 The intended outcomes of this work are:

• Outcome 1: CSO Strengthening – Scotland’s small iNGOs are safe, resilient & effective in delivering against their mission.
• Outcome 2: Global Citizenship Engagement - Increased understanding of and participation in global citizenship (active global citizenship) by the Scottish public.
• Outcome 3: Locally Led Development – Opportunities for small Scottish iNGOs to work with partners towards a locally led model of development are catalysed.

2.3 This will be delivered through the provision of small grants of varying sizes to charitable organisations, social enterprises and local groups for either capacity building, increasing awareness and engagement in global citizenship or for supporting small Scottish based Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to move towards locally led development initiatives in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda.

2.4 The Scottish Government (SG) places great importance on Scotland being a good global citizen and 2025 marks a significant milestone in terms of Scotland’s commitment to addressing poverty and inequality overseas. Twenty years previously, in 2005, the G8 met at Gleneagles to discuss the challenges Africa was facing. Shortly after, the Scottish Parliament hosted 'Malawi After Gleneagles', an event which brought together key Scots and Malawians from across Government, Parliament and civic society.

2.5 The approach mapped out at that event - with a clear focus on ‘people to people’ and ‘dignified reciprocal partnership’ – guided the development of the Global Citizenship: Scotland's International Development Strategy, published in December 2016, which sets out Scotland’s contribution to the international community. Priorities set out then, which continue to this day, include:

• Strengthening partnerships between Scotland and our partner countries, through our governments; universities and colleges; institutions; public and private sectors; civil society; and communities.
• Supporting the principles of effective partnership including: engagement and participation at all levels and within all sectors of society; good governance and accountability.
• Inspiring communities and young people to realise their role as good global citizens in the wider world, passing on the baton to the next generation
• Raising awareness of SG’s international development through networking organisations.

2.6 At that time, development assistance was provided through a number of mechanisms, including:

• Core funding to 4 networking organisations, to engage in, and build domestic support and understanding of, international development. Initially these were Scotland’s International Development Alliance (SIDA), Scotland-Malawi Partnership (SMP), Malawi-Scotland Partnership (MaSP), and Scottish Fair Trade (previously named Scottish Fair Trade Forum).
• A Small Grants Programme for small Scottish based Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

2.7 In 2020/21 the SG undertook a review of its approach to International Development in light of COVID-19 and to respond to issues for international development raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. The outcomes of that Review were announced through a statement made by Minister to the Scottish Parliament on 3 March 2021.

2.8 The outcomes of that Review, and commitments announced through that Statement, relevant to the Global Solidarity strand of the ID programme and the Global Solidarity Fund specifically, include that SG would:

• Align its work with a new set of International Development Principles (principles of the International Development Review), which were co-developed with civil society both in the SG partner countries and in Scotland through the Review. These set out the SG’s commitment to partner led and inclusive development, to collaboration and partnerships, to equality, to amplifying Global South voices and to inclusion and diversity.
• Close the previous Small Grants pilot programme, which ran from 2014-19, and consider the options for its redesign as set out in an independent report of the Programme, published in 2020, to better reflect the SG’s ID strategy and the changing direction of the international development sector.

2.9 Over the following years a suite of new programming has been launched in the areas of health, inclusive education, and equalities, whilst also continuing to deliver the Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF).

2.10 In 2022 the Minister responded to an enquiry from the Scottish Parliament’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee on how it will continue to support the growth of small grass-roots initiatives in Scotland given the closure of the small grants scheme and pivot towards more strategic programming. In their response the Minister committed to ‘supporting civil society in Scotland, even as our international development continues to evolve in supporting a shift in power and funding to partner countries, towards increased localisation of development’.