Question reference: S5W-33357
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 18 November 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 November 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32368 by Jenny Gilruth on 3 November 2020, whether it will accept written submissions to its review of its approach to international development, and what opportunity there is for engagement in the process beyond the events listed on its website.
Answer
As I outlined in the PQ you reference in your question, we are not running a formal written consultation in the way that we did in 2016, where at that time we were aiming to arrive at a new Scottish Government international development policy. Within this 2020 review, our partner countries are not changing. What we are looking at and reviewing instead is our approach to our work: to ensure that going forward we are re-focusing our work on areas where we can make the biggest contribution and difference in our partner countries against the backdrop of the new reality of COVID-19; and with a resulting refresh of our Strategy in mind.
I believe that events are the best way to hear people’s views and the full list of events which I have held or have attended as Minister for Europe and International Development, some of which are still to take place, is available on the Scottish Government website. A number of these events have been targeted at getting views for both our oversee partner countries and Scottish stakeholders and have been open access. For example to get views on the principles guiding the ID Review, I ran two such events online to ensure the maximum amount of people could attend and I am pleased to say over 115 Scottish and partner-counties’ stakeholders, from over 85 organisations, attended.