International aid plea to parties

from The Herald

Eight international development agencies have challenged political parties to focus at least one campaign day over the next month on global poverty.

Oxfam, Christian Aid, Save the Children, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) and Islamic Relief are among those who want Sunday, April 15, a week after Easter, to be designated Development Day.

International aid is a reserved power for Westminster, but in the past four years support has grown for Holyrood becoming involved in direct links with Africa, particularly Malawi, after Jack McConnell visited the nation.
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A joint letter from the agencies has called for the spirit of the Make Poverty History campaign two years ago to be kept going into the next session of the Scottish Parliament.

"We are also aware of the depth of need in Malawi and in many other countries across the world," it says.

"That need, coupled with strong public support for more action, is why we believe that all parties should be setting out how they will take forward this policy."

Paul Chitnis, chief execu-tive of SCIAF, commented: "Recent opinion polling by SCIAF has shown very high levels of public support for Scottish politicians to take action on tacking global poverty.

"With a combination of public support here and great need in far too many coun-tries around the world, it's time for Scotland's politicians to bridge that gap and set out how they are going to take the aid policy forward."