Force for good: Scots have helped 1.3 million needy people in Malawi

THE work of Scottish organisations in Malawi is worth more than £30 million a year to the poverty-stricken southern African country, a new report has revealed.

• Annie Lennox is pledging support to the Malawian partnership

More than 1.3 million Malawians have also benefited from the work of Scots, according to the Edinburgh University study entitled Valuing Scotland's Links With Malawi.

The publication of the report comes ahead of tomorrow's fifth anniversary of the agreement signed between the Scotland and Malawi, which has seen the Scottish Government give 13m in aid to the African nation since 2005.

The Edinburgh University report highlighted the work of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, a scheme launched to help strengthen historic links between the two nations.

A total of 85,000 people working with 450 Scottish organisations, including schools, charities and churches have given financial support, run aid projects and devoted time through the partnership to improving living standards in Malawi.

Work by partnership groups in the country include that by Scottish Christian Aid, which has sent volunteers to the country to set-up literacy programmes and provided farming equipment to help Malawian communities grow food.

Other Scottish groups offering help include the Ayr Presbytery Malawi Initiative, which sent a group to the African country to run HIV and Aids awareness programmes.

Another scheme involves the Inverurie-based Famine Relief for Orphans in Malawi group, which provided food for feeding stations in the country, as well as giving funds to build health clinics and classrooms.

There was also Kingussie High School in Fife, which organised a visit by staff and pupils to help share ideas for the school curriculum in Malawi.

The report from Edinburgh University calculated the value of the work by the organisations was worth at least 30m a year to Malawi, when all the financial resources and time devoted to the projects was added up.

Some 30 of the organisations involved were asked by the report's authors to identify the costs of their projects, as well as estimating the monetary value of devoting volunteer time to help Malawians.

The groups were also asked to estimate how many Malawians benefited from their work and how many volunteers the Scottish organisations used.

The figures were then used to estimate the entire financial value of the work of the 450 members of the Scotland Malawi Partnership.Report author Dr Lawrence Dritsas said: "The findings were a conservative estimate to the value of all the money, resources and time invested into the friendship."

He said: "The study gives us something important to think about when we consider the history and future of Scotland's role in international development."

Meanwhile, leading Scottish songstress and former Eurythmics lead singer Annie Lennox is tomorrow due to become the first person to sign a pledge to strengthen the relationship between Scotland and Malawi.

She said: "I fully endorse the continuation of the partnership between Scotland and Malawi.

"We are citizens of the world and we can make a difference and contribution to positive change. I'm proud to be part of the Scottish Malawian Partnership."