SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR SCOTLAND MALAWI MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION PROJECT

Motion Text

That this House welcomes the Scottish Government's announcement that it is to provide £300,000 funding to combat the chronic absence of psychiatrists in Malawi; notes that this funding was announced by the Minister for International Development and Europe, Dr Alasdair Allan, alongside Professor John Saka, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malawi, and Dr Rob Stewart from the Scotland Malawi Mental Health Education Project; further notes that at present there are no Malawian psychiatrists practising in that country, and that this funding will help several students undertake a four-year psychiatry course at Malawi's College of Medicine and South Africa's University of Cape Town; recognises the ongoing governmental partnership and historic, as well as contemporary, links between Scotland and Malawi; and welcomes Dr Allan's statement that Scotland will continue to be an outward-looking country that wants to play an active part not only in the European but the wider international community.