October 2025 marked the 20-year anniversary of the Scottish Government’s international development programme. This blog looks at its evolution, what information is available about impacts and the Scottish Government’s current approach.
How has the Scottish Government’s international development programme changed over the past two decades?
To understand the Scottish Government’s current approach to international development, it is useful to look at how the programme has evolved over the past two decades.
In 2005, the Scottish Executive and the Malawi Government signed a cooperation agreement to deliver development projects, focussing on civic governance, sustainable economic development, health and education. At the same time, the International Development Fund was established with an annual budget of £3 million. The budget remained at £3 million per year until 2007/08. The international development programme was expanded geographically to include Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Darfur region of Sudan with the publication of the Scottish Government’s first international development policy in 2008. As shown in the chart below, the amount of spending provided through the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund (for development and humanitarian spend) rose from £5.8 million in 2008/09 to £9.3 million in 2010/11.
The Climate Justice Fund was established in 2012. According to the Scottish Government, the climate justice approach “recognises that those least responsible for the global climate emergency are being affected first and most severely by it.” The main programme launched under the Fund, Climate Just Communities, supports building more inclusive and climate resilient communities in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. Dedicated loss and damage funding, first announced at COP26, to support “the world’s most vulnerable communities recover from and build resilience against climate change” has also been distributed through the Climate Justice Fund. Around £10 million has been provided to loss and damage initiatives to date.
The Scottish Government published a new international development strategy, Global Citizenship: Scotland’s International Development Strategy, in December 2016. Framed around the theme of ‘global citizenship’, it pledged to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and named four partner countries, which remain to date: Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, and Pakistan (in relation to education). The Scottish Government’s humanitarian aid funding is used to respond to humanitarian crises around the world.
The Scottish Government reviewed its international development policy in 2021. The review cites the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the demand for change from the Black Lives Matter movement as the impetus for reviewing the way its international development work is delivered. The review set out the following key changes to the Scottish Government’s approach to international development:
- Build back fairer and stronger after the Covid-19 pandemic: restructuring funding streams to focus on economic recovery and institutional resilience as well as a new Equalities Programme. The review also noted that partner countries will identify priorities within these areas.
- Establishing a Global South Programme Panel: to “provide advice to Minister[s] on the part of the Scottish Government, to ensure that global south voices continue to be heard beyond this Review, at the highest level. But also, crucially, to ensure this review is not an ‘end point’, and that the opportunity for dialogue with the sector will continue.”
- Updating funding criteria: removing the requirement that funding be accessed only by organisations based in Scotland. The review stated that this change will enable more organisations from partner countries to apply for funding.
- Refining Scotland’s offer: addressing an ongoing concern that Scotland’s “focus is too broad given the current constitutional arrangements”.
No new international development strategy has been published since the 2021 review, but the Contribution to International Development Report 2021-2023 states that future international development programmes will have the following thematic areas of focus:
- health programmes focussing on tackling ‘non-communicable diseases’, such as heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes
- inclusive education programmes focussing on improving access to education for girls and learners with additional support needs
- equalities programmes aimed at supporting the advancement of gender equality, the rights of women and girls, and the protection of vulnerable groups.
How has the Scottish Government been measuring the impact of its international development work?
As the Scottish Government’s international development programme has evolved, questions about how impact is assessed have become increasingly important.
The Scottish Government has reported on its international development support in several ways. The main vehicle is its Contribution to International Development Reports. The most recent one, covering 2021-2023, was published in June 2024 (see a SPICe blog for a summary). Further information on recent projects funded is provided on the Scottish Government’s webpage for international development. The information provided in Contribution to International Development reports and on the webpage generally focusses on outputs of individual projects and overall spend figures as opposed to broader performance metrics such as health or education outcomes.
The Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee conducted an inquiry into the National Outcomes and Indicators relating to international policy in 2023/24. This is a strategic tool with eleven National Outcomes against which progress has been measured by 81 National Indicators. Although there has been an indicator, ‘Contribution of Development Support to Other Nations’, for the National Outcome under the International heading since 2018, no performance data for it has been provided. The Committee’s report noted that there was potential for measuring impact or assessment in areas like “conflict resolution, feminist foreign policy, and the promotion of human rights and climate justice”. In a letter dated 15 January 2025, the Cabinet Secretary provided the following response:
We are currently in the process of setting up monitoring and evaluation frameworks with partners and relevant policy officials across the SG for each of our international devel[o]pment programmes. This includes working with colleagues in various policy teams such as health and education. This also includes ongoing work with the social research team as well as delivery partners to establish participatory methodology in line with our commitments to equalise power aligned with our commitments to take a feminist approach to international development. Applying participatory methodology will allow the SG to better evidence impact of our programmes in our partner countries.
The Cross-Party Group on International Development published a report on Scotland’s International Development Funding in June 2025. The report found that the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund is “a positive force for good at a time of substantial need” but that the Scottish Government could “be considerably more transparent with its funding”. It recommended publishing international aid data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative and adopting its reporting standards to improve transparency and make it easier to measure impacts.
What are the Scottish Government’s current priorities for international development?
In October 2025, First Minister John Swinney visited Malawi and Zambia to mark the 20-year anniversary and observe the impact of the Scottish Government’s international development and climate justice work. Following his visit, the First Minister made a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 28 October 2025. He announced new funding for health and investment partnerships and expressed support for the ‘Cancel Debt, Choose Hope’ Campaign run by campaign group Debt Justice. The campaign calls for “new debt justice laws, immediate debt cancellation for countries in crisis, and a debt framework at the United Nations to stop future debt crises”.
Internationally, 2024 and 2025 saw large reductions in global aid driven by spending cuts from major donor countries. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported a 9% reduction in official development assistance (ODA) in 2024 and has projected a further 9–17% drop in 2025. It also notes that ODA provided by eleven countries that have announced cuts for 2025-27 accounted for almost three-quarters of total ODA in 2024.
The remainder of this blog sets out the Scottish Government’s stated ambitions for the remainder of this Parliament and the next financial year. The Scottish Government’s 2025-26 Programme for Government, presented in May 2025, stated:
We will not turn our backs on those overseas who need assistance – keeping our promise to countries across the Global South to grow our international development budget to £15 million per annum and providing £1 million for humanitarian crises.
The Programme for Government also includes a commitment to provide £36 million (multi-year commitment over the course of the Parliament, which has essentially been met – see next section) to support climate justice. These commitments had been made in previous Programmes for Government and were again reaffirmed in the First Minister’s statement to Parliament on 28 October 2025.
The Scottish Government presented its draft budget for 2026/27 on 13 January 2026. The allocations to individual funds are set out below.
Climate Justice Fund
The 2026/27 draft budget allocates £12.7 million for the Climate Justice Fund. This represents a £1 million reduction compared to 2025/26 (Autumn Budget Revision). The accompanying level 4 document states that this is due to operating costs now being recognised within other portfolios rather than a cut to programme spend which remains unchanged.
The Scottish Government has also published a document that provides information on Climate Justice Fund allocations 2024-26. This document shows that £35,959,000 has been allocated over the course of this Parliament and no further allocations are expected.
International Development Fund and Humanitarian Emergency Fund
The Humanitarian Emergency Fund has had £1 million allocated yearly since it was established in 2017. In the 2024/25 budget, a separate budget line for this fund was removed and funding now comes from the International Development Fund budget line.
The International Development Fund had been allocated around £11.5 million a year since 2022/23 and was allocated £12.8 million in the 2025/26 budget. The 2026/2027 draft budget allocates £16 million to the International Development Fund, a 26% increase on the 2025/26 allocation (Autumn Budget Revision). The Budget document states:
At a time when others are stepping back from commitments to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, support for Scotland’s International Development Fund and the Humanitarian Emergency Fund will grow to £16 million in 2026-27.
The accompanying level 4 document sets out that £1 million of this allocation is ringfenced for humanitarian spend and provides an explanation for the increase:
Scottish Ministers are committed to supporting international development and humanitarian responses; a steadfast commitment that has become all the more relevant at a time when other governments have reduced their overseas [assistance].
Summary
The Scottish Government’s international development programme has evolved over the past twenty years. The Programme has expanded from a focus on Malawi to four partner countries, with increased funding and new policy priorities such as climate justice. While information on spending and outputs of individual projects is published, little information on broader performance metrics is available. A commitment to provide £36 million to support climate justice over the course of this Parliament has been met. The 2026/27 draft budget includes a substantially increased allocation of £16 million for international development and humanitarian aid.
Annie Bosse, SPICe Research
“Globe” by andrewasmith is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.