DAVID Livingstone had a dream for the country he called Nyasaland. The missionary and explorer from Blantyre envisaged a day when poverty and slavery in Central Africa would be supplanted by commerce and prosperity. Today that vision has never seemed more remote.
When Scotland's first minister, Jack McConnell, touches down in Malawi tomorrow, he will find a country where 65per cent of the population exist on less than 70p a day, where there is barely one doctor for 60,000 people and where the life expectancy of a baby born today is 28 years - the third-worst figure in the world.
The generations of Scots missionaries who followed Livingstone to Malawi forged a special relationship between the two countries.
In the yearwhen world leaders are to congregate in Perthshire with Africa on top of the agenda, Scotland can play its part by rekindling that link and targeting Malawi for special help.
Although seeds, mosquito nets, school books and water pumps will always be welcome, the success of this initiative will ultimately be measured by the extent to which it helps Malawians to help themselves.
This is why, though he sidestepped the issue this week, Mr McConnell cannot ignore the issue of corruption. He does not need to for President Mutharika has recently launched an anti-corruption drive which has seen several senior officials and politicians sacked. He badly needs international support. In addition, the first minister should use his influence at Westminster and in Brussels to plead for the dismantling of trade rules that distort world markets and penalise African farmers. EU restrictions on Malawi's sugar exports cost the country [pounds]17m a year. Trade reform must be accompanied by further debt relief. Malawi still spends 11per cent of its national income in servicing its debt mountain, though pleas to write it off would be received more warmly if the country had not recently embarked on a massive new mausoleum for its autocratic first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Scotland is already donating large quantities of redundant medical equipment to Malawi but in a country where an estimated 15per cent of the population are HIV positive, a bigger issue is staff. Many doctors and nurses are dying of Aids themselves and more are emigrating. (There are more Malawian doctors in Manchester than Malawi. ) Rather than adding to this staff drain in an effort to tackle our own waiting lists, Scotland must find ways of training and encouraging Malawian medical staff to stay at home.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, in a country where more than 50per cent of women are illiterate and ignorance is the biggest barrier to vital health education, Scotland has a key role to play in supporting teacher training and providing equipment. Education is also the sine qua non of a vibrant civic society. If we could help to recreate that in Malawi, the country could edge closer to Livingstone's vision.
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