UK aid to Malawi is subject to robust due diligence, accountability and assurance processes to help ensure funding reaches its intended beneficiaries and delivers value for money for the UK taxpayer.

Before any UK aid funding is agreed, prospective delivery partners are assessed through proportionate due diligence checks covering financial management, governance, safeguarding, risk management and delivery capability. Where appropriate, UK aid is delivered through trusted multilateral organisations, drawing on their established fiduciary assurance systems and international accountability standards.

UK aid to Malawi is subject to robust due diligence, accountability and assurance processes to help ensure funding reaches its intended beneficiaries and delivers value for money for the UK taxpayer.

Before any UK aid funding is agreed, prospective delivery partners are assessed through proportionate due diligence checks covering financial management, governance, safeguarding, risk management and delivery capability. Where appropriate, UK aid is delivered through trusted multilateral organisations, drawing on their established fiduciary assurance systems and international accountability standards.

The Foreign Secretary was grateful for the First Minister's letter and will respond to the issues raised in due course.

Our focus in Malawi remains on supporting resilience to climate and environment shocks, strengthening health systems and education outcomes, and supporting economic growth and improved governance.

We are committed to a modern development partnership with Malawi, using UK expertise to support Malawians with their own reforms. Detailed decisions are currently being worked through on how our aid budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29, and we plan to publish indicative allocations in the coming months.

The Foreign Secretary was grateful for the First Minister's letter and will respond to the issues raised in due course.

Our focus in Malawi remains on supporting resilience to climate and environment shocks, strengthening health systems and education outcomes, and supporting economic growth and improved governance.

We are committed to a modern development partnership with Malawi, using UK expertise to support Malawians with their own reforms. Detailed decisions are currently being worked through on how our aid budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29, and we plan to publish indicative allocations in the coming months.

The Foreign Secretary was grateful for the First Minister's letter and will respond to the issues raised in due course.

Our focus in Malawi remains on supporting resilience to climate and environment shocks, strengthening health systems and education outcomes, and supporting economic growth and improved governance.

We are committed to a modern development partnership with Malawi, using UK expertise to support Malawians with their own reforms. Detailed decisions are currently being worked through on how our aid budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29, and we plan to publish indicative allocations in the coming months.

The Foreign Secretary was grateful for the First Minister's letter and will respond to the issues raised in due course.

Our focus in Malawi remains on supporting resilience to climate and environment shocks, strengthening health systems and education outcomes, and supporting economic growth and improved governance.

We are committed to a modern development partnership with Malawi, using UK expertise to support Malawians with their own reforms. Detailed decisions are currently being worked through on how our aid budget will be used from 2026/27 to 2028/29, and we plan to publish indicative allocations in the coming months.

Details of UK ministers' bilateral meetings with overseas counterparts are routinely published on GOV.UK, details of ministerial travel overseas are set out in the Government's quarterly transparency releases, and details of funding allocations for individual countries and programmes can be found using the Development Tracker tool on GOV.UK.

Details of UK ministers' bilateral meetings with overseas counterparts are routinely published on GOV.UK, details of ministerial travel overseas are set out in the Government's quarterly transparency releases, and details of funding allocations for individual countries and programmes can be found using the Development Tracker tool on GOV.UK.

Details of UK ministers' bilateral meetings with overseas counterparts are routinely published on GOV.UK, details of ministerial travel overseas are set out in the Government's quarterly transparency releases, and details of funding allocations for individual countries and programmes can be found using the Development Tracker tool on GOV.UK.

Details of UK ministers' bilateral meetings with overseas counterparts are routinely published on GOV.UK, details of ministerial travel overseas are set out in the Government's quarterly transparency releases, and details of funding allocations for individual countries and programmes can be found using the Development Tracker tool on GOV.UK.

Details of UK ministers' bilateral meetings with overseas counterparts are routinely published on GOV.UK, details of ministerial travel overseas are set out in the Government's quarterly transparency releases, and details of funding allocations for individual countries and programmes can be found using the Development Tracker tool on GOV.UK.

I am pleased to confirm the UK will pledge £850 million to the Global Fund's Eighth Replenishment 2026-2028. This investment is expected to help save up to 1.3 million lives and avert up to 22 million new cases of HIV, TB, and malaria globally, delivering up to £13 billion in economic returns. The Global Fund allocation to Malawi will be determined following the conclusion of the replenishment.

In November 2022, the UK pledged £1 billion to the 7th replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which will help to provide tuberculosis (TB) treatment and care for 98,000 people, screen 1.8 million people for TB and provide 3,700 people with treatment for multidrug-resistant TB. Previous UK contributions to the Global Fund were £800 million during 2014-16, £1.2 billion during 2017-19, and £1.4 billion during 2020-22.

The UK contribution to the Global Fund is not earmarked by country or disease, so the requested breakdown is not available. However, the Global Fund allocation to Malawi was US$450 million in 2017-19 (including $9 million for TB), $513 million during 2020-22 (including $20 million for TB) and a pledged total of $517 million for 2023-25 (including $20 million for TB).

UK bilateral aid to Malawi in Financial Year 2024/25 was £49 million, of which £11.6 million was invested in alleviating climate change, including through responding to humanitarian disasters, funding policy research and contributing to seasonal humanitarian appeals. The UK's flagship Building Resilience and Adapting to Climate Change (BRACC) programme supported UN agencies to build the resilience to climate shocks of poor households through improving agricultural productivity. Since the programme began in 2018, over 1.75 million people have been supported to cope with the effects of climate change, particularly droughts and floods, and a further 1.46 million people were assisted during humanitarian crises by cash transfers.

I recently hosted a Scotland-Malawi Partnership delegation as part of the wider events marking six decades of Malawian independence. The roundtable looked at ways of strengthening the already deep relationship between Scotland and Malawi.

As you will know, the UK Government remains committed to creating a world free from poverty on a liveable planet, working in partnership with international partners such as Malawi to support their development. As the UK transitions to an Official Development Assistance budget of 0.3 per cent of gross national income globally, we will continue to prioritise aid effectiveness and targeting assistance where it can have the greatest impact.

One of my priorities is promoting Scotland on the global stage. This includes supporting more Scottish businesses to export and attract inward investment.

The Scotland Office is looking at a potential trade mission to Southern Africa within the next two years where we can highlight the positive role Scottish industry can play in driving both economic growth at home and development overseas.

The UK Government remains committed to working in partnership with Malawi, to support its development. Our current development assistance focuses on strengthening health systems, improving education outcomes, supporting economic development and climate resilience. As the UK transitions to an Official Development Assistance budget of 0.3 per cent of gross national income globally, we will continue to prioritise aid effectiveness and targeting assistance where it can have the greatest impact.

The Department for Business and Trade, and UK Export Finance, has officials throughout our Embassy network in Africa to support businesses where there are commercial opportunities. Additionally, the Developing Countries Trading Scheme, which entered into force in June 2023, makes it simpler and more beneficial for African countries (including Tanzania and Malawi) to export goods to the UK. The UK-Southern African Customs Union and Mozambique (SACUM) and UK-Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) are development-focused free trade agreements that underpin UK goods trade with Botswana, Namibia (SACUM) and Zimbabwe (ESA).

Malawi, like its Southern African neighbours, faces particularly high food shortages this year partly because of the El Nino drought. The UK has just made a £3 million contribution to the World Food Programme, primarily to import and distribute around 3,000 tonnes of food and provide cash transfers, reaching around 300,000 of the least food secure. This contribution compliments on-going efforts by the UK Government to strengthen the resilience of the Malawian people, to future climate shocks, including through contributing to sovereign drought insurance.

We share UNICEF's assessment that the El Nino phenomenon has contributed to failed rains across Southern Africa, resulting in serious drought in both Zambia and Malawi, which in turn will have a serious impact on children and the most vulnerable. We welcome the swift actions of Presidents Hichilema (Zambia) and Chakwera (Malawi) in declaring a state of national disaster and emergency across Zambia and within 23 out of 28 districts in Malawi.

In Zambia, the UK is committing to the rapid expansion of the Social Cash Transfer scheme to reduce food insecurity for an additional 6 million people and pivoting our existing nutrition programmes to expand access to treatment. We deployed a UK Humanitarian Stabilisation Operations Team to support the Government of Zambia's drought response coordination. In Malawi, the UK has contributed to the Government's investment into disaster risk financing instruments which will provide an immediate response when triggered. The Malawian Government is currently preparing its own El Nino Response Plan which will outline further international assistance requirements. The UK will continue to monitor the situation closely.