Scotland has 'moral obligation' to support global south - Swinney

John Swinney has said that Scotland and its government has a "moral obligation" to support countries facing severe effects of climate change.

The first minister made the remarks during a visit to Zambia and Malawi where he is examining the impact of Scottish government funding on issues such as climate, health and human rights.

The visit marks 20 years since First Minister Jack McConnell signed the historic co-operation agreement between Scotland and Malawi.

At the time, the country was in the grip of one of the worst HIV/Aids epidemics in the world, when life expectancy had fallen from 45 to 37 years.

The agreement marked the beginning of a Scottish government-funded aid and development programme.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, Swinney said he echoed the sentiments that Lord McConnell brought to the programme in 2005.

He said: "All of my feelings and politics are all about making sure that Scotland is a good global citizen.

"I think there's a moral obligation on us in the north to support the global south who have contributed little to the climate crisis we are facing, but they are most definitely facing the severity of the effects at this moment."

While visiting the Zambian capital of Lusaka earlier this week, Swinney announced £125,000 for charity Kids Operating Room to support adapting Nasa technology to generate oxygen in low-resource settings.

Then ahead of his arrival in Malawi on Thursday, he also announced a further £4m over three years to help tackle diseases that cannot be transmitted from person to person - such as diabetes, heart disease and sickle cell disease.

Earlier this week, the Scottish Conservatives criticised the first minister for "grandstanding" over the UK government's cuts to aid funding, which Swinney called "shameful".

This comes as the Scottish government has yet to meet a manifesto commitment to increase money to its international development fund to £15m by March.

Challenged on the subject, Swinney told the BBC that the Scottish government had increased aid spending since 2021 and that "the parliamentary term is not over".

"We've obviously got further budget provisions to put to the Scottish parliament," he said.

In recent years there have been a number of human rights abuses in both Zambia and Malawi, including towards journalists, political opponents and LGBT communities.

Part of Swinney's visit was seeing work Police Scotland have been doing with Zambian police on issues of gender-based violence.

Asked whether he had further raised human rights issues with leaders, he said: "These are issues of importance that we have to take forward and raise, and raise in the appropriate manner."

He said that work has "got to be taken forward" to improve the position of women and children in society.

Swinney was also questioned about polling which suggests that people in Scotland would support a cut to international aid.

He responded: "My sense is people in Scotland want their country to be outward looking, they want their country to be engaged in the issues that matter in the world."