Stevenson Calls for a World Where Scotland Can 'Go, Give and Get'

Stewart Stevenson, SNP MSP for Banffshire & Buchan Coast, highlighted this week that small countries can punch well above their weight – and Scotland is no exception.

In a debate in Parliament entitled ‘Scotland: A Good Global Citizen’, Mr Stevenson praised the work of the Mary Robinson Foundation on Climate Justice, and highlighted the skills that Scotland offers in engineering, food and nutrition that can benefit other countries worldwide.

He said:

“Seventy per cent of small farmers in Africa are women, and it is those small farmers who are most disproportionately affected by climate change. They are the people who are paying the price for the international injustice that the western developed world imposes on people. We in Scotland are privileged to be part of the climate justice campaign, and can make practical efforts to help such people.”

Mr Stevenson praised the smaller countries of the world that hold substantial influence such as Antigua & Barbuda where Mr Ashe, the current President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, is from.

He added:

“Mr Ashe has chaired sessions at the United Nations on international trade and development, and on information and communications technologies. Small countries can do big things on the international stage.”

But Mr Stevenson added that the world must change so that Scotland is also represented on the world stage, rather than getting an occasional invitation.

He said:

“We have to move to a world in which Scotland can go to the important occasions, give what we have to give—which is substantial—and get the decisions that matter to us. Go, give, get. Until that happens, we will not truly make the contribution that we should and must make."