On Thursday 25 October 2018, Members of the Scottish Parliament debated the Scottish Government’s inaugural Contribution to Development Report at Holyrood.

MSPs from all sides of the chamber reiterated their support for the Scottish Government’s international development work in this lively debate.

Importantly, members from all Parties also highlighted their support for better policy coherence, a key aspect of this new report.

Every week, 1.4 million people move to cities and by 2050 70 per cent of the global population will live in urban settings.  Cities are therefore facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social and spatial challenges.

On 31 October, the global community marked World Cities Day, which helped to focus attention on these issues.

Professor Ya Ping Wang, Director of SHLC at the University of Glasgow, explains why these issues should command attention every day of the year.

We are delighted to announce that Ben Macpherson MSP, Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development will be joining the Alliance AGM on 5 December in Glasgow.  

The Alliance will be launching its ‘Safer For All’ package of support for organisations to ensure they follow best practices in safeguarding.  The package has been designed in response to the findings of a survey undertaken jointly by the Alliance and the Scottish Government International Development team. 

The ‘suite’ of documents has been worked up to help organisations develop their own safeguarding policies and procedures appropriate to their own contexts, while drawing on and adapting existing best practices.  

The Alliance was represented at DFID’s Safeguarding Summit in London on 18 October.  Click below for more information on the Summit, including the UK Government’s announcement and a summary of UK NGOs’ collaborative work around safeguarding.

In advance of this year's Annual Conference, themed around the role of young people, we asked our members to submit photos illustrating sustainable development through the eyes of young people.

We would like to congratulate the winners: Children of Rwanda, Feed the Minds, Scottish Love in Action and WaterAid! 

13 November

Civil society has a long and proud tradition of advocating for social change, yet the space for campaigning has become ever tighter in recent years, especially in England and Wales.

Come along to this afternoon meeting in Edinburgh, co-organised with Bond and Quakers in Britain, to hear more and share your experiences.

21 November

Join the first session of our new Online Training series. Laura Lebec from Wren & Greyhound will help you to think strategically about how you work with stakeholders and partners.

5 December

All members are warmly invited to attend our AGM. Look out for the formal notice of meeting which has been emailed and for the AGM agenda and papers which are on the resources section of the website.  These include our statutory Annual Accounts, a paper about membership subscriptions and a downloadable Trustee nomination form. Please read these even if you are unable to attend the event and remember your right to nominate Trustees.

The Alliance is starting to implement a new four-year grant from DFID, as a consortium partner with our sister agencies Bond, Hub Cymru Africa and CADA-Northern Ireland. Two staff members will be working full time on developing and delivering a range of face-to-face and online skills building and information sharing projects.

The findings of an effectiveness needs survey will be used to guide the design of services to ensure they are as useful and accessible as they can be. 

Views from our members are really important, so please take a moment to fill in our survey. Closes 30 November.