Initial Priorities for Wales's International Relations

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 30 January 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of John Griffiths John Griffiths Labour 2:56, 30 January 2019

Yes, Minister, I think it's very important to continue to open Wales to the world and the world to Wales, which I think has been an important benefit of devolution. One aspect of that has been the programme for Africa, and I think the evaluation of that shows that it is punching well above its weight. We have, I think, 20 per cent of the hospital-to-hospital links, UK to Africa, in Wales. We were the first Fairtrade Nation in 2008. Size of Wales exceeded the target of planting a million trees in Uganda, and I think there's a new target now of 10 million. In 2015, some 80,000 people in Wales benefited from the work under the programme, and some 0.25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, and we have over 150 community-to-community links, which I think is absolutely fantastic. So, given that success and the importance of this work, I wonder if you would consider increasing the budget, because I think it's been at something just in excess of £900,000 for several years now. In contrast, in Scotland, they've gone from something like £3 million to £15 million over a similar period of time. So, given the great importance and the value of this work, Minister, I wonder if you will look carefully at whether we might be able to increase the budget.