Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will start with Mr Livingstone. I let the witnesses know that Mr Hegarty is back on board on audio only.

Mr Nhlema, thank you for joining us from Malawi this morning. Could you tell us a little bit about your work and your relationship with the Scotland Malawi Partnership?

Dr Hill, your written submission says that we

“should be a champion of the principle of additionality”

and that you believe that there is potential for us to be a global leader in the area. Will you briefly give us some more context for that?

Mr Nhlema, would you like to come in?

Dr Hill and Professor Jafry, do you want to comment briefly on that? We are now very tight for time.

We are very tight for time and two members still wish to ask questions. I will bring in Mr Golden first.

I thank Mr Nhlema, Professor Jafry and Dr Hill very much for their contributions this morning. We will now move into private session. I thank everyone for their attendance.

I move to questions from Mr Cameron.

I want to ask some supplementaries on the back of that theme. A wellbeing economy and its meeting expectations in local communities is one of the Scottish Government’s stated goals. We have also heard a lot of evidence about placemaking, the importance of culture being relevant to the community, and its being in every community and area. Responding to the audience and what people choose to spend their leisure time doing is also important.

It is not unusual for Creative Scotland’s funding models to come under scrutiny and to be controversial, but two particular areas have been highlighted during Covid: what we might call the night-time economy and, in particular, comedy club and music venue performance spaces. We have heard that, independent as they are, they got Government support for the first time ever, because of Covid. However, the funding model might lead to Creative Scotland grants being outwith the capacity of a lot of those organisations, and a smaller funding model or grant might be available to support smaller projects. That has a geographic and rural element, as well. Will consideration be given to how the money is developed and the level of support that can be given to change that placemaking in communities?

That is a positive note on which to end. I thank Mr Munro and Ms Davis for their attendance this morning. We will now move into private session.