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The Senedd has the opportunity to reaffirm Wales’ place in the world as a motion comes before it on Wednesday 17th of June. The motion, which calls for an end to all Welsh Government international spending, risks Cymru’s reputation.
Wales has a proud history of internationalism and taking an active role on the world stage. As leaders around the world are turning away from solidarity, Hub Cymru Africa is calling on the Senedd to back Wales’ place in the world and continue our efforts to become a globally responsible nation.
Cymru’s proud history of solidarity has taken many forms throughout the years. Through revolutionary local collectivism of chapels, striking for better conditions in the mines, Hedd Wyn’s seminal pacifist poetry in WWI, Antifascist Worker Militias in the Spanish Civil War, sheltering evacuees and refugees in WWII, the Wales Window for Alabama, Wales and Lesotho twinning in 1985 and more recently welcoming Syrian and Ukrainian refugees.
The Welsh Government’s international solidarity budget represents 0.004% of the total we have to spend in Wales, (about 33p per person a year) and with that money, Cymru is making a big impact.
Investment in international development, particularly in healthcare and livelihoods helps build more stable societies by addressing the underlying drivers of displacement, enabling people to live safely, support their families and shape their futures in the countries they call home rather than being forced to leave in search of survival or security.
Commenting ahead of the motion, head of Hub Cymru Africa and co-chair of Wales Overseas Agencies Group, Julian Rosser said:
“The Senedd has an opportunity to reaffirm our place in the world, recognising the valuable work being done by thousands of volunteers across the country to make Wales and the rest of the world a better place to live.”
“For 33p per person, the Wales and Africa Programme delivers innovation in public health, climate action, women’s empowerment and sustainable development here in Wales and in communities across Africa.”
Pharmacists from across the country have come together to form the Malawi-Wales Antimicrobial Pharmacy Project which has been partnered with the pharmacists in Malawi since 2021 to tackle antimicrobial resistance – a problem which crosses national boundaries and demographics.
Over 600 health professionals in nine Malawian hospitals have been trained in antimicrobial stewardship. Here in Wales, the sector has learned to deliver effective stewardship with limited resources. Among other achievements, this project was shortlisted for a UK Antibiotic Guardian Award in 2025.
Disability advocates across Wales have been driving for the rights of disabled people across the world. In 2021, campaigners began a WhatsApp group for deaf and disabled to share their experiences and expertise in advancing the rights of disabled people across the world. To date, advocates from 11 African countries join with their partners in Wales in this group and has become an effective policy-influencing platform. A successful challenge to reinstate Cape Town’s Dial-a-Ride service prompted Welsh participants to scrutinise equivalent services in Wales. #SOS demonstrates that Wales’ voice in global disability rights costs remarkably little but reaches remarkably far.
In West Wales, Treeflights helps communities take action for our carbon footprint by partnering with the Boré community in Kenya to plant trees, which grow faster and absorb more carbon in this part of the world. Treeflights’ chain of “Climate Shops” recycles and reuses household items to raise over £1,000 a day to help fund planting 1.5 million trees annually. To date, nearly 8 million trees have been planted, extracting tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, and diverting a million household items destined for landfills across Wales.
In Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT), PONT has, for over 20 years, linked communities in the Valleys and Mbale in eastern Uganda. These projects have delivered health, education and livelihood programmes. One programme has trained community health workers to run an ambulance network, helping people in rural areas get medical care, with low-cost and innovative approaches to ambulance care which can be brought back to Wales. This programme reaches around 600,000 people and saves more than 400 lives a year.
In RCT, more than 100 schools have partnered with schools in Uganda on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics (STEAM) projects, developed with the University of South Wales. This enriches the curriculum with a healthy dose of practical global learning.
Blaenau Gwent-based GBV Uganda works with local partners in the Mbale Region to support women and girls with vocational skills and gain independence. Over 950 women and girls have received training in tailoring, hairdressing and sustainable agriculture. Through establishing over 25 community income-generating projects, the local community can invest in a women’s refuge and a safe space in the local police station. Back in Wales, volunteers on the project gain significant professional development in safeguarding and governance, as well as making lifelong friendships.
Barry-based Days for Girls UK has partnered with ANAH Angola to deliver menstrual health education and resources in the Moxico and Lunda Sul provinces of Angola. Menstrual stigma and poverty are issues in both Wales and Angola. Through these innovative partnerships between Wales and Angola, over 1,500 washable and reusable menstrual kits have been distributed to women and girls in Moxico and Lunda Sul. Tackling menstrual poverty like this directly improves school attendance, livelihoods and stigma. In Wales, the parallel project – Mislif Hapus – has distributed over 1,200 menstrual kits to girls in “hard-to-reach” communities across Wales.
Notes to editor
Hub Cymru Africa is a partnership comprising Cymru Global (formerly WCIA), Fair Trade Wales, Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel and Global Health Partnerships Cymru.
Hub Cymru Africa is Wales’s leading international development and global solidarity organisation. It was formed in April 2015 to bring together the work of its partners and to support organisations across Wales to build sustainable links and projects in partnership with organisations in Africa and around the world. It supports diverse and vibrant groups and individuals in Wales—fair trade campaigners, diasporas, NHS staff, community- and faith-based organisations, and charities—to contribute to socially responsible global development.
Hub Cymru Africa’s work focuses principally on health, education, livelihoods and the environment. Through awareness-raising, policy and advocacy, community mobilisation and mentoring and development support, it helps the voluntary and public sector in Wales to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals through international development.
Hub Cymru Africa is funded through grants from the Welsh Government’s Wales and Africa Programme and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
For interviews in Welsh or English, please contact:
Peter Frederick Gilbey
petergilbey@hubcymruarica.wales
