A FORMER student of Rothesay Academy and leading diplomat on the world stage has been presented with an OBE by the King for services to international development.
The award makes Joanna Keating an OBE and came as she crossed the Atlantic to take up a new role leading the Scottish Government’s office in Canada.
Joanna Keating has spent the past 13 years as head of the Scottish Government’s International Development team.
As she moved posts, she reflected: “I looked back with a good deal of pride and satisfaction at what we’ve collectively achieved.
“We’ve evolved the Scottish Government’s international development programme as it grew up from its 2005 birth; refocusing our programmes geographically and thematically, but also changing the way we work, including our big shift to our 2021 International Development Principles, and taking a feminist approach.
“The one thing we’ve never changed is continuing to emphasise a partnership approach with Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda and Pakistan.”
Ms Keating, who is now charged with developing the Canada office, based in Ottawa, said she is aware of the difficulties she and her team faced working through Covid, the global safeguarding crisis and the global reductions in support for development aid.
She said she had been blessed with the people with her and behind her. “I’m at the front collecting the OBE, but it is an award for us all,” she added.
