By the quirk of geography, we were born in Scotland and they were born in Africa but we're all the same. WE JOIN TOM HUNTER WITH BILL CLINTON IN MALAWI AND RWANDA. HIS MISSION? TO START GIVING AWAY A BILLION OF HIS FORTUNE.

Byline: STEPHEN JARDINE in MALAWI

ONE is a Scots sportswear tycoon who has vowed to give away pounds 1billion, the other a former American president.

At first sight they have little in common but Sir Tom Hunter and Bill Clinton share a joint purpose - finding a new way to save the Third World.

One has the contacts, the other has the cash...and lots of it.

Only a few days before they met in the hot African sun, Hunter had pledged to spend the rest of his life giving away his billion-pound Scots-based fortune

The strength of the bond was obvious as they hugged like old friends after Clinton, 60, from Arkansas, arrived by chopper, flanked by secret service men and a gaggle of advisors.

The former US president introduced the Ayrshire tycoon to Africa. Now they have made it their joint mission.

Clinton had just flown in from Nelson Mandela's birthday celebrations in South Africa - as you do if you're the most popular American in Africa.

Sir Tom, 46, was on the fourth day of a tour of the continent showingmesome of the schemes he is funding as part of a EUR100million joint project with Clinton to tackle poverty in a new hard-headed business way.

The two met at the site of a new hospital being built by their Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative in the village of Neno in southern Malawi.

Despite historic links with Scotland, Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world with an average life expectancy of just 40 compared to 74 here.

New hospitals will help tackle that but the Clinton-Hunter plan is much more ambitious.

Together they hope to succeed where non-government aid agencies have failed by helping Africans to help themselves.

Clinton said: "If we can make this work, promoting growth and reducing inequality, then we will have a model that every non-government organisation in the world can follow."

Hours earlier, I'd seen the plan in action. On a flying visit to Rwanda we visited a tea plantation high in the hills.

It was far from anywhere but 13 years ago that wasn't far enough.

In 1994 Rwanda was ravaged by an ethnic genocide that saw a million people murdered in 100 days.

The evidence was clear even in the plantation boss's office where a blackboard tracked how much tea is picked.

For three months in 1994, total production was zero. No one wanted to ask what had happened to the villagers who had made up the workforce.

Thankfully, Rwanda is now peaceful but still struggling to get back on its feet.

Hunter toured the factory in his trademark jeans and T-shirt then sat down with the manager to drink tea and roll out his vision of venture philanthropy.

Being a canny Scot, he wanted to know the figures. At the moment, tea is sold to the market for 30p a kilo but ends up on our high street at pounds 3 a kilo.

"So who's making the money in all this because it sure ain't you?" he asked.

After going through the sales figures and profit potential, Hunter left with promises of help to come.

NEXT stop was a coffee plantation on the shores of beautiful Lake Kivu. We made the journey in the president of Rwanda's personal helicopter.

That is a measure of how important Hunter and Clinton are to African leaders trying to make improvements. Like tea, coffee is key to Rwanda's future.

"Who are your biggest customers and what's stopping you expanding?" Hunter asked.

Afterwards, he said: "They're treating a great quality coffee as just a commodity. We can help them turn it into a prestigious brand that will allow them to maximise the value of it."

Later that night in the capital Kigali we had dinner but Hunter never deviates from his purpose.

Around the table were the boss of Rwanda's main bank and the country's biggest entrepreneur.

Hunter asked them: "What's stopping you getting bigger and offering more business loans?"

Inevitably, the conversation went astray but Hunter always brought it back to the bottom line.

He wants to use the lessons he learned in business to help Africa grow and develop.

He said: "The only way I know how to do things is from a business perspective.

"We don't see it as giving money away, we see it as making an investment.

"With an investment we expect income and we'll measure to see we're achieving that."

Every project is costed and linked to a business plan with key performance indicators.

At a carbon offset scheme growing plants and trees that will help the environment, he told the manager: "I'll give you money to help you expand but you have to tell me what you're going to do and I'll hold you to it. I want to see numbers and extra jobs."

Later, at a cotton mill, the sums didn't seem to add up. The manager wanted help to develop the production line but Hunter was not completely convinced. He said: "I don't understand the maths behind this but send me detailed plans and I'll take a look."

This hard-headed business approach is very different from the way the west has intervened in Africa in the past but Hunter is convinced it is their best hope.

He said: "We need to end the dependency culture and encourage people in Africa to look after themselves.

"If they can grow businesses, that creates jobs and people who pay tax, which helps support the health service and schools."

Hunter calls it a "circle of virtuosity" where there are no losers, only winners.

Back in Malawi, some of Africa's most vulnerable are getting a helping hand.

When Hunter visited the country's main maternity hospital with his family last year and saw the medieval conditions where mums and babies die all the time, he knew it had to be tackled.

Although not on the list of Clinton-Hunter objectives, he made it a personal priority.

Last December he supported STV's Christmas Appeal to build a new maternity hospital, pledging to match pound for pound what viewers raised.

When I called to tell him we'd passed the pounds 500,000 target his response was: "Keep on going".

Last weekend in a field next to Malawi's General Hospital, thousands gathered to watch work begin on the foundations for a sparkling new maternity facility.

The ceremony was live on TV Malawi and broadcast on radio to the smallest villages. Malawi President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika was there to give his approval.

Later he reminded the crowd of Malawi's historic links with Scotland and thanked the Scots for their continued support.

But first to speak was the man who started selling trainers from the back of a van and has ended up trying to succeed where so many others have failed.

Most of the crowd had no idea who he was but he immediately spoke their kind of language.

Sir Tom said: "It appals me that when we in the world have so much wealth we cannot help solve the issues that plague your country overnight.

"Every Malawian should have first class medical care, every Malawian should have an education and every Malawian should have a square meal every day. These are not outrageous demands but basic human rights."

At that the crowd cheered and he went on to promise to support Malawi to achieve the things the rest of us take for granted.

It was an odd sight - some of the poorest people in the world captivated by the richest man in Scotland.

Alongside the speeches, Hunter and the president took part in a symbolic ceremony to begin work on the foundations. After dropping mortar from his trowel, Hunter joked: "Just as well I can sell shoes because I'd never make a brickie."

As the crowds disappeared, I spotted a small boy in a Celtic top. A journalist I spoke to was driving back to Blantyre. On the way he had passed McConnell's Supplies on the outskirts of town and the fabulously-named Ned Bank. Everywhere in Malawi, there are reminders of Scotland.

But two years after the G8 at Gleneagles, is a Scottish entrepreneur really the best hope these people have?

They certainly seem to think so. On his last night Hunter stayed at the State Lodge, normally reserved for foreign leaders.

TWO cabinet ministers drove out to the airport for a meeting as he was about to step on his plane.

And in his bag was a leader's stick - a symbolic gift from an African president to someone who isn't even a politician. In their eyes he is not the leader of another country. He's bigger than that.

On the flight home, I tried to find out what has driven him to give away everything.

He admitted it had its roots in the values he learned as a child.

He said: "Growing up in a small mining village like New Cumnock, hard work was the ethic and if you could help the community, you did."

After selling Sports Division in 1998 for pounds 250million he could have retired but that was not an option. Brought up to graft, he could not face an idle future.

He said: "I was still young and couldn't spend the rest ofmy life doing nothing. I knew life wasn't over but I didn't know what was going to be the next motivation so I had to re-educate myself."

He started looking for useful ways to use his money and time. The great Scottish industrialist Andrew Carnegie has always been an inspirational figure to Hunter and he decided to follow his lead and use wealth to help others.

In Scotland his work is focused on trying to encourage young people to make the most of training and education. In Africa, he just wants kids to have similar opportunities.

He said: "Africa has given me a different perspective on life. Families here just want the same as we all want for our children - a decent education and good healthcare. "By a quirk of geography, we were born in Scotland and they were born in Africa but we're all the same."

He admits he has no idea if his approach to helping the developing world will work but he insists it is better than nothing.

He added: "There will be twists and turns along the way but I'm really looking forward to it."

And to those who criticise, he has a simple question: "So what are you doing?"

In an age when poverty does not need to exist, that is a challenge for all of us.

Follow Sir Tom Hunter in Africa this week in two documentaries on STV, Tuesday at 7.30pm and Friday at 8pm.

'Families here want the same as us for their kids.. a decent education and good healthcare'

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CAPTION(S):

Power and money: Clinton and Hunter in Malawi last week, as part of their joint initiative to help the people of Africa save the Third World; Hardship: Malawian women carry sacks of grain on their heads in sweltering heat near Mphanda village; United: A Malawian official commemorates the south eastern African country's historic links to Scotland with a Saltire/Malawi flag badge; Warm welcome: An excited Malawian boy prepares to greet a group of delegates from Scotland on a tour of the African country; Groundwork: Sir Tom Hunter watches work start on a new maternity hospital after matching viewers' pledges pound for pound in a TV appeal