building capacity, advancing development · 6 commonwealth fund for technical co-operation report...

Building Capacity, Advancing Development The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation

Foreword 5

Introducing the CFTC 6

Strengthening Public Sector Development 12

Enhancing Trade, Competitiveness and Enterprise Development 21

Managing Debt, Promoting Investment and Facilitating Access to Finance 27

Supporting Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development 34

Advancing Gender Equality, Education and Health 38

Working for Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law 47

Annexes

Accessing CFTC assistance 58

The Commonwealth: Serving 2 billion people in 54 countries 59

Abbreviations and acronyms 60

Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall, London SWI Y 5HX, United Kingdom

© Commonwealth Secretariat, March 2012All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recordingor otherwise without the permission of the publisher.

Published by the Commonwealth Secretariat Edited by Daniel Woolford and Shobhna RattansiDesigned by Rob Norridge, norridgewalker.com Printed in the UK by H. Charlesworth & Co. Ltd

Picture Credits:Cover photos: Commonwealth SecretariatInside photos:All Commonwealth Secretariat except page 25, Community Education Training Centre,Secretariat of the Pacific Community; page 31, Central Bank of The Bahamas; page 23, Dreamstime;page 45 and 53, Shutterstock

Copies of this publication may be obtained from:Communications and Public Affairs Division Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HX United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 6386 Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 9081 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.thecommonwealth.org

Contents

This report on the Commonwealth Fund forTechnical Co-operation (CFTC) provides an

overview of our work in the period 2009-2011.A mutual and voluntary co-operation fund, the

CFTC has grown from £250,000 in pledges at itsbirth in 1971 to more than £30 million four decadeslater. Along the journey, there has been an importantconstant – the CFTC has always striven to respond, ona demand-led basis, to the critical development needsof Commonwealth member countries, particularly thepoorest, the smallest and the most vulnerable.

This has required that the CFTC consistentlywork to build its reputation as a trusted partner inimplementing its development programmes. Thesecover a range of areas that reflect the needs of membercountries and the parameters of the Secretariat’sStrategic Plan, which is prepared and agreedcollaboratively.

The CFTC’s assistance is focused on deliveringtangible results for our less developed members andsmall and island developing states, many of which faceunique challenges. Capacity building continues to bethe primary delivery mode for this developmentassistance. This is critical to ensuring countryownership and sustainable development impact. Inaccordance with the principles and provisions of the2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and toimprove the quality and impact of its developmentassistance, the CFTC also continues to strengthen itspartnership with member countries as well as withregional, bilateral and multilateral agencies.

As a learning entity, the CFTC continuallyevaluates its programmes of work, absorbing lessonsthat improve the focus and quality of its developmentassistance. It draws on both external and internalevaluations, several of which, during 2009-2011,confirmed the value and effectiveness of the CFTCprogrammes in such areas as maritime boundary

delimitation, debt management, trade capacitybuilding, and natural resources management.

As we seek to deepen this learning process, otherevaluations currently under way are examining ourwork in private-public partnerships, criminal lawassistance and private sector development. The CFTCwill also take fully into account the findings of recentevaluations undertaken by its major contributors –Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom – toensure that its activities remain focused and relevant.

We look forward to continued commitment byour membership to supporting the CFTC in itsefforts to promote pro-poor growth and sustainabledevelopment.

Ransford SmithDeputy Secretary-General

54 ForewordCommonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Report 2012

Foreword

in-house and external experts to transfer the necessaryskills and knowledge required to build capacity,improve public service delivery and advancesustainable economic and human development.

Delivering expertise The deployment of experts to member countries andregional organisations is an important and highlyvalued aspect of CFTC assistance. An expert’sassignment may last from several weeks up to twoyears or longer.These assignments normally include astrong focus on strengthening institutions and

building local capacity to ensure sustainability afterthe assignments have ended.

In 2009-2011, more than 750 CFTC experts,providing national, regional or pan-Commonwealthassistance, were deployed across the Commonwealth.Expertise is provided across the full spectrum of theCFTC's programme areas, and can range fromeconomic and public sector development toimproving access to education, improving maternalhealth, legislative drafting, integrating gender analysisinto national budgets, or strengthening democraticinstitutions such as electoral commissions. CFTC

7Introducing the CFTC

More than 60 per cent of the world’s poor live inCommonwealth countries. Advancing

economic growth, reducing poverty, increasing accessto education and healthcare, and ensuringenvironmentally sustainable development, all within thecontext of democracy and the rule of law, are thereforeamong the Commonwealth’s key aims and priorities.

Managed by the Commonwealth Secretariat fromits London headquarters, the CFTC providestechnical assistance in support of sustainabledevelopment, poverty reduction and economicgrowth in the Commonwealth’s developing membercountries – particularly its small states and LeastDeveloped Countries (LDCs).

The CFTC is a mutual fund resourced by voluntarycontributions from Commonwealth membergovernments and overseas territories, which can then,on a demand-led basis, draw upon the assistance andexpertise it offers.With an annual budget of more than£30 million (which is augmented by extra-budgetary

resources provided by bilateral and multilateralagencies), the CFTC provides technical assistancespecifically designed to help member countries acquirethe skills, knowledge and institutional capacity toaddress their own development priorities. In deliveringthis assistance, the CFTC works with a range ofdevelopment partners including regional organisations,various bilateral and multilateral agencies and theUnited Nations (UN).

The CFTC operates within the framework of theCommonwealth Secretariat's Strategic Plan 2008-2012, which reflects the development priorities ofmember countries. Accordingly, in 2009-2011, itsdevelopment assistance was designed and deliveredunder the following programme areas: public sectordevelopment, economic development, environmentallysustainable development, human development,democracy, the rule of law and human rights.These programme areas are themselves closely alignedwith the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their associated targets, which all Commonwealthcountries are committed to achieving by 2015. In its management of the Fund, the Secretariat's approach is increasingly results-based, to help ensurethat its projects are of high quality and contributeeffectively to the achievement of the desireddevelopment impact.

Guided by the principle that it is by building theirown capacity that member countries can take fullownership of their development goals, the CFTCresponds to requests for assistance from governmentsand regional organisations with Commonwealthmembership. On demand, and in accordance with the2008-12 Strategic Plan, it can provide trainingprogrammes and advisory services delivered by both

6 Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Report 2012

Introducing the CFTC

The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) is the principal instrument by which theCommonwealth, an association of 54 independent countries around the world, provides developmentassistance to its members.

1

CFTC Direct Expenditure by programme area: 2009 -2011(does not include staff costs for in-house advisory services)

Democracy & Consensus Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£515,168

Rule of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£1,635,307

Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£688,259

Public Sector Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£14,682,769

Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£10,807,131

Environmentally Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£570,839

Human Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£2,715,162

Business Support Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£1,279,540

Total: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£32, 894,175

The CFTC at 40

The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011. In its

four decades, the CFTC has helped meet the challenges facing developing countries by responding

expeditiously to requests for development assistance in critical areas and promoting their sustainable

development. It has introduced innovative programmes that respond to priority needs of member countries.

These have won acclaim both within and beyond the Commonwealth.

The CFTC was established by Commonwealth Heads of Government in April 1971, as a voluntary mutual

co-operation fund for development. It has grown from a modest base of £250,000 at its inception to £31

million in 2011/12.

As the CFTC enters its fifth decade, it will continue to keep the Millennium Development Goals firmly in

sight. Taking a results-based management approach, the CFTC will continue to learn and adapt, and in

collaboration with development partners, enhance its contribution to national, regional and global

development efforts and initiatives.

The opening session of the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Singapore in 1971, whichagreed the establishment of the CFTC

that are an integral part of the CFTC’s developmentco-operation.Training programmes are often designedto supplement the assistance to institutions in whichCFTC experts have been placed.

Based on the principle that good governance,strong institutions, appropriate public policies andefficient use of resources are essential to theattainment of the MDGs, much of the CFTC’straining is focused on public sector development.Thiscan include workshops and seminars to improvegovernance, strengthen oversight institutions andcombat corruption, to enhance the skills of publicsector managers and technical staff, or to harness the

potential of information and communicationstechnologies to contribute to good governance andsustainable development. In 2009-2011, some 4,000men and 2,500 women were trained through CFTC-funded training programmes.

Advice to governmentsAs well as providing expertise and training to buildcapacity in member countries, the CommonwealthSecretariat can also, on request, advise governmentsdirectly. Its in-house advisers provide confidential,expert advice on such matters as public sector reform,economic and financial management, private sector


experts' assignments can also be funded on the basis ofcost sharing with governments or other agencies.

The provision of CFTC experts increasingly takesplace on a South-South basis, with a substantial numberof CFTC experts recruited from other developingmember countries. This helps ensure that experts arefamiliar with the realities on the ground in developingcountries, and that the assistance they provide is relevantto the needs and circumstances of the recipient countryor institution.The CFTC also runs the Commonwealth

Service Abroad Programme, which enables experiencedpractitioners from across the Commonwealth to sharetheir expertise in various fields on a voluntary basis.

Training to build capacityTraining is a key element of Commonwealthassistance. The CFTC provides training programmes,both locally and at centres of excellence throughoutthe Commonwealth, to enhance skills in prioritydevelopment areas and build the knowledge networks


Millennium Development Goals and Targets

1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty• Halve the proportion of people whose income is

less than $1 a day

• Halve the proportion of people who suffer from

hunger

2: Achieve Universal Primary Education• Ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls

alike, will be able to complete a full course of

primary schooling

3: Promote Gender Equality and EmpowerWomen

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and

secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in

all levels of education by 2015

4: Reduce Child Mortality• Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate

5: Improve Maternal Health• Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality

ratio

6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of

malaria and other major diseases

7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability• Integrate the principles of sustainable

development into country policies and programs

and reverse the loss of environmental resources

• Halve the proportion of people without

sustainable access to safe drinking water and

basic sanitation

• Achieve significant improvement in the lives of

at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020

8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development• Develop further an open, rule-based,

predictable, non-discriminatory trading and

financial system (includes a commitment to

good governance, development, and poverty

reduction, nationally and internationally)

• Address the special needs of the Least

Developed Countries (includes tariff- and quota-

free access for their exports; enhanced debt

relief for heavily indebted poor countries;

cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more

generous official development assistance for

countries committed to poverty reduction)

• Address the special needs of landlocked and

small island developing states

• Deal comprehensively with developing countries’

debt problems through national and

international measures to make debt sustainable

in the long term

• In co-operation with developing countries,

develop and implement strategies for decent

and productive work for youth

• In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies,

provide access to affordable essential drugs in

developing countries

• In co-operation with the private sector, make

available the benefits of new technologies,

especially information and communications

technologies

Men Women Consultancy companies

Antigua and Barbuda 1

The Bahamas 1 1

Bangladesh 3 3

Barbados 7 3 3

Belize 10 2

Botswana 5 2

Brunei Darussalam 2

Cameroon 7 1

Cyprus 2

Dominica 4 1

The Gambia 12 1

Ghana 5 2 4

Grenada 9 1

Guyana 9 3 3

India 6 3 10

Jamaica 10 12 2

Kenya 12 7 3

Lesotho 11 2 1

Malawi 2 2 2

Malaysia 6 1 3

Maldives 4

Malta 2 4

Mauritius 12 3 1

Mozambique 2

Namibia 7 1 1

Nigeria 2 3

Pakistan 1 1


Papua New Guinea 2 1

Rwanda 2 2

St Kitts and Nevis 3

St Lucia 7 2 1

St Vincent and the Grenadines 5 1

Samoa 4 3 3

Seychelles 9 1

Sierra Leone 13 1 2

Singapore 1 9

Solomon Islands 1 1

South Africa 9 16

Sri Lanka 6

Swaziland 9 7

Tonga 8 2

Trinidad and Tobago 6 1 7

Uganda 13 7

United Republic of Tanzania 9 2 1

Vanuatu 3

Zambia 3

British Virgin Islands 2 2

Montserrat 1

Pan-Commonwealth, and

regional projects 96 54 179

Total 360 136 267

Where CFTC experts (long- and short-term) worked, 2009-2011


development, enhancing competitiveness, naturalresource development,maritime boundary delimitation,enterprise development and multilateral trade issues.

An important area of CFTC assistance is in debtmanagement. The Fund also supports efforts topromote private investment, increase financial literacyand strengthen financial regulatory regimes inmember countries.

Support for small states and LDCsThe CFTC pays particular attention to the

development needs of the Commonwealth’s smallstates. Of the association’s 54 member countries, 32are considered to be small states, broadly categorisedas having populations of 1.5 million or less. Of these,six also number among the 14 Commonwealthcountries defined by the UN as Least DevelopedCountries (LDCs), having low human development in

terms of life expectancy, literacy, education andstandards of living.

Among the special challenges facing small states aretheir limited opportunities for economicdiversification, vulnerability to economic shocks andnatural disasters, and constrained institutional capacity.Many of these issues affect LDCs, which also faceparticular challenges of their own. Commonwealthsmall states and LDCs have been particularly badlyaffected by the recent financial crisis and globaleconomic downturn.

Small states and LDCs benefit from a range ofCFTC-funded programmes, including capacitybuilding and policy advice on building economicresilience, negotiating economic partnershipagreements, attracting investment, managing debt,increasing competitiveness and developing micro, smalland medium sized enterprises.


A network of partnershipsAs well as designing and delivering assistanceprogrammes to individual member countries, theCFTC also increasingly provides assistance at theregional and pan-Commonwealth levels. In so doing,it works in collaboration with a network ofdevelopment partners which can include hostcounties, bilateral and multilateral organisations at theregional and global levels, educational and otherinstitutions, the private sector and civil societyorganisations. Such partnerships create synergies thatsharpen the effectiveness and sustainability of CFTCdevelopment assistance and help ensure that its reachis extended as widely as possible.

Regional organisations that have partnered withthe Commonwealth Secretariat on CFTC projectsinclude the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group ofStates (ACP), the Association of South-East AsianNations (ASEAN), the Caribbean Community(CARICOM), the Common Market for Eastern andSouthern Africa (COMESA), the Pacific IslandsForum, and the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity (SADC).

Partner educational institutions include theUniversity of the South Pacific, University of the WestIndies, Ghana School of Law, and universities andother centres of excellence in a range of membercountries including Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia,Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore and theUnited Kingdom.

The CFTC also works with sister inter-governmental organisations the CommonwealthFoundation and the Commonwealth of Learning, aswell as with many of the more than 90Commonwealth associations, including associatedorganisations such as the Commonwealth Associationfor Public Administration and Management, theCommonwealth Business Council, theCommonwealth Local Government Forum and theCommonwealth Parliamentary Association.


Australia 27 4 10

The Bahamas 1

Bangladesh 4 3

Barbados 10 1 3

Botswana 4 10

Cameroon 3 2 1

Canada 26 11 39

Dominica 2

The Gambia 3

Ghana 13 2 4

Grenada 1 1

Guyana 5 2 3

India 28 10

Jamaica 14 8 2

Kenya 12 9 3

Lesotho 1 1

Malawi 1 1 2

Malaysia 1 1 3

Malta 9 4

Mauritius 2 2 1

Mozambique 1

Namibia 1

New Zealand 7 7 5

Nigeria 8 8


Pakistan 4 3

St Lucia 5 1

St Vincent and the Grenadines 2 1

Samoa 5 3

Seychelles 2

Sierra Leone 3 2 2

Singapore 5 9

South Africa 16 3 16

Sri Lanka 3

Swaziland 1

Tonga 1

Trinidad and Tobago 3 4 7

Tuvalu 1

Uganda 6 3

United Kingdom 115 36 114

United Republic of Tanzania 3 1 1

Vanuatu 3

Zambia 1

Bermuda 2

UN and regional organisations 12 5 11

Total 360 136 267

Where CFTC experts (long- and short-term) came from, 2009-2011 The CFTC's strengths and comparative advantage

Over its 40-year history, the CFTC has carved out a special niche in the international development

community, reflecting its particular strengths and comparative advantage. Among the qualities that enable

the CFTC to fill its unique role are the following:

demand-driven; CFTC projects are designed to reflect the priorities identified by Commonwealth leaders,

and delivered in response to specific requests for assistance from member countries.

South-South co-operation; a substantial and increasing number of CFTC experts are recruited from other

developing member countries, ensuring that assistance is relevant to developing country needs and

circumstances.

timely and flexible response; interventions can be targeted to meet the specific needs of member

countries – particularly small states and vulnerable economies

discreet, confidential service; where appropriate, the CFTC's in-house experts can deliver confidential

advice and assistance

co-operation facilitated by common heritage; as well as a common language, most Commonwealth

countries share similar administrative and legal structures, making technical co-operation that much easier

and more effective

13

Koroma of Sierra Leone, and President Dr Ali Shein ofZanzibar were among the participants. This work hasenabled steps to be taken towards more coherentgovernment better able to deliver economic growth,poverty reduction and political stability.

For example, in Sierra Leone, a forum of ministersand permanent secretaries held in September 2010concluded with a ten-point declaration aimed atbuilding a mutually supportive relationship betweenministers and permanent secretaries. A follow-upforum to review progress in implementing thedeclaration noted improved relations between ministersand permanent secretaries and the finalisation of thecivil service Code of Conduct in March 2011.

The CFTC also organised retreats for ministers andcabinet secretaries in Belize, Grenada and St Lucia.Other regions of the Commonwealth, including thePacific, have also benefited from this kind of assistance.Participants were able to identify ways of improvingworking relationships, ensuring clarity of roles andbuilding greater awareness of citizen-orientedapproaches to governance. Another key output was ahandbook for cabinet secretaries, which draws onexperiences from across the Commonwealth. It detailsthe functioning of a cabinet system, the role of cabinetsecretaries and the challenges they face.

These activities have enhanced the understandingof the process and priorities of government,

12 Strengthening Public Sector DevelopmentCommonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Report 2012

Zanzibar committed to service delivery

Zanzibar became a multi-party democracy in 1992,

thus entering a new era of competitive politics.

Subsequent elections in 1995, 2000 and 2005 were

characterised by tensions and at times political

violence between the main rivals, namely, the ruling

party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the main

opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF).

In an effort to resolve this perennial problem,

the people of Zanzibar, in a historic referendum held

on 31 July 2010, voted in favour of establishing a

government of national unity to follow the October

2010 elections. A coalition cabinet was formed, with

members drawn from both CCM, which won the

presidential elections after securing 50.1 per cent of

the vote, and CUF, which received 49.1 per cent.

To promote unity and teamwork in the new

government, President Dr Ali Shein chaired a three-

day high-level retreat for politicians and senior civil servants organised by the Secretariat in May 2010.

The aim was to discuss and agree on how best to combine efforts towards maintaining unity, achieving

common objectives and enhancing commitment to development priorities.

‘The retreat went a long way towards creating greater understanding and awareness of key leadership values

and principles, such as excellence in service, loyalty, diligence to duty, impartial delivery of services and the

importance of communication, which are all crucial to the effective running of government,’ said Dr Shein.

‘There is now a better understanding of national priorities and the roles and relations between

politicians and senior public servants have been clearly defined and strengthened, while more effective

strategies for stakeholder engagement have been developed.

‘As a true partner, the Commonwealth Secretariat has offered valuable support to this process, and we

look forward to further collaboration in future.’

Dr Ali Shein is Chairman of the Revolutionary Council and President of Zanzibar, which is part of the

United Republic of Tanzania.

Voters wait outside a polling station in Zanzibar

A CFTC workshop onstrengthening thepolitical/administrativeinterface in Sierra Leone

The Commonwealth Secretariat is committed toassisting member countries in strengthening

public sector management and in building sound publicinstitutions, by providing expert technical assistance tohelp address the obstacles they face.The resources of theCFTC are deployed to help strengthen governance,improve public sector delivery and harness the potentialof information and communications technology tocontribute to developmental goals.

Advancing good governanceThe shared traditions of democracy, common law andpublic administration across the Commonwealthprovide a unique entry-point for the CFTC's assistanceon governance, giving it a strong comparativeadvantage in facilitating the efforts of membercountries to build effective public administrations thatoffer responsive and efficient public services.

Many developing countries, and small states inparticular, face governance challenges due to limited

availability of resources, including the lack of skilled staffin key areas, as well as antiquated systems andinfrastructure. They may work in weak policyenvironments, lack knowledge of modern technologies,or have problems of corruption to deal with.

As a trusted partner and because of its consultativeapproach, the Commonwealth Secretariat hasdeveloped unique working relationships withmember governments on governance issues, enjoyingthe confidence of government officials at all levels.This facilitates the provision of high-level andpolitically sensitive strategic advice.

Strengthening the political-administrative interfaceOne focus of the CFTC's assistance in promotinggood governance is on enhancing relationshipsbetween elected politicians and senior public officialssince an effective relationship between the two groupsis critical for delivering sustainable socio-economicdevelopment.

The Secretariat has organised a series of events forministers and principal secretaries, together with seniorand experienced politicians and public servants fromboth developing and developed countries.These focuson principles of good governance, the separation ofpowers, the roles of ministers and principal secretaries,and strategies for collaboration between these officesto deliver on development goals.

In 2009-2011,CFTC-funded workshops took placein Swaziland, Sierra Leone and the semi-autonomousZanzibar, which is part of the United Republic ofTanzania.These workshops enjoyed participation at thehighest level of government – Prime Minister BarnabasSibusiso Dlamini of Swaziland, President Ernest Bai

Strengthening Public Sector Development

Good governance is inextricably linked to peace, prosperity and human development. An effective publicservice will pride itself on a commitment to transparency and accountability, and be fully participatory andresponsive to the citizenry. It will be free of abuse and corruption and pay due regard to the rule of law.Building political will and institutional and administrative capability is a basic prerequisite of any attemptto deliver poverty reduction and is vital to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

2

15

around the ‘whole-of-government’ approach, leadingto the institutionalisation of an integrity committeesystem in public sector bodies to tackle politicallysensitive issues such as corruption. The Secretariat’sintervention also led to the development of theZambian National Anti-Corruption Policy.Institutions that previously operated in silos nowwork more effectively through co-ordinated inter-agency collaboration.

Networks to promote public financial managementThe Secretariat’s programme to help strengtheninstitutional capacity in public financial managementin Commonwealth countries includes the building ofprofessional networks.

With CFTC support, a ‘Building Pyramids in theValley’ thematic fellowship has been established tointensify the exchange of knowledge and countryexperiences and promote the transfer of skills andgood practice in public finance management. Aburgeoning network of 150 thematic fellows has been

instrumental in driving public sector internal auditand risk management initiatives in the Africa,Caribbean and Pacific regions. For example, Mauritiushas developed a risk management framework in itsMinistry of Local Government.

The Commonwealth Public ProcurementNetwork is developing into an influential forum of theheads and senior officers from procurement policy andregulatory agencies in Africa, the Caribbean and thePacific.This network enables practitioners to share andcritically analyse their practices in a collaborative andgrowth-focused way. For example, Botswana hasdeveloped an e-government procurement policy.

Mainstreaming gender for effective public sectordevelopmentThe CFTC’s work on gender and public service is basedon the principle that mainstreaming gender in policies,programmes and practices is critical to achievingequitable development outcomes and impact.Yet thereare capacity challenges in gender analysis and


The Commonwealth Pacific Governance Facility

Launched in Solomon Islands in April 2010, the Commonwealth Pacific Governance Facility (CPGF) was

developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with regional governments and development

partners. It supports the good governance objectives set out in the Pacific Plan issued by leaders of the

member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum.

The CPGF has been focusing on four governance areas where the CFTC has comparative advantage:

strengthening democratic institutions; strengthening integrity, accountability and transparency; improving

access to information; and enhanced land mobilisation. It is developing regional and national projects

under each of the four areas, in close consultation with the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and

other development partners, including Australia and New Zealand, to avoid duplication and stretching of

absorptive capacity.

The CPGF remains responsive to the emerging priorities of member governments within the remit of the

Facility. Specific achievements to date include strengthening the role of the office of the Ombudsman in

Niue, an induction workshop for the new administration in Tonga following the elections in November

2010, and assistance to the Office of the Electoral Commissioner in Samoa to develop a database to track

expenditure and better forecast resources required for future elections.

The CPGF, in close consultation with the PIFS, is also developing strategic regional projects aimed at

strengthening democratic institutions, integrity and accountability. Progress in this area has included

designing a project to strengthen procurement accountability and integrity in Forum island countries and to

develop and strengthen greater regional co-ordination of procurement activities between development partners.

Another project is being developed to strengthen democratic institutions in the Forum island countries.

This is being discussed with the PIFS and an emerging focus is on developing the capacity of key

democratic oversight bodies and institutions such as parliamentary account committees, audit committees,

and offices of the ombudsman.

particularly among new politicians, and furtherincreased appreciation of the importance ofcollaboration between elected and administrativeleaders if the MDGs are to be achieved.

Sharing best practice for effective public sector reform The Commonwealth Secretariat organisesconsultative meetings for heads of public serviceacross the Commonwealth.The heads of managementdevelopment institutions and regional organisationsalso participate in these meetings because of thestrategic role they play in advancing the public servicereform agenda. These meetings focus on identifiedpriorities for public sector development and offerimportant forums for senior officials to share bestpractices on leading institutional reforms, lessonslearnt and strategies to address change, includingchanges in political leadership.

The Rarotonga Forum, held in Cook Islands inFebruary 2011, brought together top public officialsfrom nine Commonwealth Pacific countries andfocused on ‘whole-of-government’ approaches,modernising human resource management andstrategic leadership.

The event delivered culturally sensitive training onthe ethics of senior public service leadership, a needidentified during an earlier forum in Wellington, andprovided an opportunity for senior officials to shareexperiences of promoting public administrationreform and better service delivery. Experiences of thecomplexities of public sector development and thepolitical economy realities across the region were also

shared. Participants produced a matrix of actions onleadership and human resources relevant for differentcontexts,which they agreed to pursue and report backon at the 2012 forum to be held in Samoa.

These meetings, held annually in Africa since2004, in the Caribbean since 2006 and in the Pacificsince 2009, have helped effective knowledge sharing.Experiences and good practices of key issues in publicsector management including decentralisation andperformance management have been documented tohelp sustainability. These forums have helped theintroduction of public sector initiatives in a number ofcountries. Member countries have also been able toforge bilateral relationships to advance learningexperiences.

Promoting transparency and accountabilityThe CFTC has revitalised and supported networks ofauditors-general, ombudsmen and public procurementagencies which provide the opportunity to exchangeideas, share experiences and develop action plans forpromoting good governance in their countries.

The first Conference of Heads of CommonwealthAfrican Anti-Corruption Agencies took place inBotswana in 2011. Fifty top officials from 18Commonwealth African member countries examinedways of addressing political corruption, exchanginggood practice and improving working relations with keydomestic partners. Follow-up measures included thesharing of resources, good practices and experiences.

In Zambia, the CFTC provided advisory servicesand organised a series of consultative workshops

Participants at aninternational trainingprogramme in disastermanagement, co-sponsored by the CFTC and theSingapore Ministry ofForeign Affairs under itsSingapore Co-operationProgramme, in June 2011

17

and performance review of the Public ServiceCommission (PSC).The programme enabled the PSC toredefine its mandate, articulate its vision and strategiesand clarify its relationship with the broader public sector.The PSC’s capacity has therefore been strengthened topromote the strategic development of the civil service ofSierra Leone,enabling it to become a stronger regulatorybody to oversee the institution and maintenance ofethical standards across the public service.Without thispractical review of the PSC, reform initiatives funded byother donors to transform the public service of SierraLeone may have been less effective.

In the Asia region, the CFTC has contributedsignificantly to the capacity development of the civilservice in Brunei Darussalam. The processcommenced with a comprehensive training needsanalysis of the entire public service.The ManagementServices Division of the Office of the Prime Ministerthen ensured that all key training and human resourcemanagers were provided with the tools andtechniques for conducting departmental needsanalyses based on the strategic vision, mission andobjectives of the ministry.This in turn led to qualityassurance training for more than 630 heads ofdepartment, deputies and senior executives from 12key ministries to promote the concept of qualityimprovement to all the key public service ministries.

As a result, each public service ministry in Bruneiis expected to manage the performance of its humanresources, particularly talent management, promotionand retention, in order to contribute to overallefficiency and effectiveness.

In the Pacific, the capacity of public servants tofully comprehend and implement performancemanagement has been enhanced through skillstransfer, case studies and sharing of experiences.

Performance management is thus emerging as a keystrategy for improving productivity and service delivery,and is particularly relevant at a time when governmentsare under increasing public pressure to provide moreservices despite dwindling budgetary resources.

Effective local service deliveryRecent decades have seen an increase in the numberof countries seeking to devolve power andresponsibility to local government. Thisdecentralisation is an important constituent elementof participatory democracy and can provide for amore effective means of service delivery.

The CFTC's support focuses on enablinggovernments, particularly in smaller countries, toimplement strategies for decentralisation.Beneficiaries in 2009-2011 included The Gambia,Ghana, Maldives, Sierra Leone and Swaziland.


Improving results-based monitoring and evaluation

Many Commonwealth African countries lack adequate capacity for monitoring and evaluation of public

reforms. This is due to a shortage of qualified and well-trained officials in the public service. To support

the Ugandan government in assessing progress on ongoing national reforms, the CFTC and the Uganda

Management Institute (UMI) have teamed to develop a postgraduate programme on results-based

monitoring and evaluation (M&E).

The programme entails the establishment of a credible M&E framework and the training of public

officials to support it. To ensure that the course meets national and international standards, the CFTC has

provided the UMI with support including an international M&E expert who has helped to develop a

comprehensive and customised curriculum for Uganda.

Prospects of sustainability of the programme are strong as the course is fully institutionalised and

generating more demand than expected. Out of more than 400 suitable applicants in 2010-2011 the UMI

could only admit 120 students on the programme. The CFTC is considering replicating the programme in

other regional public sector training institutions, as well as in other member countries.

In the Caribbean, a similar M&E programme, supported by the CFTC, has trained 170 officials. Following

this training, some countries, including Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, have now developed national

M&E programmes. A number of other member countries are setting up M&E units within their Prime

Minister’s Office, staffed by officials that have benefited from the programme.

mainstreaming in the public service. One practical wayof tackling these challenges is by developing thecapabilities of management development institutions toconduct gender research, analysis and mainstreaming, sothey can then build the capacity of relevant policy-makers and public servants to design and executegender-responsive policies, legislation and programmes.

This initiative is being piloted at the GhanaInstitute of Management and Public Administration(GIMPA). It has resulted in the development of agender policy for GIMPA and has raised awarenessamong the Institute's council, senior leadership,lecturers and staff about the policy, highlighted theirrole in its implementation, and provided training tolecturers. This is being followed by mainstreaminggender into GIMPA training programmes for seniorpolicy-makers and implementers to promote genderequality. Lessons from this pilot will be used to scaleup the intervention and replicate it in otherCommonwealth countries and regions.

Improving public service deliveryThe value system of progressive public institutionstoday is about service, not bureaucracy.Effective leadersunderstand the ‘public sector service value chain’ andthe connection between employee commitment,quality public services, client satisfaction and theconfidence of citizens in government.A capable publicsector is built on principles that add public value to

service delivery. The Secretariat works to ensure thatmember countries have a professional public service bybuilding technical and managerial capacity to improvethe performance of public institutions.

Enhancing performance management The CFTC assists countries in using performancemanagement as a strategic tool for service delivery.This helps countries to adopt strategic and integratedperformance management systems and cultures thatsupport achievement of national development goals.

The 2009 Commonwealth Heads of AfricanPublic Service Forum held in Seychelles focused on‘Managing and measuring performance in the publicservice in Commonwealth Africa’. Senior publicsector officials discussed contemporary issues onstrategic and integrated performance management,exchanged ideas on good practices and identifiedsolutions to some of the common challenges faced inmanaging performance in the public sector.

Following the Forum, regional training courses onperformance management were held at the KenyaInstitute of Administration (KIA) in 2010 and 2011for officers charged with the responsibility ofimplementing performance management systems inAfrican member countries. KIA has nowinstitutionalised the programme with CFTC support,providing a major boost to regional capacity building.

In Sierra Leone, the CFTC funded a management

Queenmothers (traditionalwomen leaders in Ghana)being equipped with skillsand knowledge to enablethem to contribute moreeffectively to good governance,at a CFTC/GIMPAworkshop in May 2011

19

programme of assistance focuses on developingnational ICT policies and strategies for eGovernance,public sector process re-engineering, legal andregulatory frameworks for ICT and ICT in education.Partnerships have been fostered to ensure effectiveimplementation of these strategies and policies inmember countries, particularly small states.

The globally recognised journal InformationTechnology for Development, which generates royaltyrevenue for the Secretariat, serves as an importantreference tool for member countries.

Advancing ICT educationThe inclusion of ICT in education is critical topreparing the next generation of students andenabling them to function effectively in a globalisedand highly competitive world. An ICT-literateworkforce has the potential to support thedevelopment of the technology industry and attractforeign direct investment which can contribute to

increased economic growth.The Secretariat thereforeassists member countries in advancing ICT education.

In Guyana, the CFTC has assisted the Ministry ofEducation in implementing UNESCO’s Computersfor Teachers framework. This is designed to harnessthe potential of technology, including the internet, toimprove the quality of education by training teachersto use technology effectively in the classroom. Toassist with the implementation of the framework andto help ensure sustainability, the CFTC has enteredinto a partnership with Microsoft and theCommonwealth of Learning.

A complete curriculum has been developed forteachers and content has been obtained free of chargefrom a variety of Open Source providers. Teachertraining colleges have been trained to use thecurriculum and content for both pre- and in-serviceteachers. A robust monitoring and evaluation systemis in place to measure the impact of the interventionand identify gaps that require remedial action.


Commonwealth Connects Portal

Today’s technologies offer us a

powerful new tool with which to

strengthen and sustain the

common values, shared experience

and mutual interests on which the

Commonwealth ‘web’ is based.

The Secretariat has joined with

other Commonwealth agencies and

leading technology company Open

Text to create the Commonwealth

Connects portal for co-operation

and collaboration. The portal, at www.commonwealthconnects.org, provides a single gateway to the

Commonwealth community where knowledge, information and links to other Commonwealth organisations

can be accessed. It provides a secure, flexible, multi-purpose platform to support networks and

communities of practice, foster professional collaboration, promote online service delivery, enhance

communication and share knowledge across the Commonwealth.

The portal, which was launched at the 2011 CHOGM in Australia, showcases the fundamental values and

principles of the Commonwealth and currently focuses on the themes of democracy and good governance,

education and skills, and empowering youth. Key Commonwealth agencies such as the Commonwealth

Foundation, the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, COMNET-IT, the

Commonwealth Business Council and the Commonwealth of Learning, have contributed content for the

portal, as part of an integrated web package of information products and services.

By registering as a ‘friend’, visitors to the site can access a number of features, including opportunities

in such areas as scholarships and internships.

InThe Gambia, the CFTC has supported a NationalDevelopment Agenda that enshrines decentralisation asthe cornerstone of the Government’s PovertyReduction Strategy Programme and ‘Vision 2020’strategy. The Secretariat organised a national trainingprogramme for councillors from local authorities toenhance their capacity in project design, proposaldevelopment and project management.These skills helplocal authorities to secure assistance for local orcommunity-based poverty eradication projects throughthe World Bank’s Community Driven DevelopmentProgramme, which is designed to transfer skills andresources to local administrative structures to enablethem to address key poverty issues through small andcommunity-based projects.

Another aspect of the CFTC’s work is financialdecentralisation, which goes hand-in-hand withpolitical decentralisation. A pan-Commonwealthprogramme on municipal finance delivered incollaboration with the University of Birmingham, UK,and the University of Malaya, Malaysia, assists publicofficials in learning about key issues relating tofinancial decentralisation. So far some 200-250 publicservants have been trained in this programme. Theyare now among the members of an online network ofpractitioners, the Commonwealth Finance OfficersNetwork (CFONet), which offers an online, expertlyfacilitated resource for the sharing of best practicesfrom across the Commonwealth.

Launched in October 2009, CFONet promotes

peer-to-peer learning on financial decentralisation. Itenables the drawing up of general guidelines andprofessional standards. It supports inter-governmentaltransfers and non-conventional means of financingmunicipal services, including capital investments ininfrastructure. It also strengthens the commitment tocontinuous improvement, innovation and riskmanagement within local councils, promotingstewardship and fiduciary responsibility.

An online Topic Guide on Decentralisation andLocal Government has been produced by the CFTCin collaboration with the Governance and SocialDevelopment Resource Centre, a joint initiative ofthe Australian and UK Governments’ aid agencies.The Guide provides practical guidance for designingand implementing decentralisation reforms, evaluatescurrent debates, and provides linkages to research andcase studies on the impact of decentralisation.

Promoting ICT for developmentAccording to the 2010 World Bank report ontechnology, there is a close correlation betweenbroadband penetration and economic growth: forevery 10 per cent increase in broadband penetrationthere is a corresponding increase of 1.3 per cent inGDP growth. In recognition of the importance ofinformation and communication technology fordevelopment (ICT4D), the Secretariat supports theeffective use of ICT to promote sustainabledevelopment in member countries. The CFTC’s

There is a strong correlationbetween access to broadbandand economic growth

Building trade policy capacity The CFTC assists in the formulation andimplementation of trade policy and in multilateraltrade negotiations.This assistance is designed to enablemember countries to negotiate more successfully, tosecure better outcomes and to integrate more fullyand effectively in the global trading system. It includesadvisory and capacity building services, as well asconsultations, research and the publication ofanalytical and policy briefs on such issues as the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) Doha round of tradenegotiations; Economic Partnership Agreements(EPAs); the development of trade in services in LDCsand small states;Aid for Trade; and the implications ofregional trading arrangements.

Hub and Spokes The ‘Hub and Spokes’ project is the Commonwealth’sflagship trade policy capacity building initiative. It is ajoint programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat,the European Commission (EC), and the

Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, withsupport from the Secretariat of the African, Caribbeanand Pacific (ACP) group of countries. The projectsupports ACP countries in developing andimplementing sound trade policies and improvingtheir ability to negotiate trade agreements. It doesthis by providing regional trade policy advisers, or‘Hubs’, to regional integration organisations, andtrade policy analysts, or ‘Spokes’, to regionalintegration organisations and national governments.These trade policy specialists have become highlytrusted partners and essential participants innegotiating strategies and initiatives.

In the period 2004-2012, 23 field staff weredeployed across ACP countries, and more than 13,000stakeholders were trained and sensitised on tradepolicy.There has been strong participation by womenstakeholders and a good balance between public sectorand non-government sector participation. ‘Hubs’ and‘Spokes’ have also been involved in establishing sector-specific forums with the non-government sector tofacilitate networking and exchange of information.

Strengthening parliamentary oversight in trade policyMembers of parliament have an important role inregard to trade legislation and the oversight of tradepolicy.They debate, scrutinise and are often requiredto ratify trading arrangements or enact legislation thatenables the implementation of trade agreements.Given the importance of this process of democraticoversight, it is imperative that parliamentarians arewell equipped for the task.

With CFTC support, the Secretariat, incollaboration with the Commonwealth Parliamentary

2120 Enhancing Trade, Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Report 2012

The Guyana model is now being replicated in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and several othercountries in the Caribbean have also expressedinterest in implementing the model.

Improving governance Member countries are being assisted in improvingtransparency, accountability and governance throughICTs. Following a long conflict which ravaged SierraLeone’s infrastructure, the country faced the task ofre-establishing its governance framework. Publicrecords had fallen into ruin, and a concerted effort wasrequired to recreate a transparent and accountablestate.The Transparency Sierra Leone Portal, developedwith CFTC assistance and launched in January 2012,is expected to help this process. It provides publicaccess to key data on the Government’s Agenda forChange, its poverty reduction strategy, andgovernment records.The portal aims to recalibrate therelationship between state and citizen, activelyencouraging public participation in implementing thecountry’s development agenda.

Commonwealth Connects: promoting ICT4D The Commonwealth Connects Programme, launchedin 2005, is another avenue through which the use ofICT for development is promoted across theCommonwealth. It aims to harness the benefits

provided by technology and promote knowledge andskills transfer to promote good e-governance whichunderpins the achievement of national developmentpriorities. The Programme supports a range oftechnology access and other ICT-based initiativesacross the Commonwealth. It oversees the governanceof the Commonwealth Connects portal, andpromotes the sharing of ICT resources for capacitybuilding. It is implemented through multi-stakeholderpartnerships, including those with otherCommonwealth agencies, the World Bank, theEuropean Union, the International Tele-communications Union, and various regionaldevelopment banks, to avoid duplication, improvesynergy and ensure sustainability.

Activities in 2009-2011 included a meeting ofRegional Connects Champions in the Caribbean inSeptember 2010 which agreed ICT priorities for theregion. This was followed by a meeting of regionaland global multilateral agencies which agreed tocoordinate the development of a digital inventory ofICT activities in the region. The ICT ChampionsNetwork is being developed to promote the sharingof knowledge to promote ICT4D. And aCommonwealth Cyber Crime initiative, currentlyunder way, is designed to develop model legislationand build capacity in prosecution and enforcementcapabilities to tackle this global threat.

Enhancing Trade, Competitiveness andEnterprise Development

In a highly competitive global trading environment, Commonwealth member countries, particularly the LeastDeveloped Countries (LDCs) and small states, need support in dealing with the many challenges relatingto international trade and regional co-operation. The CFTC works with member countries and regionalorganisations to enhance international trade and increase its benefits, and to promote a fair and efficienttrading system. It also assists member countries in becoming more competitive in international trade and inenterprise development, especially for micro, small and medium enterprises.

3Computer terminal installedat a solar-powered learningstation in Uganda

Hub and Spokes TradePolicy Analyst SusanKayonde at work inSierra Leone

Development of professional servicesMany countries have well developed professionalservices which can contribute to their sustainableeconomic development.The CFTC supports memberstates in identifying and exploring the potential anddevelopment of these professional services.

Member countries including Ghana, Kenya,Malawi, and Nigeria have been assisted in thedevelopment of strategic plans to promote professionalservices in such sectors as financial services, education,film and music, medical, ICT and business processoutsourcing. Similar work was done in Antigua andBarbuda, Belize and Jamaica in the Caribbean region.Countries are also being supported in improving theperformance of selected service sectors. For instance,assistance to Jamaica set out the growth path for healthand wellness services. It also sharpened the country’sfocus on attracting trade and investment in healthcare.In Uganda, the CFTC is facilitating the developmentof the education services sector.

Where possible, the CFTC works in partnershipwith regional and multilateral agencies to improvemembers’ capacity to address such issues as measuringservices trade. A training workshop for Eastern andSouthern Africa, conducted in collaboration with theCOMESA Secretariat, focused on developingstrategies to enhance the competitiveness of exportsin the services sector.

Assistance is being provided to Malaysia and

Mauritius to strengthen their national systems forservices trade statistics so as to better quantify thecontribution of the sector to the economy.The aim isto enable these countries to participate more effectivelyin their respective regional trade negotiations and in thecontext of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade inServices. This will result in the development of datagathering methodologies in the services area that canbe replicated in other Commonwealth countries.

Facilitating tradeThe CFTC promotes competitiveness throughinitiatives aimed at reducing costs associated withtrading. South Africa was assisted with a review of itsshipping rates to ensure that they are globallycompetitive. The findings, following action by theFruit Exporter’s Forum, led to a ruling by the SouthAfrican Competition Commission to combat unfairtrade practices by removing a levy on containers thatwas being applied by several shipping companies.

The East African Community member countriesreceived assistance to identify and remove obstacles thatimpede the smooth flow of goods.Assistance to Jamaicafocused on developing a framework for positioningitself as a regional shipping hub,while St Lucia receivedassistance to improve the productivity of its shippingport. Assistance was also provided to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the benchmarking of trade facilitationprocesses to identify obstacles that hinder trade.

23Enhancing Trade, Competitiveness and Enterprise Development

Association, has conducted a series of trade policyworkshops for parliamentarians across the developingCommonwealth, designed to improve theirunderstanding of the structure, principles andfunctioning of the international trading system, theWTO, the Doha round of negotiations and regionaltrading arrangements.

Regional workshops were held in Bangladesh,St Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, Tanzania and Zambia, atwhich parliamentarians shared best practice andexperiences, with further workshops planned for Sri Lanka and West Africa. A Trade Policy Handbookoffers additional support to parliamentarians in this area.

Enhancing competitivenessCommonwealth countries, especially small andvulnerable states, face enormous challenges in beingcompetitive in today’s global trading environment.The CFTC assists member countries in developingexport strategies and encourages diversification intonew areas, with an increasing role for private capital.

Developing national export strategiesTo compete in the global market, countries mustbring to the market an optimal basket of goods andservices. National export strategies are critical toidentifying the goods and services that can maximisegains from international trade. The CFTC supportsthe development of these strategies through aconsultative process.

In Africa, a number of countries have receivedassistance. Sierra Leone was assisted in developing anational export strategy, which was launched in July2010 by President Ernest Bai Koroma. This led to aforum on investment promotion in December 2010 inGeneva, hosted by the UN Conference on Trade andDevelopment.Pledges were made for some of the sectorsidentified in the national export strategy, includingtourism, ports management, mining and agriculture.

Swaziland, building on its national export strategydeveloped with CFTC assistance, prepared a privatesector development strategy to encourage companiesto invest in the country and thus help further theachievement of its development goals.


Strengthening trade in Uganda

As Uganda seeks to move beyond being a

commodity orientated economy, it is pursuing

economic diversification and in particular, is

focusing on the development of its service

industries, to enable the services sector to

compete internationally and boost the

country's overall competitiveness.

During 2008-2010, a trade policy analyst

(or ‘Spoke’), deployed at the Ministry of

Tourism, Trade and Industry in Uganda,

assisted in negotiations on an EPA with the

European Union. The Ministry was also

assisted in identifying areas of focus, which

included the development of the services sector and building related local trade capacity.

Start-up funding from the EC TradeCom facility, an EU-funded programme to help ACP countries craft

trade policies that promote sustainable development and reduce poverty, enabled the establishment of

a ‘baseline’ to identify the weaknesses, strengths and existing resources of the Ugandan services sector.

A key issue was the need for regulatory reform to promote growth and facilitate regional

integration. A coalition of service providers was established based on a model widely used elsewhere.

The Ugandan Services Export Business Association, a dedicated body serving as a think tank and

lobby group, was formed with assistance from a Toronto-based development partner and the CFTC.

Closer industry co-operation is expected to help safeguard service standards and improve performance.

Increasing their exportsis a goal of manyCommonwealthdeveloping countries

economic activity. The CFTC supports efforts byCommonwealth countries to promote competitiveMSMEs as a means to tackle poverty and bring aboutsustained economic development.This support includesadvisory and capacity building assistance designed toassist member countries in developing appropriate pro-poor growth policies and strategies as well as capacityfor the sustainable growth of enterprises.

A comprehensive strategy and action plan on thecreation of MSME clusters in food processing andtourism was established for Brunei Darussalam. Thishas led to increased involvement of the private sectorin implementing cluster development projects.

Jamaica’s MSME sector is being assisted througha series of targeted interventions including thesetting up of a state-of-the-art Jamaica BusinessInformation System. This comprises a database and

online benchmarking system which have led tobetter networking and collaboration amongMSMEs in Jamaica.

St Lucia was assisted with the development of aNational Micro Finance Strategy.The CFTC has alsoprovided capacity building support to the newlyestablished St Lucia Development Bank.This has ledto the creation of an effective financial accessmechanism for micro and small enterprises in thecountry. St Lucia is also reviewing its MSME policyand strategy, as well as the implementation of anonline quality standards tool.

Nearly 90 nationals from Eastern Caribbean stateswere awarded a Certificate in Food Safety Awareness.This training is designed to help member countries toimprove crop production, post-harvest managementand food quality assurance.

25Enhancing Trade, Competitiveness and Enterprise Development

Improving market access for producersThe CFTC has sought to promote a deeperunderstanding of the challenges posed by the buyingpractices of large retail chains in Europe.An agriculturalsymposium held in London in September 2010examined difficulties suppliers in Commonwealthcountries face in dealing with European Union retailers.It afforded producer and supplier associations theopportunity of a direct dialogue with senior managersin large UK retailers such as Asda, Marks and Spencer,Sainsbury's,Tesco and Waitrose, to find practical solutionsto market entry problems. Among other things,measures have been identified to address imbalances inprocurement practices, and work has commenced on aproposal to establish a Commonwealth AgriculturalSupplier Coalition which would collectively tacklechallenges faced by the suppliers.

The CFTC is assisting Botswana with thedevelopment of an Agricultural Marketing Strategy topromote a more commercially oriented agriculturalsector. Belize is being assisted with the establishment ofcertification marks for agricultural products. This willhelp Belizean producers build their reputation, improvetheir competitiveness and expand market opportunities.

Tourism developmentTourism exports account for as much as 30 per centof the world’s exports of commercial services and 6

per cent of overall exports of goods and services,making it the fourth largest export category,according to the World Tourism Organisation. Formany small and developing states, tourism is a driverof economic development that contributes directly topoverty reduction.

The CFTC helps build the capacity of countries toimprove tourism competitiveness. One focus area istourism value chain analysis to identify areas wherelocal participation can be improved for the benefit ofboth the local communities and investors. Six countriesin the Pacific region, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, receivedCFTC training in tourism value chain analysis and inthe Africa region, The Gambia, Namibia, Seychelles,and Swaziland received similar training. A detailedstudy of the tourism value chain of Seychelleshighlighted the need to increase local participation. InMauritius, the CFTC provided support to improve theecological footprint of the hotel industry. In Samoa,support was provided to improve the quality of servicesfor the tourism sector through a tourism sector workforce development plan.

Enterprise development Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) areengines of growth across developed and developingcountries, accounting for a substantial proportion of


Enterprise Development in the Pacific

Entrepreneurship training provided through the Community

Education Training Centre (CETC), a training arm of the

Secretariat of the Pacific Community, is helping to increase the

competitiveness of MSMEs in the region. The Centre’s Business

Development Advisory Programme, developed with CFTC support,

focuses on ways in which business development services can

support micro enterprises and help business operators,

especially women, to scale up their operations. Its focus has so

far been on building support for the handicraft and agribusiness

sectors. A number of Pacific member countries have benefited

from the programme, including Tonga and Vanuatu.

In Tonga, a 2009 pilot scheme, focusing on strengthening

the Langafonua Handicraft Centre in Tonga (the business arm of

the Tonga National Council of Women), led to the development

by CETC of a new, customised craft-based business course. In

2010, 30 women graduated with certificates in Applied

Community Development, 20 business trainers were added to a pool of business facilitators in Tonga, 18

business trainers and micro-entrepreneurs underwent a business improvement course, and 40 handicraft

producers and operators from Tonga participated in technical workshops. The support has seen revenue

earnings rise for Langafonua due to strengthened business and management capacity in the Centre.

A network of trainers, trained through the CFTC’s support, is helping MSME development in the Pacific

region. Information and new ideas on MSME development are shared throughout the network and its

members provide off-site training to entrepreneurs across the region.

Profiles of CFTC-funded graduates in the period 2004-2010 published in CETC's 2011 report indicated

that the vast majority (more than 90 per cent) were engaged in full-time employment as trainers or

business service providers for small businesses, either in government or in civil society. These statistics

verify the impact of the CFTC's contribution to human resource development in the Pacific region.Swallow cave,Va' vau,Tonga,one of several countries tohave received CFTCassistance in developing thetourism industry

In the classroom at CETC

Effective debt managementThe CFTC provides a range of capacity buildingassistance, sometimes in collaboration with otherdevelopment partners, to support countries indeveloping sound policies, strategies, structures andinstitutions to improve resilience and reduce the long-term costs and risks of public debt. This assistanceprovides a solid foundation for improvements in debtand overall macroeconomic management. It is alsodesigned to bring about savings in managing publicdebt, helping to free government resources for othereconomic development projects.

At the heart of the CFTC’s programme ofassistance to promote sustainable debt management isthe world-renowned Commonwealth SecretariatDebt Recording and Management System software

(CS-DRMS), developed and maintained in-house atthe Commonwealth Secretariat. Launched in 1985,CS-DRMS is now used by 60 developing countries,including 45 Commonwealth members. Non-Commonwealth countries that use the system includeAfghanistan, China, Kosovo, Suriname and severalFrancophone states in Africa.

The CS-DRMS platform facilitates effective debtrecording and management and makes informationreadily available on public guaranteed debt, enablinganalytical work and exchange of data with othergovernment finance accounting systems. It provides aframework for debt analysis and a system forcompiling and reporting cross-country data, and issuescomprehensive operational, analytical and statisticalreports. Over the years, its use has broadened beyond

27Managing Debt, Promoting Investment and Facilitating Access to Finance

With CFTC assistance, MSME policies andstrategies were developed in Samoa and Vanuatu. InSamoa, these interventions led to the governmentdoubling budgetary support for MSMEs. They alsohelped to improve the collaboration between thepublic and private sectors for the development ofMSMEs in Vanuatu.

Youth enterprise financing and developmentAcross the Commonwealth, young people facechallenges in accessing finance to start businesses orexpand existing businesses.This is primarily due to alack of collateral.

The CFTC has formed partnerships with two Indianbanks – the Central Bank of India and CorporationBank – to pilot a model that aims to make young peoplebankable, putting them on the path to entrepreneurship.Banking partners have committed £2.75 million toenable young entrepreneurs to access affordable financeto be provided through concessional rates.

The three-year pilot initiative, which commencedin 2010 and covers nine districts across India, isdeveloping a sustainable and scalable model for youthenterprise financing which facilitates access,affordability, and absorption of finance to promoteinclusion, bankability and poverty alleviation. ByJanuary 2012, the pilot had assisted 688 micro andsmall enterprises, creating 2,339 jobs.The majority ofenterprises assisted under this pilot are women-ownedand operated. It is intended to replicate this modelacross other parts of the Commonwealth.

In February 2011, a Commonwealth-CorporationBank Youth Enterprise Facilitation Centre wasestablished in India. The Centre, staffed by aCorporation Bank expert, aims to provide youngpeople with hands-on advice on accessing finance toestablish micro and small enterprises in India. SinceApril 2011, an expert seconded by the Central Bankof India to the CFTC for a two-year period is assistingmember countries on enterprise financing projects.


The Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme

Since 2004, the CFTC has been collaborating with

Indian institutions to host a series of pan-

Commonwealth training workshops designed to

increase the competitiveness of MSMEs. Utilising

India’s vast expertise in the effective development

of agro and rural MSMEs, the Commonwealth-India

Small Business Competitiveness Development

Programme has addressed a range of sustainable

development issues and has built the capacities of

both institutions and individuals. By January 2012,

some 850 participants from 49 Commonwealth

countries had been trained; more than 55 percent

of the participants were women.

The programme is a prime example of South-

South co-operation in the long-standing Commonwealth tradition. Specific outcomes include the following:

• Bangladesh has commenced a Social Enterprise Development Programme for women entrepreneurs.

• St Lucia has established a hybrid programme called SME-CLIMB (Cluster Linked Incubator Model for

Businesses), which has so far assisted about 150 micro and small enterprises (primarily women and

youth owned).

• Samoa has established a feed mill for its meat production industry, using appropriate technology and

know-how gained through the Programme.

• In partnership with the Coir Board of India, the Coir Institute, a social enterprise aimed at promoting

natural fibres for economic benefits, has been established in South Africa.

Small businesses can be an engine for economic growth

The CS-DRMSsoftware in use

Managing Debt, Promoting Investment andFacilitating Access to Finance

Even before the global economic crisis which began in 2008, many Commonwealth countries, especially thosewith small and vulnerable economies, faced considerable challenges in attracting inward investment, accessingfinance and managing their public debt. Since the onset of the crisis, these challenges have intensified, withforeign direct investment declining and borrowing needs increasing in many countries. In 2009-2011, theCFTC sought to mitigate the impact of the crisis through its capacity building and advocacy work in debtmanagement and international finance.

4

comprehensive public debt reports and bulletins.Thisincreases transparency and provides information forinvestors, creditors and agencies to assess countries’worthiness for new borrowing. The publication ofdebt data also helps countries attract new financing foreconomic development on better repayment terms.

After a break of several years, in February 2010Sierra Leone resumed publishing its Debt StatisticsBulletin, with comprehensive information on publicdebt management. Reporting templates devised forDominica, Lesotho, Seychelles and Sierra Leone arenow being used by these countries to monitor theirpublic debt. Similar assistance was also provided on aregional basis for West Africa in October 2010, theCaribbean in June 2010, and Asia and the Pacific inMay 2011. The CFTC is also working with variousinternational agencies on best standards of debt datacompilation, reporting and dissemination under theaegis of the Inter-Agency Task Force on FinanceStatistics led by the International Monetary Fund(IMF). Fourteen member countries now subscribe toIMF Quarterly External Debt Statistics and GeneralData Dissemination Standards.

Other CFTC advisory services on debtmanagement between July 2009 and June 2011included diagnostic reviews on public debtmanagement in Maldives, Mauritius and St Kitts andNevis; reviews of institutional arrangements for debtmanagement in Botswana, Jamaica and Namibia;strengthening the middle office capacity in Kenya; andformulation and capacity-building on debtsustainability analysis, portfolio review and debtstrategy in Belize and The Gambia.

Networking to promote debt managementThe CFTC promotes networking activities whereexperiences and strategies for effective debtmanagement can be shared. A forum on buildingresilience in debt management and preserving debtsustainability and financial stability, hosted by theCommonwealth Secretariat in March 2011, enabledthe sharing of experiences on the impact of the globaleconomic crisis, and the identification of policyoptions in response to the challenges facing individualcountries, particularly low-income developingcountries and small states.The CFTC is also setting upa network of regional support by deploying debtmanagement experts and debt statisticians in leadingdebt offices across the Commonwealth.

Improving debt sustainabilityHigh public debt and reduced or badly targeted aidcan blight the chances of poor countries to root outand eradicate poverty. For all the funds and resourcesa country receives in aid, support can, in effect, becancelled out by the high cost of debt obligations toforeign lenders.

The Commonwealth Secretariat seeks to promoteinternational consensus on long-term debtsustainability, particularly for the Commonwealth’ssmall and vulnerable economies, many of which have


central government debt management to sub-nationaldebt management as well as private sector externaldebt management. CS-DRMS is now used to managemore than US$2.5 trillion of global public debt –equivalent to nearly one-third of the total nationalincome of the 60 user countries.

The system’s reputation continues to be enhancedby its innovative, flexible and sophisticated softwaredevelopment, which responds to countries’ changingrequirements, international best standards, evolvingdebt management practices and technologicaladvancements in managing external as well asdomestic debt. For example, in 2009-2011,enhancements to CS-DRMS were made to ensurethat it is compliant with evolving internationalreporting standards on debt statistics.The system wasalso refined to record various types of debtinstruments, government on-lending and privatesector external debt.And e-learning programmes onthe CS-DRMS modules, developed in collaborationwith the Commonwealth of Learning, were rolledout to complement traditional face-to-face capacity-building activities.

The increasing reliance on domestic debt in thelast decade has prompted further innovations. First,increasing emphasis is being placed on helpingcountries to record domestic debt data in CS-

DRMS, often by interfacing CS-DRMS with theauctioning or depository system used by the centralbank for the issuance of domestic debt securities. In2009-2011, six countries – Ghana, Kenya,Mauritius, Samoa, Sri Lanka and Tanzania –developed their domestic debt databases in CS-DRMS, thereby having the entire public debtdatabase on one platform. A robust securitiesauction system (CS-SAS) has also been added toCS-DRMS to assist in operations for the auctioningof government securities.

As global finance dried up with the advent of theglobal economic crisis, government debt managershave faced intense challenges. The poorest countrieshave felt the burden of punitive repayment conditionsthe most. In response, the CFTC has expanded itscapacity-building assistance to include advice onstrengthening laws, institutions, policies and strategiesfor prudent debt management policies and improveddebt management functions. Specific assistance hasbeen provided in formulating medium term debtmanagement strategies: with CFTC assistance, TheGambia, Kenya and Dominica adopted debtmanagement strategies in August 2009, April 2010and May 2010 respectively.

The capacity of member countries is also beingstrengthened for debt analysis and the production of


A training session, in Tanzania in early 2012, on capturing domestic debt data in CS-DRMS

Reforming Jamaica’s debt managementframework

In 2009, burdened with public debt exceeding

its national income, Jamaica faced a debt crisis.

The CFTC helped reform Jamaica’s debt

management framework and arrangements to

ensure its long-term debt sustainability.

As a result, Jamaica now has a unified legal

framework on public debt management conforming

to best practices, replacing more than 30 separate

pieces of earlier legislation related to public debt.

Based on this new framework, Jamaica has also

drafted a Public Debt Management Bill for

enactment in its Parliament.

With assistance from the CFTC in partnership

with the World Bank, the country has developed

a medium-term debt management strategy

within a risk management framework. The

strategy has now been formally adopted to

guide future borrowing decisions of the

Government to minimise its long-term debt

service cost. Jamaica is also implementing a

reorganisation of its debt office into functional

front, middle and back office units with new

staffing structures.

With such wide ranging reforms, Jamaica is

now poised to undertake debt management

operations within a strategic framework based on

prudent considerations to ensure future long-

term debt sustainability. The reforms have also

ensured that Jamaica received financial aid and

loan packages from a number of bilateral and

multilateral donors to tide over the liquidity

crisis stemming from its debt service obligations.

Strengthening financial regulation The global financial crisis has highlighted the need forenhancing regulatory oversight of the financial sectoras a whole.The myriad of international standards beingproposed or updated presents a challenge fordeveloping countries which face resource constraints.To alleviate this, the Secretariat, with CFTC support,is establishing a regulatory network to strengthen co-operation between financial sector regulators inmember countries. The aim is to increase skills andknow-how in the conduct of both on-site and off-sitesupervision, to improve implementation of globalregulatory standards, and to broaden knowledge of theregulatory challenges facing Commonwealthdeveloping countries.

The network will help regulators to strengthentheir supervisory armoury, including the developmentof more robust IT systems, risk models, policies andprocedures, and to adopt best practice regulatory andlegislative provisions. The major elements of theprogramme include a web-based Commonwealthone-stop resource on legislation, policies, research andsupervisory initiatives among member countries; peerreview or bilateral assistance from more developedmember countries which may be well positioned toassist in such areas as developing models and updatingregulations and procedures; short-term attachmentsfor capacity building; and training.

For example, in 2010, the Secretariat helped

facilitate an attachment for the Central Bank ofBahamas with the Financial Services Commission onthe Isle of Man. The two-month attachment assistedThe Bahamas with on-site supervision and theregulation of trust companies. The CFTC is now inthe process of assigning experts to assist developingcountries, such as Maldives, Rwanda and Seychelles,in strengthening their supervisory regimes.

Increasing private investmentPrivate investment, entrepreneurship and innovationare catalysts for economic growth and povertyreduction. The CFTC supports efforts to developrobust local financial markets, with a particular focuson small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), andpromotes financial inclusion – across-the-boardaccess to financial products by all groups – inmember countries. Improving financial attractivenessand developing human and institutional capacity arekey priorities.

The Commonwealth Private Investment Initiative(CPII), first launched in 1995, is designed to promoteinvestment in SMEs in developing member countries.Under Phase II of the initiative, which began in 2005,the Commonwealth Secretariat has partnered withAureos Capital, a leading fund manager in emergingmarkets, to raise funds for regional investmentprogrammes.Through this partnership, a $380 millionfund targeting SMEs in Africa closed in November


not had access to global debt relief programmes.Theaim is to support member countries to finance theirgrowth and development, as well as to help themreach the MDGs.

A consultative paper prepared by the Secretariat inSeptember 2010, entitled, ‘An Overview of theSovereign Debt Position of Commonwealth SmallVulnerable Economies’, identified 11 economiesexperiencing a severe debt problem. Although someof these countries have recently undertaken someform of debt restructuring, the problem remains.Thisunderlines the need to consider reforms ofinternational sovereign insolvency processes to ensurethat debt crises are resolved in a more comprehensive,effective and fair manner.

Aid effectivenessWith a view to building stable and effectiveinternational aid architecture, the CFTC has exploredthe impact of mutual and domestic accountabilitybetween donors and recipient governments. Casestudies in Cameroon, Malawi and Tonga wereconducted to inform the formulation of policy forgovernments, donors and other stakeholders, stimulatedialogue and encourage experience sharing toenhance aid effectiveness.

Working with a group of globally recognisedexperts on aid, a representative group ofCommonwealth members has examined the evidenceyielded from the case studies and identified keyanalytical and policy contributions which can bemade to the design of a new global aid architecture.

On the strength of the evidence base producedwith CFTC resources, the Secretariat has bothworked with member countries and has engaged froman early stage with the entity leading global discussionon aid effectiveness – the OECD-led Working Partyon Aid Effectiveness – to develop a uniquecontribution to the global discourse and to contributeto the outcome of the High-Level Forum on AidEffectiveness (HLF-4), in Busan, Korea, in late 2011.To ensure that the views of developing countries weretaken into account at the HLF-4 meeting, theSecretariat facilitated a consensus among membercountries, helped to build high-level interest andpolitical commitment to this matter in membercountries and also supported their work on domesticand mutual accountability. A Commonwealthstatement entitled ‘Accelerating Development withMore Effective Aid’ adopted by CommonwealthFinance Ministers was presented at the HLF-4 to assistdialogue at the global level at HLF-4 and beyond.


Promoting private equity in Africa

Recent years have seen a rise in the flow of private equity in the developing world – including Africa.

According to the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (a non-profit, independent, global

industry association), fundraising for Sub-Saharan Africa rose from $800 million in 2005 to over $2.2 billion

in 2008, before falling back to $960 million in 2009 and subsequently rising again to $1.5 billion in 2010.

This growth in Africa has been led by development finance institutions, international commercial banks,

pension funds and even foreign private investors. However, falling foreign investment and tighter financial

sector regulations in the wake of the global financial crisis mean that this rate of growth may not be

sustainable. Africa’s demand for capital, however, continues to grow in line with the continent’s economic

development.

Long term domestic savings vehicles (mainly pension funds) are well placed to make up part of the

shortfall and play a catalytic role in attracting international capital to the continent.

The CFTC has partnered with the African Development Bank, the Africa Venture Capital Association and

others to promote the increased participation of local institutional investors in African private equity

markets. In 2009-2011, a series of regional roundtables brought together pension funds, insurance

companies, regulatory bodies and fund managers to discuss the opportunities and risks for local investors

in private equity in Africa, as well as the barriers to increased participation from these investors. Based on

feedback from the roundtables, the CFTC and its partners are planning assistance programmes to help

address the challenges identified.

The CFTC has assistedThe Bahamas instrengthening financialsupervision and regulation

development and publication of training and publicitymaterials for the programme in the local language(Bislama), including posters, leaflets, brochures andhandbooks; and a weekly radio programme promotingfinancial literacy and access to financial services. Over atwo-year period, this programme has resulted infinancial literacy training being delivered to more than8,000 people in rural Vanuatu; the opening of 6,000new savings accounts; the provision of 600 new microloans; and the mobilisation of US$1,400,000 into thebanking system.

This country-specific focus has brought to lightthe hidden potential of small and remote markets inCommonwealth member countries to generatecapital for investment, and highlighted theapplicability of the initiative in similar circumstanceselsewhere.The CFTC is now exploring how best toapply the lessons learnt and how the Vanuatu modelcan be adapted to other countries in the region.

Vulnerability and resilience profilingEconomic resilience emanates from good policypractice in areas such as macroeconomic stability andmicroeconomic market efficiency, good governance,social development and sound environmentalmanagement.The CFTC has assisted Commonwealthcountries, particularly vulnerable small islanddeveloping states, in assessing their economicresilience and identifying gaps in policy frameworks.As a result, some governments are now engaged ininitiatives aimed at formulating policy measures.

Published in November 2010, ProfilingVulnerability and Resilience:A Manual for Small States,provides a practical guide on how countries may assessthe implementation of policies to build resilienceagainst external shocks and reap the benefits ofglobalisation.This profiling approach has been adaptedby other agencies, including the United NationsDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs.


2009, bringing total funds raised under the CPII tomore than US$800 million.

The US$16 million Kula II fund established inpartnership with Aureos Capital to invest in SMEs inthe Pacific region has invested in Papua New Guinea,Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. The CFTC, incollaboration with the EU Centre for theDevelopment of Enterprise, is also helping to buildthe management capacity of companies in which KulaII funds are invested. Approximately 60 managers ofinvestee companies in the region were trained duringthe period 2009-2011.

The current evaluation of the second phase of theCPII is expected to help chart the way forward forthis initiative.

Improving financial literacyThe underlying motivation behind Commonwealthwork in promoting financial literacy is the recognitionthat there are personal and macroeconomic benefits tobe gained from increasing financial inclusion. Foryoung people, such literacy ensures not only thatpersonal finances are effectively managed, but also thatthey get a fuller appreciation of financial systems andmake sound choices for the future.

The CFTC has run student outreach programmesin Dominica, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago,reaching some 1,200 students in all. Jamaica hasworked with a local credit union to further theprogramme among schools, while Trinidad andTobago, through its National Financial Literacy

Programme, continues to administer training toschools throughout the nation.

From 2009, the Secretariat began focusing ontrain-the-trainers programmes which aim to enhanceexpertise and knowledge about financial literacy andencourage the implementation of programmes atnational level.The CFTC held regional workshops totrain financial literacy trainers in the Africa, Asia,Caribbean and Pacific regions, and has developedboth student and teacher training manuals which canbe easily tailored to the language and localcircumstances of member countries – as inBangladesh where booklets were translated andcustomised for local use. This regional training hasfostered increased collaboration among membercountries, with trained participants collaborating toprovide training in youth camps and seminars inneighbouring member countries. In Nigeria, theCFTC has partnered with the NGO FinancialLiteracy for All, which produces and disseminatestraining materials to schools and participants indifferent states.

Financial inclusion can also be a means ofmobilising domestic capital and expanding access tofinance.The CFTC has supported the implementationof the National Bank of Vanuatu’s financial literacyprogramme to increase the participation of the ruralpopulation in the formal financial system. Interventionsinclude a train-the-trainer seminar for ruralmicrofinance officers; rural financial literacy seminarsby the trained officers in the outlying islands; the


A microfinance officer visits asmall business in rural Vanuatu

The CFTC's work with theNational Bank of Vanuatu hasproduced results in that countryas well as generatingknowledge that can be appliedin other countries and regionsof the Commonwealth

submission. Cook Islands is now receiving furtherCFTC assistance as the UN examines the submission,which covers an area extending over 450,000 sqkilometres, with significant deposits of deep seabedminerals. Similarly a joint submission made by PapuaNew Guinea, Solomon Islands and Federated States ofMicronesia, with CFTC support, represented the firstsubmission to be made by three small island states.

To complement the maritime boundariesprogramme, the Secretariat has recently established anew portfolio focused on ocean governance. Underthis programme, the Secretariat is advising andassisting member countries concerning thedevelopment of national integrated marine resourceand ocean governance frameworks to facilitate thesustainable development and utilisation of marineeconomic resources.

Natural resources managementIf managed properly, natural resources can lift acountry out of underdevelopment; however, theirmismanagement can lead to social inequity andunrest. The CFTC supports the sustainable

management of natural resources through aprogramme covering the full spectrum of assistance,from drafting new national policies to establishingprogressive, effective and transparent legislative andregulatory frameworks, from benchmarking anddesigning fiscal regimes to preparing modelcommercial agreements. Assistance may also involveenvironmental legislation, decommissioning, and theestablishment of revenue management mechanisms.And it may include advice on transactional matters, anarea in which the Secretariat has earned its reputationas an honest broker and a secure provider of reliableadvice to member countries engaged in negotiationswith investment companies.

To improve the management of their naturalresources, several Commonwealth countries – especiallythose with recent oil and gas discoveries – have turnedto the CFTC for support.Over the past 25 years, a largenumber of countries have received CFTC assistance ineffectively managing their natural resources. Belize,Ghana, Sierra Leone and Uganda, which have all maderecent discoveries, are now benefiting from thisassistance. The CFTC has also assisted Pakistan and

35Supporting Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development

Delineation of maritime boundariesThe delineation of maritime boundaries can have aprofound impact on the sustainable development ofCommonwealth member countries, owing to itsimplications for the important sovereign rights ofcoastal states. The Secretariat’s work on thedelineation of maritime boundaries has become oneof its flagship assistance programmes. Much of thiswork is carried out by the Secretariat’s in-house legaladvisers, making the delivery of this assistanceexceptionally cost-effective.

For many years, the focus was on advising membercountries on the establishment of maritime zones andthe negotiation of agreed boundaries withneighbouring coastal states, recognising that suchnegotiations require the consideration of a range ofpolitical, legal, scientific and technical issues.

Since 2008, the focus has also been on assistance tocountries seeking to lodge submissions with the UnitedNations (UN) for areas of extended continental shelf.The claiming of areas of extended continental shelfcarries the prospect of securing exclusive access toadditional areas of seabed and benefiting frompotentially lucrative living and non-living naturalresources, including oil, gas and mineral deposits. TheCommonwealth Secretariat is the only organisation inthe world that provides fully-funded legal and technicalassistance to its member countries in this regard.

By July 2011, 13 member countries and territorieshad benefited from this assistance: Bangladesh, CookIslands, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, Maldives, Mauritius,Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, SierraLeone, Solomon Islands and Sri Lanka.This representsclose to one-quarter of all submissions lodged withthe UN to date. In total, the area of additional seabedclaimed with CFTC assistance is approximately 3.7million square kilometres. This represents anunprecedented achievement for the Secretariat, whichis now recognised as a world leader in providingadvice on extended continental shelf matters andmaritime boundary issues. The majority of membercountries benefiting from this assistance are smallisland and developing states, demonstrating theCommonwealth’s commitment to assisting its mostvulnerable member countries.

Many submissions have been ground breaking interms of their scope and nature. For instance, in 2008the Secretariat assisted Mauritius and Seychelles inmaking the first joint submission by two small islandstates, and in April 2009 it assisted the Cook Islands inbecoming the first Pacific island country to lodge a


Supporting Environmentally SustainableEconomic Development

5 Delimiting maritime boundaries in the Indian Ocean

In 2008, Mauritius and Seychelles, two

Commonwealth small island states in the Indian

Ocean, individually requested CFTC assistance to

submit claims for areas of extended continental

shelf. Since the areas they wished to claim

partly overlapped, it was decided that the best

way to proceed would be to prepare a joint

submission.

The CFTC provided in-house legal expertise

and the services of geoscience experts to

provide technical and scientific advice.

Geologists from both countries were also

involved in the project, working together as a

team with support from the CFTC.

Submitted before the deadline of May 2009, the claim was finally confirmed by the UN in April 2011,

with both countries securing the entire area for which a claim had been submitted – an area of seabed

extending over 396,000 sq kilometres. The CFTC is now assisting the two countries in establishing a treaty

to govern the joint management of this vast area, providing the foundation for investment in exploration

and development of the potentially lucrative natural resources of the seabed. The treaty was scheduled to

be signed in March 2012.

Delimiting maritimeboundaries can play a vitalrole in the prosperity of smallisland states

In supporting economic and social development in Commonwealth member countries, the CFTC seeks toensure that development is environmentally sustainable - in line with Millennium Development Goal 7,which calls for the integration of the principles of sustainable development into country policies andprogrammes. It provides assistance in the delineation of maritime boundaries and the sustainable developmentof natural resources. It also supports capacity building and other interventions to raise awareness of climatechange and its impacts, and assist in the formulation of appropriate policy responses.

officials to focus on the climate finance needs of theCommonwealth’s poorest and most vulnerablemembers, especially small island developing states, low-lying coastal states and least developed countries. Themeeting concluded that climate financing needs to bedriven more strongly by national programmes andneeds, and that Commonwealth members could helpeach other through the transfer of knowledge andapplied expertise, mutual support in the strengtheningof national capacities and institutions, and work withregional organisations to help build supportmechanisms. Participants agreed to focus on climatefinancing for highly vulnerable members, strengtheningprivate sector climate finance and building awarenessabout international responses to climate finance.

Publications on climate change and sustainabledevelopmentThe complex inter-relationship between trade, climatechange and development was analysed in a majorCommonwealth study entitled Trade, Climate Changeand Sustainable Development:Key Issues for Small States,LDCs and Vulnerable Economies. Commissioned by theSecretariat in partnership with the International Centrefor Trade and Sustainable Development in Geneva, andlaunched in December 2009 at the UN FrameworkConvention on Climate Change negotiations inCopenhagen, the study has enhanced internationalunderstanding of the impact of climate change on tradecompetitiveness and economic prospects of countriesin different stages of development. Other Secretariatpublications have identified ways in which the exportsectors of Commonwealth small states – such asfisheries, agriculture and trade in intellectual property –may be affected by climate change.These studies helpinform national policy as well as internationalnegotiations and policy debates.

To support broad-based dialogue on internationalenvironmental governance, the Secretariat haspartnered with the Stakeholder Forum, aninternational organisation working for sustainabledevelopment and democracy, to publish A PocketGuide to Sustainable Development Governance.Designed to enable stakeholders to familiarisethemselves with the key issues in preparation for theUN Conference on Sustainable Development in June2012, the Guide provides background information onthe history and dynamics of global governance forsustainable development.

Deforestation contributes about one-fifth of allhuman-made CO2 emissions, the principal greenhousegas that leads to global warming and climate change.Tocounter the negative impact of deforestation, theIwokrama International Centre (IIC) in Guyana isproviding a practical demonstration of sustainable forestmanagement. Since January 2010, the Secretariat hasbeen working with the IIC to establish an archive tostrengthen Iwokrama’s ability to gather, store anddisseminate lessons learned to the Commonwealth andthe wider global community. CFTC support was alsoprovided for the first comprehensive study of fine scaleregional climate patterns in the Guianas.This study hasbeen used to inform the design of a hydro-meteorological monitoring network for Iwokrama, andhas created a baseline to monitor and compare anyfuture effects of climate change on the region.

37Supporting Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development

Swaziland in establishing new national mining policies,while active projects concerning regulatory reform aretaking place in Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda. InTanzania, CFTC assistance has also contributed to thedevelopment of the Mnazi Bay integrated gas-to-electricity project and the multimillion-dollar Ophirliquefied natural gas project.

Assistance is also provided in non-traditionalnatural resource development, such as mining coal-bed methane in Botswana, deep sea mining in CookIslands and uranium mining in Malawi. Addressingthese new and emerging issues has made the provisionof assistance even more complex. In particular, energyissues have to be dealt with in a more holistic mannerso as to take account of sustainability anddevelopment considerations, together with questionsconcerning climate change.

Addressing climate changeThe Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus, issued byCommonwealth leaders in November 2009, expressedprofound concern about the threat that climate changeposes to the security, prosperity, and economic and socialdevelopment of member countries.

The Commonwealth Secretariat works with arange of stakeholders, including ministers andparliamentarians, regional organisations and youngpeople, to promote environmental mainstreaming andmake concrete progress towards sustainabledevelopment, building an understanding of the greeneconomy across different sectors and developing skillsto address climate change impacts. Its capacitybuilding and other interventions have focused mainlyon the economic impact of climate change, but it hasalso initiated work on the human rights aspects ofclimate change, bearing in mind that climate changeaffects essential rights such as the right to life, food,housing and livelihood.

In partnership with the CommonwealthParliamentary Association and the World BankInstitute, the Secretariat helped to bring togetherAfrican parliamentarians in May 2009 in Abuja,Nigeria, to formulate advice and share experiencewith fellow parliamentarians on their role withrespect to the development and oversight of action onclimate change, and to enhance skills in thedevelopment and scrutiny of climate legislation andprogrammes. Further consultations were held inZanzibar among Commonwealth members ofparliament from small states in May 2011.

Young leaders held a Young CommonwealthClimate Change Summit in October 2009 in Londonto launch the development of the CommonwealthYouth Climate Change Response Policy and ActionPlan. They also launched a youth-led movement toanalyse and translate climate change scenarios intoeffective policy development, and improveunderstanding of the impact climate change has onthe livelihoods of young people. The first workingsession for the network was held in December 2010in London and involved young persons from acrossthe Commonwealth.

Countries need financial support to deal withclimate change. A high-level meeting on climatefinance, convened in the UK in January 2011, broughttogether a representative group of finance, planning,environment and foreign affairs ministers and senior


The state of Commonwealth cities

ComHabitat is a partnership of the

Commonwealth Consultative Group on Human

Settlements and agencies from local

government, civil society and the private sector,

working towards the Commonwealth goal of

‘demonstrated progress towards adequate shelter

for all with secure tenure and access to

essential services in every community by 2015’

and associated Millennium Development Goals.

A ComHabitat report entitled Urban

Challenges: Scoping the State of the

Commonwealth’s Cities, published in 2010 with

CFTC support, showed that just over a third of

the population of the Commonwealth lives in

urban areas (the global figure is roughly 50

per cent), and that one in three city dwellers

lives in a slum. The Commonwealth’s urban

population is growing rapidly, with some

small island countries facing urban growth

on an enormous scale in the period 2000 to

2025. The way in which these demographic

changes take place will shape the future

lives and welfare of Commonwealth citizens.

The report provides the foundation for a

deeper understanding of and more effective

policy responses to rapid urbanisation in the

coming years.

Waterfall in the Iwokramarainforest, Guyana

The Commonwealth Plan of Action for GenderEquality 2005–2015 focuses on four critical areas ofconcern: gender, democracy, peace and conflict;gender, human rights and the law; gender, povertyeradication and economic empowerment; and genderand HIV/AIDS.

Gender mainstreaming – the process of assessingand addressing the implications for women and menof any planned action – across the Commonwealth issupported by strengthening the capacity ofgovernment units dedicated to women, known asnational women’s machineries (NWMs). TheSecretariat convenes strategic policy meetings forwomen’s affairs ministers and advocates non-discriminatory and gender responsive policies, lawsand services. It also convenes annual consultations ofNWMs, as well as annual meetings of theCommonwealth Gender Plan of Action MonitoringGroup, comprising a rotating core of NWMs and civilsociety representatives, which was established in 2005to ensure effective implementation of the Plan ofAction. At meetings and consultations held in thewings of sessions of the UN Commission on theStatus of Women in New York in 2010 and 2011,representatives redefined priorities and refocused theimplementation of the Plan of Action.

Gender-responsive budgeting and investmentGender-responsive budgeting is a governmentplanning tool that enables ministries and departmentsto ensure that programmes contribute to thefulfilment of women’s rights and meet basic tenets ofgender equality, especially in revenue raising andallocation of resources.

In March 2010, the CFTC provided capacitybuilding and advocacy workshops on gender-responsive budgeting for African ministers andNWMs. National training sessions for cabinetministers and parliamentarians from The Gambia andNigeria were held in May 2010. As a result, TheGambia’s Ministry of Finance has included genderguidelines in its 2011 budget circular, while capitalbudget allocation to the NWM in Nigeria increasedby 70 per cent.

The CFTC continues to provide technicalassistance to strengthen systems to implement genderresponsive budgeting. It has also contributed toadvocacy on parliamentary oversight for gender andtrade issues and HIV/AIDS policy.A specific focus onwomen’s land rights has contributed to efforts towardsjudicial reforms to promote women’s rights across theCommonwealth.

A gender-responsive investment (GRI) initiative

39Advancing Gender Equality, Education and Health

Around the world, governments are facingnumerous challenges in promoting gender

equality, education and health, especially in the face ofthe continuing economic crisis and rising public debt.Under-resourced national programmes can adverselyaffect a country’s well-being and set backdevelopment. The Commonwealth Secretariat hastherefore embraced these sectors as key priority areasfor action to support the achievement of theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs), incollaboration with other development partners.

Some Commonwealth countries have achievedsuccess in the advancement of human development.Yet others continue to experience high levels ofpoverty, HIV and AIDS, gender inequality andconflict, and limited access to education andaffordable healthcare. A major challenge is findingways to keep human development high on the

national and international agenda: the globaleconomic crisis that began in 2008 has forced manygovernments to place greater emphasis on economicgrowth than on investing resources in humandevelopment. Nonetheless, the Commonwealth isdetermined to maintain its human developmentfocus, with efforts to advance gender equality andsupport the development of sound education andhealthcare systems.

With funding from the CFTC, the Secretariatworks with governments and other developmentagencies to ensure full access to quality primaryeducation and supports initiatives to eliminate genderdisparity. It examines ways to strengthen healthsystems by providing training for healthcare workers,and supports programmes to prevent the spread ofHIV and enhance access to prevention, treatment andcare of those infected and affected by the disease.

Gender equalityAchieving gender equality and facilitating women’sempowerment are integral to the struggle againstpoverty and the pursuit of human development.According to the World Development Report 2012,income growth has brought only modest and gradualprogress toward gender equality in most developingcountries in the areas of female mortality and accessto economic opportunities. Moreover, the reportpoints out that despite some progress, gender gapshave not narrowed in women’s control over resources,women’s political voice, or the incidence of domesticviolence. It is evident that the world would gainimmeasurably by the unlocking of women’s fullpotential.


Advancing Gender Equality, Education andHealth

Sustainable development encompasses much more than economic growth and a rise in national income. Italso involves social transformation – expanding opportunities for children, women, men and vulnerable groupsto widen their knowledge and enjoy decent living standards, improving their chances of living healthy lives,and enabling them to achieve their full potential. Social transformation is at the heart of human development.

6

Delegates at the AnnualConsultation of NationalWomen’s Machineries, NewYork 2010

Strengthening women’s leadership to promote gender equality

To strengthen the capacity of women leaders so that they can be agents of change and promote gender

equality, the Secretariat has developed a curriculum for a leadership training certificate programme for

women in senior positions. It is also organising regional colloquia across the Commonwealth to promote

the role of women leaders as agents of change.

The pan-Commonwealth leadership training curriculum has been developed by the Secretariat in

collaboration with the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership (CIWiL), the Brooklyn College Graduate

Centre and other partners. The curriculum was tested at a workshop for ministers and other senior officials

in the wings of the annual consultation of Commonwealth NWMs in New York in February 2011 and is now

being used to develop the leadership skills of women in decision making positions.

The first regional colloquium, for the Caribbean, was held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in June

2011. Practical leadership training was a key focus of the colloquium, which adopted the Port-of-Spain

Consensus on Transformational Leadership for Gender Equality. This contains recommendations for action to

be taken by governments, political parties, women’s and civil society organisations and the media to

advance gender equality and women’s political participation.

The colloquium was hosted by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and was presided over by the

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and the then Commonwealth Chair in Office, Hon Kamla Persad-

Bissessar. It was organised by the Secretariat in partnership with UN Women, the Organization of American

States, and CIWiL. Other regional colloquia are to be organised following the success of the event.

strategies for addressing the pandemic. This researchhas brought the voices of unpaid carers to the policyarena and highlighted the need to focus on the careeconomy and the rural subsistence economy in policyreforms, and to provide social protection tohouseholds affected by HIV and AIDS.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Associationand the Secretariat facilitated an advocacy workshopwith Commonwealth parliamentarians in Barbados inJune 2010 to discuss the findings of research on thegender and policy dimensions of unpaid HIV care andto identify advocacy strategies for national HIV-careaction plans.

Education Learning enables people to lift themselves out ofpoverty and gives them the skills and opportunities tofashion their own future. Education enrolment andcompletion with the required level of knowledge andskills, particularly for girls, is a major driver of povertyreduction and a source of future growth andprosperity for countries as a whole.This is recognisedin two of the MDGs – the achievement of universalprimary education (UPE) and the elimination ofgender disparity in primary and secondary education.

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s educationpriorities include improving access to schooling, witha particular focus on UPE, and promoting highquality education, especially by improving the quality

and professionalism of teachers, senior school staff andteacher educators.

HIV/AIDS and education is also a priority. TheSecretariat has supported the incorporation of HIVand AIDS in school and teacher training curricula.The production of a resource manual for teachertrainers has improved the quality of pre-serviceteacher training on HIV and AIDS in Kenya, Ugandaand the United Republic of Tanzania.The Secretariatis also represented on the UNAIDS Inter-AgencyTask Team on Education and will be hosting asymposium and team meeting in London in April2012.

Improving access to education and reducing genderdisparitiesFor many countries, particularly in Africa, meeting thegoal of UPE remains a challenge,with effective deliveryrequiring significant financial and human resources.Action-focused research and analysis have beenconducted to identify areas that require immediateattention, and inform strategic interventions.

The Secretariat works with development partnersto implement strategies for the elimination of barriersto education, such as school fees, and to widen accessto education for girls. For example, the Secretariat isworking with the UN Girls' Education Initiative inAfrica and the International Task Force for EducationFor All to ensure the advancement of quality teachers


has evolved out of the Secretariat’s work on gender-responsive budgeting. Research into GRI fundsfocuses on such issues as women’s marginal access toSME financing. It has identified parameters forassessing good practice and performance standards ofinvestments, financial services and products from agender perspective, as well as case studies and financialmodels that promote inclusive financing and addressbarriers to women’s access to finance, especially viatraditional finance institutions.

Gender, human rights and the lawEfforts to facilitate the realisation of women’s rightsare sometimes at odds with outdated laws andentrenched cultural and social traditions. Indeed,discriminatory laws and customs are still prevalent andwidespread throughout the Commonwealth.

Building on initiatives to reconcile women’s rightsunder existing legal norms, the Secretariat organisedtwo regional meetings to address these concerns. Acolloquium in Papua New Guinea in February 2010brought together ministries for gender and those forlaw and justice from around the Pacific region, as wellas traditional and faith leaders, members of thejudiciary and women’s law networks. Focusing on lawreform and equitable judicial processes at thecommunity level, the colloquium enabled the sharingof information on concrete measures undertaken bygovernments and development partners including the

strengthening of village courts to ensure genderjustice. The Secretariat is now embarking on aninitiative to address women’s land rights in the Pacific,drawing on lessons learnt in the compilation of ahandbook on land rights for women in Africanjurisdictions.

In December 2010, the Secretariat facilitated aregional training initiative in Zambia, in collaborationwith the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Entitled‘Gender,Women’s Rights, Culture and the Law’, thetraining was aimed at building capacity amongtraditional chiefs and leaders of faith-basedcommunities in sub-Saharan Africa to help them findways of supporting women’s rights to resources andhelp ensure justice is delivered on the ground.Following the regional training, further support wasprovided through training and advocacy workshopson women’s rights in the context of the law andculture to enhance the capacity of marginalisedwomen leaders.

Gender and HIV and AIDSThe burden of HIV and AIDS falls disproportionatelyon women and girls, with young women living withHIV outnumbering men in regions worst affected bythe pandemic. This highlights the relationshipbetween gender inequality and the spread of HIV.The Commonwealth promotes a gender-responsiveapproach to addressing HIV and AIDS, recognisingboth women’s particular vulnerabilities and the needto ensure male involvement in HIV and AIDSprogrammes.

The Secretariat has provided technical expertise tothe Caribbean Community and other partners in theCaribbean to ensure mainstreaming of gender in HIVinterventions and policies across the Caribbeanregion. The Secretariat partnered with theInternational Community of Women Living withHIV in Eastern and Southern Africa to advocate forthe integration of gender issues in HIV policymaking.

As well as its direct effects on women’s health, theHIV pandemic also has indirect social and economicimpacts affecting women in their role as carers.A pan-Commonwealth research study on gender and policydimensions in the care economy, focusing on unpaidwork in HIV care in 11 Commonwealth countries,has revealed that unpaid carers’ needs and rights areoften not considered in national treatment and care


Participants at the PacificRegional GenderCulture and the LawColloquium, PapuaNew Guinea 2010

Eliminating genderdisparities in educationis a key developmentalgoal

The Fifth Annual Commonwealth Teachers’Research Symposium, convened by the Secretariat incollaboration with the South African QualificationsAuthority in Bloemfontein, South Africa in March2010, focused on enhancing Commonwealth teacherprofessionalism and status.The symposium examinedsuch areas as professional qualifications, recognition,registration and quality standards. It also discussedissues related to teacher mobility in the context of theCommonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol,which aims to balance the rights of teachers tomigrate internationally and the needs of countries toretain qualified staff. The Secretariat is working incollaboration with UNESCO’s International Institutefor Capacity Building in Africa to promote goodquality pre- and in-service teacher training in theregion to ensure that the competencies improvelearning and teaching in the classroom.

In mid 2011,African countries also participated in aconsultative process aimed at improving teachers’ andschool leaders’ professional standards through theTeacher Working Group of the Association for theDevelopment of Education in Africa, of which theCommonwealth Secretariat is a member. TheSecretariat has also been collaborating with membercountries across the Commonwealth on thedevelopment and implementation of a teachers’ andschool leaders’ professional standards frameworkthrough workshops and focus groups held in Africa, theCaribbean and the Pacific. The Caribbean region,

through the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),hasdeveloped regional teacher professional standards thatwill be implemented in 2012-2013. The Secretariatcontinues to support this initiative and will share theimplementation and validation with other countries.

Small states with limited resources to commit toeducation are especially disadvantaged when it comesto adopting international standards and best practice.The Secretariat is attuned to the need to find effectivestrategies to assist the Commonwealth’s 32 small statesin improving professional standards for teachers andschool leaders. Regional workshops were conductedin Antigua and Barbuda in March 2011, and Jamaica inSeptember 2011, in partnership with the CARICOMSecretariat where draft teachers’ professional standardswere developed. These draft teachers’ professionalstandards and the results of the consultations will bepresented at a meeting of the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD).COHSOD’s recommendations will then be presentedto the CARICOM Heads of Government meetinglater this year.

In the Pacific a regional consultation of heads ofteacher education institutions and ministries ofeducation took place in Apia, Samoa in 2011. Itfocused on the professional development of teachereducators.This resulted in the development of a newconstitution and strategic plan for the PacificAssociation of Teacher Educators. Support is alsobeing provided to the Pacific region to assess progress


and gender equality. It is also working to ensure accessto education in emergency situations, and promotingstrategies that give priority to the needs of the mostdisadvantaged girls and young women.

In some countries in Africa and Asia, girls areparticularly disadvantaged in terms of access andretention. In other regions, such as the Caribbean,boys tend to underperform at school and have highdropout and low retention rates. The Secretariatengages with member countries at the regional andnational levels to address these issues. India,Malaysia, Seychelles, and Trinidad and Tobago haveadopted the Secretariat’s ‘Gender-ResponsiveSchool Action Guide’, which provides teachers,principals, administrators, teacher-trainers, plannersand other professionals with practical solutions toensure that classrooms and schooling processes aremore gender responsive.

The Secretariat has designed programmes targetingmarginalised groups, including nomadic populationsin Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Kenya, Maldives,Namibia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka,Tanzania and Uganda, aswell as children with disabilities and those living inrural and remote and post-conflict areas.This includedfacilitating the sharing of good practices in theprovision of education to marginalised groups, thedevelopment of draft guidelines on delivery ofeducation programmes for nomadic populations, areview of the implementation of Article 24 of the UNConvention on People with Disabilities, and thedevelopment of resource manuals for teachers and

ministries of education on the restructuring ofprimary education through the use of multi-gradeteaching in hard-to-reach schools.

The Secretariat has also undertaken research onpolicy gaps in technical and vocational education andtraining for young people in five countries:Bangladesh, The Gambia, Jamaica, Kenya and PapuaNew Guinea. The findings of the research will bedisseminated to participating countries and used todevelop national action plans to promote policydevelopment and service delivery.

Innovations and best practices in the educationsystem are promoted through the CommonwealthEducation Good Practice Awards which highlightpractices, policies and strategies which have made apositive difference to primary and secondary schoolstudents, teachers or the education system in specificcountries.These successful practices are shared acrossthe Commonwealth to promote improvements in theeducation system through knowledge sharing andreplication. The winners for the third round of theawards will be announced at the 18th Conference ofCommonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) inMauritius in August 2012.

Promoting quality education standardsImproving the quality and professionalism of teachersof education was identified as a priority at the 2009CCEM in Malaysia. Since then, the Secretariat’sefforts to promote quality education have focused onteacher and school leaders.


Dancers at the awardsceremony for theCommonwealth EducationGood Practice awards heldin Malaysia, 16 June2009.

The Commonwealthsupports membercountries in establishingframeworks for teacherprofessional standards

children newly infected.The number of AIDS relateddeaths has fallen, from 2.2 million in the mid 2000s to1.8 million in 2010. The HIV pandemic appears tohave stabilised and the achievement of MDG 6 – tohalt and reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015– is in sight. However, two-thirds of people who needtreatment still do not receive it, and the review of theMDGs at the UN Summit in September 2010revealed a mixed picture of progress to date. Itconfirmed that sustained commitment is required tobuild on successes achieved so far.

The Secretariat takes a comprehensive, multi-divisional and multi-disciplinary approach to tacklingthe effects of HIV and AIDS. Its contribution involvesaddressing barriers to achieving universal access toHIV and AIDS treatment through a variety ofinterventions. These include assistance to membercountries to explore ways of aligning their nationalpolicies and strategies to global commitments, andhelping them to tackle stigma and discriminationthrough education.The Secretariat also helps to raisepublic awareness, integrate gender issues into HIVinterventions and strengthen the health workforce.

Improving maternal and child healthCommonwealth countries make up about 30 per centof the world’s population. Globally, 54 per cent ofmaternal deaths, 40 per cent of child deaths and 65per cent of the global burden of child malnutrition isborne in Commonwealth countries.

A major constraint faced by developing membercountries in meeting MDGs 4 and 5, which focus onreducing child mortality and improving maternalhealth, is the lack of a skilled health workforce. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the crisis is most acute, aboutone million additional doctors, nurses and midwivesare needed to provide the most basic of care.

In promoting maternal and child health, theSecretariat’s focus has been on policy advocacy, capacitybuilding of health workers, institutional strengtheningand support for research on key issues such as women’saccess to basic services.The Secretariat engages directlywith relevant ministries in member countries and hasadvocated for the training of 500,000 additionalmidwives to improve maternal and child health.

In collaboration with a regional nursing collegeand the East, Central and Southern African HealthCommunity (ECSA), the Secretariat has developed across-national educational programme for nurses andmidwives. The programme improves midwiferyeducation and practice, aiming to increase thenumber of midwifery tutors and advancedpractitioners able to promote women’s health andreduce maternal and infant mortality. The CFTC has provided a midwife co-ordinator to assist inrolling out a regional midwifery educators’programme for interested institutions of higherlearning in ECSA. This programme is assisting thedevelopment of professional staff and improving theeffectiveness of the health system by reducing childand maternal deaths.

The Secretariat also provided support for the firstmeeting of the African Health Profession RegulatoryCollaborative (ARC) initiative for nurses andmidwives in Nairobi, Kenya, in February 2011. Themeeting was convened in partnership with the USCentres for Disease Control and Prevention and otherpartners, including Emory University’s Lillian CarterCentre for International Nursing, the ECSA HealthCommunity and Kenya’s Ministry of Health. ARCaims to address key issues in nursing and midwiferyregulation in the ECSA region by creating aninnovative South–South partnership to enable


in the development and implementation of nationalstandards for teachers and school leaders to promotequality education.

To ensure optimal use of ICT, the Secretariat is alsoworking with partners such as the Commonwealth ofLearning to adapt and develop teaching materials usingopen and distance learning platforms to diversifydelivery methods and to widen access to education.Amulti-grade teaching and effective teacher trainingprogramme is being developed to promote innovativeand flexible teaching approaches.The Secretariat is alsoassisting Botswana and Maldives in adapting primaryeducation curricula to reflect multi-grade teachingapproaches. A working group, scheduled to meet inMarch 2012 in Maldives, represents an importantmilestone towards embedding multi-grade teaching ineducation policy and enhancing teacher professionalcapabilities in this vulnerable and remote small state.

Health The world’s population, numbering seven billion in2011, is in dire need of effective health servicesprovision.With preventable communicable and non-communicable diseases unnecessarily claimingmillions of lives every year, there is an almostunquenchable demand for immunisation schemes andaffordable pharmaceuticals, as well as for reproductive

and mental health support and improved nutrition.The Commonwealth Secretariat strives to support

member governments in improving child andmaternal health and combating HIV/AIDS bystrengthening healthcare systems and buildingmember countries’ capacity to address these pressinghealth issues. It also helps member countries in theeffective management of their health work force.Particular attention has been focused on thepossibilities created by improvements in e-health – theuse of information and communication technology tostrengthen health systems.

E-health can help improve the quality ofhealthcare, the management of health information, andservice delivery. It can expand access to healthcare,improve efficiency and support overstretched humanresources. The Secretariat uses an e-health assessmenttool to assist member countries in developing e-healthpolicy and strategies. In 2009-2011, the Secretariatprovided support to the Kenyan and Maldivesgovernments to develop e-health strategies.

HIV and AIDS Globally , an estimated 34 million people were livingwith HIV at the end of 2010, an increase of 17 percent from 2001. There were 2.7 million newinfections in 2010, including an estimated 39,0000


Members of the public waitfor an HIV test in Nairobi,Kenya

Improving maternalhealth is an importantgoal of Commonwealthdevelopment assistance

DemocracyThe Secretariat’s support for the promotion ofdemocracy takes many forms. It helps to build thecapacity of member countries to conduct credible andtransparent elections by providing advisers to helpstrengthen democratic institutions and processes, andby supporting national election management bodiesand election officials. It also organises workshops forgovernment and opposition to discuss their role,rights, responsibilities and contribution to thedemocratic process.And it provides media training tohelp strengthen democratic institutions and processesin member countries.

Deepening democratic processesNational election management bodies (EMBs) play avital role in determining the credibility and legitimacyof elections, as well as upholding the integrity of thepolitical process. In recognition of this fact, theCommonwealth has established the CommonwealthElectoral Network to provide increased support andassistance to EMBs, promote their collaboration, raisestandards and boost the effectiveness of theseinstitutions, all of which play a significant role instrengthening the culture of democracy in theirrespective countries.The Network, launched at a pan-Commonwealth conference of EMBs in Accra, Ghana,in May 2010, has established a web forum and workinggroups to advance best electoral practices across theCommonwealth.

Other support is also provided to strengthendemocratic institutions. The Independent ElectionCommission of The Gambia was assisted in improvingits process of voter registration. Support was providedto the Guyana Election Commission to help developa media code of conduct. And in Solomon Islands,training was provided to domestic election observersto increase their capacity to observe their nationalelections.

In June 2011, the Commonwealth Secretariat andthe Commonwealth Parliamentary Association co-hosted a workshop for the Commonwealth Asia regionon the ‘Roles and Responsibilities of Government andOpposition’, which brought together high-levelrepresentatives from governing parties, the oppositionand civil society in Asia. The workshop providedparticipants with a range of tools and good practices toincrease their capacity to effectively engage and

47Working for Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law

countries to expand high-quality HIV/AIDS andmaternal child health services by strengthening andharmonising regulation and practices for healthworkers in the region.

Non-communicable diseasesThe world is witnessing a rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancers,diabetes, and chronic respiratory and cardiovasculardiseases.These account for around 60 per cent of theglobal disease burden, and contribute to an estimated35 million deaths every year, mainly in middle- andlow-income countries. Diseases such as these threatenthe lives and well-being of countless people across theworld, placing an enormous burden on alreadyoverstretched health systems and undermining theability of affected countries to achieve sustainabledevelopment.

The Commonwealth Road Map on NCDs,

developed by the Secretariat in 2010, calls for raisingthe priority accorded to NCDs in development workat global and national levels, promoting theestablishment and strengthening of national policiesand plans for the prevention and control of NCDs,exchanging experiences and know-how oninterventions to reduce risk factors, and promotingresearch and collaboration with other agencies.

In implementing the Road Map, the Secretariathas hosted a Commonwealth NCD consultationmeeting with partners and member countries, anddeveloped an NCD media strategy to increaseknowledge and reporting on NCDs in theCommonwealth. This strategy is being implementedin collaboration with partners, including the WorldHealth Organization, the UK-based National HeartForum and the medical journal, The Lancet.As part ofthe strategy, the Secretariat has produced an advocacyfilm on youth and NCDs, the first in a series targetingpolicy makers, young people and, through the media,the wider public. A regional workshop was organisedin Barbados to equip Caribbean journalists to betterinform the public of life-threatening NCDs and toinfluence policy-makers in the region.

Managing the recruitment and migration of healthworkersThe global health workforce shortage has beenexacerbated by the impact of asymmetric healthworker migration, which results in a development lossfor poor nations. Nonetheless, the last decade has seensome movement towards mitigating this imbalance.The Secretariat has played a leading role in thedevelopment and promotion of ethical principles andan international framework to equitably manage therecruitment and migration of health workers throughthe Commonwealth Code of Practice for theInternational Recruitment of Health Workers.Member countries are now being encouraged toimplement the Code, through national and regionalinitiatives. It has served as a template for thedevelopment of other codes around the world,including a code for the Pacific region and a WorldHealth Organisation code adopted by the WorldHealth Assembly in 2010. Member countries haveimplemented aspects of the Code in the developmentof bilateral agreements to better manage therecruitment of health care staff such as the onebetween Kenya and Namibia.


The Commonwealth Codeof Practice assists membercountries in themanagement of healthworkers

Democracy and goodgovernance are amongthe Commonwealth’sfundamental values

Working for Democracy, Human Rights andthe Rule of Law

The Commonwealth is driven by a commitment to promote and deepen democracy, human rights and therule of law.The Secretariat therefore places great priority on assisting member countries in strengthening theircapacity, institutions and processes in these areas. It also supports initiatives which provide an opportunity toshare experiences and seek solutions through collective action.The resources of the CFTC are deployed tosupport such assistance.

7

human rights landscape in all 192 UN member states,initially over a four-year period. Since 2009, theSecretariat, in collaboration with other developmentpartners, has organised preparatory seminars supportedby the CFTC in the Pacific, Caribbean and Africa, aswell as London, where participants shared bestpractices and experiences of their national UPRpreparations and consultations.

In March 2010, the Secretariat held aCommonwealth mid-term review of the UPR inLondon.The meeting brought together governments,non-governmental organisations and national humanrights institutions from 20 member countries to discusstheir experiences of the UPR, including goodpractices, challenges, lessons learned and proposals forthe improvement of the UPR mechanism. TheSecretariat continues to organise regional seminars toengage with Commonwealth countries on the follow-up and implementation of the UPR recommendations.Regional seminars for Asia and Europe were held in


collaborate in the interests of democracy, politicalstability and socio-economic prosperity in theircountries and the region.

Media trainingIn recognition of the significant role played by avibrant and professional media in building effectiveand accountable democratic institutions that drivegood governance and development, the CFTCprovides assistance to build the capacity of the media.For example, media training for journalists inMaldives was conducted in June 2010 to enhancetheir technical skills.

Assistance to the Government of Rwanda includedproviding a CFTC-funded communications adviser tohelp with capacity-building and the development of agovernment communications strategy. A series oftraining workshops for journalists in Rwanda in mid-2011, conducted in collaboration with Rwanda’snational university and a local broadcaster, focused onresponsible coverage of elections. This training wasfollowed by a major regional media forum in the capital,Kigali, to explore the fundamental questions related tothe media on the continent, including Rwanda. Duringthe forum, the Government of Rwanda announcedplans to change the status of the state-run broadcasterinto a public broadcaster, and also set out plans for theself-regulation of media in the country.

Sixteen Rwandan journalists attended a special one-month development journalism course at the Indian

Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi, India,and a further 24 received specialised training in coveringelections ahead of the landmark 2010 presidentialelections – as the country continued to entrenchcollaboration with the Commonwealth to improve theskills and knowledge base of local journalists.

Human rightsHistory shows that discrimination and abuses of basichuman rights have enormous social, economic andpolitical costs. Notwithstanding the significant stridesmade in recent decades in the field of human rights indeveloping new legal instruments and buildinginstitutions, major violations continue to becommitted in numerous countries around the globe.By means of networking and consultations, capacitybuilding interventions and the publication of bestpractice guides, the Secretariat engages withCommonwealth member countries to ensure theprotection and promotion of the rights of allindividuals within their own domestic borders, tostrengthen national human rights institutions, and tosupport member governments in fulfilling theirobligations under international human rights treaties.

Implementation of international covenantsIn 2009-2011, a major focus of the Secretariat's humanrights assistance was on the Universal Periodic Review(UPR) mechanism, introduced by the United NationsCommission on Human Rights in 2008 to review the


Building networks of national human rights institutions

The Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI), a network of Commonwealth

NHRIs which was established in 2007, encourages sharing of best practices amongst institutions and offers

a peer network for capacity development. The Secretariat hosted a meeting of the Forum in Trinidad and

Tobago in 2009, one outcome of which was the establishment of a Working Group on Climate Change and

Human Rights with membership of Canada, Cameroon, Maldives, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Scotland.

The Secretariat also convened Forum meetings in Scotland in 2010 and in London in 2011. One of the

outcomes of the 2011 meeting was the setting up of a Working Group on Disability, comprising member

institutions from Australia, Canada, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and the UK.

Peer networking and learning is also promoted regionally. The 7th Conference of the Network of African

National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), which took place in November 2009 in Morocco, was co-

sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The conference facilitated the strengthening of the

role of NHRIs and the building of collaboration in their work as independent institutions that promote

human rights. The 8th Conference of NANHRI, held in South Africa in 2011 with the theme of disability

and elderly rights, was also co-sponsored by the Secretariat.

In March 2011, the Secretariat and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights co-hosted a

regional workshop in Trinidad and Tobago on the establishment of NHRIs in English-speaking Caribbean

countries. The objective of the workshop, which was attended by government officials and

parliamentarians, was to encourage the region to establish NHRIs and to consider extending the mandate

of the Ombudsman to undertake this responsibility. One of the key outcomes of this intervention was a

request from the Government of Barbados for technical assistance in the establishment of their NHRI -

they are considering merging the human rights protection mandate with that of the Ombudsman. CFTC

technical assistance was scheduled for March 2012, through a colloquium with the Government and the

Ombudsman Office. Similar CFTC technical assistance to the Government of The Gambia is also planned.

Radio journalists inRwanda

in collaboration with other partners. For example, inconjunction with the Commonwealth Magistrates’and Judges’ Association (CMJA) and the JudicialTraining Institute of Ghana, the CFTC supported aregional seminar on judicial independence in Ghanain January 2010. The seminar resulted in greaterawareness of the Commonwealth (Latimer House)Principles on the Three Branches of Government and

the meaning of judicial independence in practice.Also with the CMJA, the Secretariat supported a

training workshop in Swaziland in March 2010 forthe country’s judges and magistrates. The workshopresulted in the adoption of special measures for theprotection of vulnerable witnesses in court.A seminarfor Malawian judges on court administration in June2010 resulted in increased knowledge of efficient


Bangladesh in February, for the Africa region inMauritius in April, for the Pacific in New Zealand inMay, and for the Caribbean in Barbados in June 2011.

Training to build capacity in human rightsThe Commonwealth Secretariat’s human rightsprogramme for police trainers is designed tostrengthen the capacity of police trainers and traininginstitutions, by promoting best practice and providingpractical resources to integrate international humanrights norms and principles into standard policetraining and operations.The programme, which sinceits inception in 2007 has benefited police officers inmore than 42 Commonwealth member countries,focuses on the importance of human rights to thefundamental duty of police officers in protecting andserving the community in which they work.

In September 2009, with CFTC support, prisonofficers and police trainers from provinces across PapuaNew Guinea attended their first ever human rightstraining workshop. In 2009, police training workshopswere held in Malaysia (for members of the Associationof South-East Asian Nations), Mauritius, Seychelles andSolomon Islands. In response to requests from prisonofficers who attended the police training workshops ina number of countries, the Secretariat has developedtraining materials for trainers of prison officials, and apilot training intervention was scheduled to take placein March 2012 for the Pacific region.

The Secretariat conducted a training workshop oninternational human rights principles and standardsfor youth workers in Honiara, Solomon Islands inSeptember 2009. The aim of the workshop was toraise the awareness of youth workers on the relevanceof human rights and to assist them in planninghuman rights initiatives.

Human rights publicationsIn December 2009, the Secretariat launched a newpublication, Child Rights in the Commonwealth, tomark the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention onthe Rights of the Child. The book examines theimportance of child rights, provides an overview ofthe key themes of the Convention and gives relevantstatistics and data from Commonwealth countries – allof which have ratified the Convention. Thepublication also highlights recent progress andachievements on child rights.

The Secretariat's Human Rights in theCommonwealth – Status Report 2010 surveys the stateof human rights as measured by each country’s formalengagement with international standards and norms.The UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rightsof Internally Displaced Persons, Dr Chaloka Beyani,hailed the book as ‘providing an excellent overview ofthe progress made across the Commonwealth toprotect human rights’.

The Secretariat’s publication Best PracticeGuidelines on the Establishment of National HumanRights Institutions serves as a robust support tool in itswork to strengthen the capacity of national humanrights institutions to operate confidently, competentlyand independently.

Current publishing projects include thedevelopment of a best practice publication oninclusive education and sustainable employment forpersons with disabilities in the Commonwealth, aswell as a publication on women human rightsdefenders in the Commonwealth and their role asagents of change.

Rule of lawMany of the world's poor and marginalised do notbenefit from the protection provided by the rule oflaw. The Secretariat supports Commonwealthmember states in strengthening institutions entrustedwith maintaining the rule of law for the benefit of allcitizens. It provides training and other support tobuild the capacities of these agencies, which arecritical to the promotion of justice in any society.The CFTC has devoted financial resources anddeployed experts in support of these critical activities.

Strengthening the judiciaryThe Secretariat provides training for judicial officersand court administrators in member countries, often


Promoting community policing

Community policing is an innovative approach to strengthening security and the rule of law, which has

become globally recognised as an effective way of reducing crime and building community partnerships.

The key message is that policing is everyone’s business.

The CFTC has provided training in community policing, including customer care, to help the Tanzanian

police service tackle crime and improve security, especially in urban areas, and strengthen trust between

officers and local communities. The programme, which has been running since 2008, is conducted by the

Arusha-based Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute. In 2009-2011, some 190 police officers,

including 35 Regional Commanders and 36 police trainers, benefited from the training programme. The

Tanzanian government has reported a noticeable reduction in criminal activities in areas where trained

community police officers have been deployed.

This assistance builds on a similar CFTC programme for the Sierra Leone police. Through a tripartite

arrangement between the Sierra Leone police, the Botswana police and the Secretariat, 170 officials were

trained in community policing and related specialist areas. As a result, local police partnership boards have

been established and provided with the necessary skills to roll out training in community policing practices

across the nation.

A graduate of CFTCcommunity policingtraining in Sierra Leone,at work in Freetown

Hon Acting Judge J DLyons provides support inthe area of commercial lawto the Ministry of Justice inLesotho

Law reform for good governanceThe Secretariat assists member countries instrengthening the rule of law and good governancethrough strategies to combat corruption, the reformof national laws, the development of codes of conductand the dissemination of guidelines on conflicts ofinterest for public officials.

In March 2010, in conjunction with the Ministryof Justice of Mozambique, the CFTC sponsored aseminar on conflict of interest for public officials inMaputo.The seminar resulted in the identification ofthe essential elements for a code of conduct andguidelines on dealing with conflict of interest.

As recommended by a Caribbean regional seminarin Jamaica in September 2010, the Secretariat hasdeveloped the first draft of a model law on integrityin public life.This includes a model code of conductfor and guidelines on conflict of interest for publicofficials.The Secretariat will continue to develop themodel law in the light of feedback at regionalseminars in November 2011 in the Pacific and in2012 in Africa.

The Secretariat is also developing anddisseminating legal tools to support membercountries.These include model legislative provisions,technical guidelines, action plans and other resourcematerials.

International legal co-operationThe Secretariat works to strengthen the capacity of

member states to prevent and combat transnationalcrime, including terrorism, corruption and humantrafficking. In particular, it works to enhanceinternational co-operation within theCommonwealth in collaboration with national,regional and international agencies.

The Secretariat supports regional prosecutors’associations and other national and regional criminaljustice agencies to enhance international co-operation.It facilitates a system of mutual legal assistance in theadministration of justice, encompassing threeCommonwealth schemes.These schemes – the HarareScheme, the London Scheme for Extradition and theScheme for the Transfer of Convicted Offenders –represent reciprocal arrangements between membercountries to co-operate.

To improve international co-operation andeffectively address the complexities of ever-increasingtransnational crime, the Harare Scheme was reviewed


court administration and practice. And a trainingworkshop on the assessment of damages and costs forHigh Court judges in Zambia in February 2011resulted in increased knowledge on the part ofZambian judges of the principles underlying theassessment of damages and costs in civil cases.

A judicial seminar on judicial independence andethics in Cameroon, organised in conjunction withthe CMJA and the Ministry of Justice of Cameroon inMay 2011, raised awareness of the principles ofjudicial independence and their application.A seminaron criminal procedure for magistrates in Belize inJune 2011 made recommendations for the reform ofcriminal procedure in Belize. And a seminar on civilcase management in Seychelles in September 2011resulted in the Chief Justice establishing a committeeto review civil justice in Seychelles, including theintroduction of alternative dispute resolution.

Legislative draftingThe Secretariat provides technical support and adviceon drafting of laws, and on developing toolkits such asdrafting manuals and guidelines.The aim is to enhanceskills among lawyers and to support the strengtheningof legislative processes within member countries.

An expert on legislative drafting was provided bythe CFTC to the Crown Law Office in Tonga in 2009.The expert undertook a review of legislation insupport of a comprehensive exercise to translate thelaws of Tonga into the local language, thereby helping

render the law more accessible to all Tongans.Since 2006, annual legislative drafting courses for the

Africa region have been held at the Ghana School ofLaw in Accra,Ghana.To ensure that the region’s priorityneeds continue to be addressed, the content, structureand future direction of these courses were reviewed atmeetings of Heads of African Legislative Drafting Officesin 2008 and 2010. A network of legislative draftingoffices in the Africa region has also been created tosupport this programme.

The Secretariat has also supported a number ofother initiatives to build the capacity of membercountries in this discipline. A four-week course inApia, Samoa, in 2009 focused on advanced legislativedrafting for the staff of the Office of the Attorney-General of Samoa.This resulted in the drawing up ofin-house guidelines for the drafting of legislation.

In August 2011, in collaboration with theCARICOM Secretariat and the British HighCommission in Bridgetown, Barbados, the Secretariatsupported a seminar to train legislative drafters fromthe Caribbean region. It also facilitated the sharing ofgood practices and strengthened networking betweenoffices in the region.

Training of Commonwealth nationals in legislativedrafting in specialised institutions is also supported.And technical advice is provided on the appointmentof legislative drafters in various Commonwealthmember countries. For instance, Kenya was recentlyassisted in this regard.


Strengthening capacity to meet financialstandards

The Secretariat is working to increase

implementation by member countries of the

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) global

standards, which relate to the combating of

money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

In collaboration with FATF-style regional

bodies, the Secretariat is strengthening the

capacity of law enforcement officers, prosecutors

and judges to help address the risks of economic

and financial crimes. In 2010, it co-funded with

the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against

Money Laundering a seminar for Commonwealth

judges in West Africa. The seminar provided an

opportunity to identify common challenges to

the effective investigation and prosecution of

money laundering cases in the region. In

addition to improved understanding of the issues

facing the region, an agreement was reached to

co-operate bilaterally and through ECOWAS to

strengthen legal assistance and judicial co-

operation in criminal matters. In 2011, in the

wings of the FATF’s regional training programme

in Busan, Korea, the Secretariat took advantage

of the presence of the experts and available

resources and provided training to East African

law enforcement officers and prosecutors in

collaboration with the FATF, the Asia/Pacific

Group on Money Laundering and the East and

Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group.

The training focused on innovative investigative

tools and prosecution techniques.

Law ministers andattorneys-general at ameeting. Governance is amajor aspect of theSecretariat’s programmes

technical guide to implementing UNCAC wasapproved by Commonwealth law ministers in 2011.The Secretariat has also initiated a capacity-buildingprogramme to provide member countries with skillsand tools to deal with corruption. This includestraining on asset recovery and international co-operation in anti-corruption investigations.

The use of sophisticated forms of evidence toprosecute money laundering, terrorist financing,transnational and other serious crimes was the focusof a regional 'hi-tech crime' training workshop forCaribbean countries in Bermuda in August 2009.Theseminar was organised by the Secretariat incollaboration with the Office of the Director ofPublic Prosecutions in Bermuda and the GlobalProsecutors e-Crime Network of the InternationalAssociation of Prosecutors.

The Secretariat’s regional capacity buildingprogramme for law enforcement officers is designedto assist them through foundational training as well asmentoring. The Prosecution and Police TrainingProgramme focuses on capacity building to tackletransnational and international crime, including anti-money laundering, financing of terrorism, corruption,victims/witness protection and assistance andprosecution disclosure obligations. In 2009, police andprosecutors from the Pacific and South Asia regionswere trained. This was followed by a similarprogramme in East Africa in 2011. The programme,

which has a ‘train the trainer’ focus, has resulted in thedevelopment of national action plans to beimplemented by the respective jurisdictions.

Legal publicationsThe Commonwealth Law Bulletin, a flagshippublication of the Commonwealth Secretariat, helpsto broaden understanding of emerging legaldevelopments throughout the Commonwealth. Thebulletin provides its readership (approximately 5,000institutions) with essential information on highlytopical legal issues from around the Commonwealth.

In September 2010, the Secretariat published aspecial edition of the Commonwealth Law Bulletin oncourts and tribunals, bringing together paperspresented at a meeting of registrars of final andappellate, regional and international courts andtribunals in Canada in April 2010.

The Secretariat also disseminates legal materialsfrom training programmes, workshops and othermeetings. The Handbook of Best Practices forRegistrars of Final/Appellate, Regional andInternational Courts and Tribunals, due to be publishedin 2012, and funded by the CFTC, provides examplesof good practice in the workings of the courts, helpingregistrars to benefit from the experiences of othercourts and tribunals throughout the Commonwealthand beyond.


in collaboration with member countries in 2010 andadopted by the Commonwealth Law MinistersMeeting in Sydney, Australia in July 2011. Countriesare being provided with capacity building assistancethrough the CFTC to implement the Scheme.

Countering the financing of terrorism, moneylaundering and corruptionThe Commonwealth Plan of Action on Terrorism isbeing implemented to prevent and combat terrorismby building member states’ capacity to ensure anintegrated approach through national, regional andinternational cooperation and coordination.The Planof Action was revised in 2009 in order to maintain anupdated response to terrorist threats.

In collaboration with the UN Office on Drugs andCrime, the Secretariat organised workshops oninternational co-operation, mutual legal assistance andextradition in the context of counter-terrorism inLesotho in 2009, and for civil and common lawcountries in Cameroon in 2010. These workshopsaimed to enhance member countries’ understandingof the use of the Commonwealth Schemes on mutuallegal assistance on criminal matters and extradition aswell as other informal forms of co-operation tocombat terrorism.

The Commonwealth's strategy to combatcorruption centres on promoting the implementationand enforcement of the UN Convention on Anti-Corruption (UNCAC). The Secretariat's revised


Promoting implementation of the RomeStatute

Commonwealth leaders have demonstrated their

support for the International Criminal Court, which

was established in 2002 under the Rome Statute

to bring an end to impunity for perpetrators of

the most serious crimes, by mandating the

Secretariat to assist member countries who have

signed the Rome Statute. CFTC-supported

assistance is provided in many ways, such as

through the development of a model law to assist

member countries in fully adopting the Rome

Statute into national legislation. Assistance is

also provided to help build member countries'

national capacity to investigate and prosecute

crimes with an international element through the

training of prosecutors, investigators and judges.

In addition, the Secretariat has introduced

schemes for mutual legal assistance and

extradition to help facilitate international co-

operation in combating transnational crimes.

International Criminal Court (ICC) President Judge Sang-Hyun Song (left) and Commonwealth Secretary-GeneralKamalesh Sharma in Sydney on 13 July 2011 sign aMemorandum of Understanding to strengthen and develop co-operation between their organisations to jointly support statesimplementing international criminal law

5756 AnnexesCommonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Report 2012

Annexes

Accessing CFTC assistance 58

The Commonwealth: Serving 2 billion people in 54 countries 59

Abbreviations and acronyms 60

5958 The Commonwealth: Serving 2 billion people in 54 countriesCommonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Report 2012

CFTC assistance is provided through Divisionsacross the Commonwealth Secretariat. TwoDivisions, the Governance and InstitutionalDevelopment Division and the SpecialAdvisory Services Division, are the majorproviders of assistance.

The Governance and Institutional DevelopmentDivision works to strengthen governance in membercountries. It provides advice, training and expertise tobuild capacity in public sector institutions to promotepublic sector reform and development.

The Special Advisory Services Division providesadvisory and technical assistance to governments onsuch economic and legal matters as debt management,natural resources management, export competitivenessand enterprise development.

Other Secretariat divisions and units that alsoimplement CFTC-funded programmes of assistanceinclude the Economic Affairs Division, SocialTransformation Programmes Division, Legal andConstitutional Affairs Division, Political AffairsDivision and the Human Rights Unit.

Requests for CFTC assistance must come fromCommonwealth governments or from regionalorganisations with a substantial Commonwealthmembership. Such requests must be sent through theappropriate channel, which will depend on the

arrangement agreed and communicated to theSecretariat in regard to the national contact point(model A or B).

Requests for assistance should include:• A concise statement of the problems faced, and of

the type of assistance sought;• Background information and objectives• Details of the organisation responsible for the

project, the main stakeholders and counterpart staff• Job description and the title of the post to be filled,

if appropriate• The required qualifications and expertise of an

adviser, consultant or trainer, where appropriate• When assistance is needed and for how long• Any other relevant information.

Accessing CFTC assistancePlease address correspondence to:Deputy Secretary-GeneralCommonwealth SecretariatMarlborough HousePall Mall, London SW1Y 5HXUnited Kingdom

Fax: +44 (0) 20 7925 1024E-mail: [email protected]: www.thecommonwealth.org

Accessing CFTC assistance

Antigua and BarbudaAustralia(External territories: Norfolk Island, Coral Sea IslandsTerritory,Australian Antarctic Territory, Heard Island andMcDonald Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, ChristmasIsland,Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands) The BahamasBangladeshBarbadosBelizeBotswanaBrunei DarussalamCameroonCanadaCyprusDominicaFiji*The GambiaGhanaGrenadaGuyanaIndiaJamaicaKenyaKiribatiLesothoMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaltaMauritiusMozambiqueNamibiaNauru

New Zealand(Includes the territories of Tokelau and the RossDependency (Antarctic). Self-governing countries in freeassociation with New Zealand: Cook Islands and Niue) NigeriaPakistanPapua New GuineaRwandaSt Kitts and NevisSt LuciaSt Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSolomon IslandsSouth AfricaSri LankaSwazilandTongaTrinidad and TobagoTuvaluUgandaUnited Kingdom(Overseas territories:Anguilla, Bermuda, British AntarcticTerritory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British VirginIslands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,Montserrat, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands,St Helena and St Helena Dependencies [Ascension andTristan da Cunha], South Georgia and the SouthSandwich Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands) United Republic of TanzaniaVanuatuZambia

The Commonwealth: Serving 2 billion people in 54 countries

*Following the decisions taken by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on 31 July 2009, Fiji was suspended frommembership of the Commonwealth on 1 September 2009


ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific (group of states)ARC African Health Profession Regulatory CollaborativeASEAN Association of South-East Asian NationsCARICOM Caribbean CommunityCCEM Conference of Commonwealth Education MinistersCCGE Commonwealth Consultative Group on EnvironmentCETC Community Education Training CentreCFTC Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operationCHOGM Commonwealth Heads of Government MeetingCIWiL Caribbean Institute for Women in LeadershipCMJA Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’AssociationCOMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern AfricaCOMNET-IT Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for DevelopmentCOHSOD CARICOM Council for Human and Social DevelopmentCPGF Commonwealth Pacific Governance FacilityCPII Commonwealth Private Investment InitiativeCS-DRMS Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management SystemEC European CommissionECOWAS Economic Community Of West African StatesECSA East, Central and Southern African Health CommunityEMB election management bodyEPA Economic Partnership AgreementEU European UnionFATF Financial Action Task ForceGIMPA Ghana Institute of Management and Public AdministrationGRI gender-responsive investmentHLF-4 High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness ICC International Criminal Court ICT information and communications technologyIIC Iwokrama International CentreIMF International Monetary FundITSM information technology service managementKIA Kenya Institute of AdministrationLDCs least developed countriesM&E monitoring and evaluationMDGs Millennium Development GoalsMSMEs micro, small and medium-sized enterprisesNANHRI Network of African National Human Rights Institutions NCDs non-communicable diseasesNGO non-governmental organisationNHRI national human rights institutionNWMs national women’s machineriesOECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentPIFS Pacific Islands Forum SecretariatSIDS small island developing statesSMEs small and medium-sized enterprisesUMI Uganda Management InstituteUN United NationsUNCAC UN Convention on Anti-CorruptionUNESCO UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUNFPA UN Population FundUPR Universal Periodic Review (of the UN Human Rights Council)UPE Universal Primary EducationWTO World Trade Organisation

Abbreviations and acronyms

Commonwealth Secretariat

building capacity, advancing development · 6 commonwealth fund for technical co-operation report...

Documents