Latest content: Small states

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has hailed India’s leadership in supporting vulnerable nations in the Commonwealth, describing it as an “area of hope” for all member countries.

A lethal combination of disease, extreme climate events and economic crises is threatening the smallest and most vulnerable nations of the world. To tackle it, we must overhaul how we understand and address economic vulnerability.

Caribbean ministries of youth have met to discuss how best to protect young people from the damaging impacts of COVID-19.

John Maynard Keynes became popular after his death for his teachings now called Keynesian economics, which are applied in most economic crises.

Commonwealth countries committed to saving the ocean will benefit from new knowledge gained from the Seychelles, which has just designated almost a third of its ocean as marine protected areas (MPAs).

The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub has helped Tonga secure a grant of over $1.6 million USD from the Green Climate Fund to help the country adapt to climate change.

The Secretary-General will reassure Caribbean leaders that the Commonwealth will keep fighting for bold climate action on the global stage. 

The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub has successfully helped Tonga to secure a grant from the Green Climate Fund to reform the country’s solar electricity body.

The Commonwealth has entered into an innovative partnership with a UN agency to enhance climate action and disaster preparedness via satellite earth observation.

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland celebrated new in-roads made by Sri Lanka, chair of the Commonwealth’s action group on mangroves, by planting a mangrove plant in the country’s famous Koggala Lagoon.The area is home to 10 out of the 22 true mangrove species found in Sri Lanka, and the site of extensive mangrove restoration efforts involving local communities, businesses and the government.

The Secretary-General has expressed solidarity with the people of The Bahamas in a visit to the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama which were hit by Hurricane Dorian last month.

The Commonwealth has helped Jamaica secure a grant to assist it towards establishing the first ever Caribbean green bond. The grant, valued at over $500,000, will pay for a ‘readiness initiative’ involving an analysis of the development and operation of a green bond market and the creation of regional green bond guidelines in accordance with international standards.

A Commonwealth facility designed to assist smaller and more vulnerable countries tackle the damaging effects of climate change has helped them access USD 27 million of funding.

Personally, as a Bahamian, I thought I knew hurricanes. We all thought we did. Having lived through seven of them since 2000, we had a knowledge that came from hard-learned lessons. We thought we knew how to prepare, how to respond, and how to rebuild. Professionally, I know about the development challenges of small states. At the Commonwealth, we have researched, studied, and calculated their vulnerability. 

With Hurricane Dorian having swept through The Bahamas with unprecedented intensity and force, causing extensive damage to infrastructure, and having reportedly claimed at least one life to date, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has on behalf of the wider Commonwealth family expressed deep concern to the government and people of The Bahamas.

Since around 2010, the Commonwealth had been calling on the international community to look towards innovation. It was a period in which most of the memberships’ small and middle-income countries had become incapacitated with debt, whilst also facing the dire risk of more frequent and severe natural disasters.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General has emphasised the "immense urgency" of taking action to protect the world's oceans. Patricia Scotland joined representatives from the Commonwealth, United Nations, governments and other international organisations at the first meeting of Oceans Ambassadors, hosted by the Government of Malta.

International organisations must partner-up to avoid duplication and integrate efforts that assist member countries, says the Commonwealth’s head of economic policy and small states.

Malta has won the inaugural Commonwealth Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Implementation, with Namibia and the Bahamas also scooping prizes.

A Commonwealth initiative designed to help small and other vulnerable states access international finances for tackling the effects of climate change, is poised to go global. The proposal to scale the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub from 10 to 39 developing small states and other vulnerable countries was approved at the Commonwealth Symposium on Climate Finance held in Malta.

Fresh alliances are set to flourish under the Commonwealth’s flagship programme for ocean action, known as the Blue Charter. On Thursday, the Commonwealth and Bloomberg Philanthropies co-hosted an intensive partnership forum for ‘champion’ countries that have volunteered to lead action groups tackling ocean issues under the Commonwealth Blue Charter.

Born out of the Commonwealth’s recognition of an SDG implementation deficit, the Commonwealth in collaboration with the Government of Malta and the Small States Centre of Excellence, will host the Commonwealth’s inaugural “Award for Excellence in SDG Implementation” on 26-27 June in Malta.

A Commonwealth publication has revealed that the Citizenship by Investment programme is a vital source of income, accounting for 16 per cent of total government revenues in some countries.