Latest content: Economic development

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has welcomed the historic appointment of former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to head the World Trade Organization, the first woman and representative of the African continent to do so.

New petroleum-producing countries are facing key challenges linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a crash in oil markets, a significant decline in investments, along with long-term impacts of the global transition towards a lower carbon economy.

Gambian President Adama Barrow has told the Commonwealth Secretary-General that his country is “happy to be back” in the family. The Secretary-General is in The Gambia for her first official visit since the country re-joined the Commonwealth in 2018 - almost five years after leaving the association. She commented: “President Barrow’s words are a testimony to the longstanding partnership between The Gambia and the Commonwealth."

Annual transfers of money by foreign migrant workers to their home countries play a huge role in many countries. These remittances provide income support for family members back home and, in some cases, provide funding for start-ups. Remittances are also a source of foreign exchange reserves for developing countries and they help contain trade balances and widen the revenue base through increased consumption

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland will tomorrow depart for her first official visit to The Gambia.

Beyond the immediate human impact, violence against women and girls also costs billions of dollars a year, be it in lost work, damaged children, hospital fees or police time. The global cost of violence against women and girls was estimated at $1.5 trillion in 2016 – making everyone across the world at least $200 poorer that year.

Trade ministers and business leaders from across the Commonwealth will gather virtually to examine how they can work together to spur a digitally-inclusive and green recovery in the face of devastating economic impacts linked to COVID-19.

More than 90 government officials from 11 nations have gained new skills that will help them make sound decisions on petroleum field development plans submitted by oil companies, to ensure they promote sustainable development.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General has called for “swift, coordinated, multilateral action” to support the world’s poorest nations, which are now even more vulnerable in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foreign ministers from across the Commonwealth met today in their first ever virtual meeting. The 20th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting (CFAMM) would usually take place alongside the United Nations General Assembly but was held virtually this year due to the limitations of the COVID19 pandemic.

Pacific Trade officials have wrapped up a two-day virtual workshop on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement aimed at reinvigorating intra-regional and global trade post Covid-19.

A new online portal launched by the Commonwealth Secretariat will help member countries easily find the right type of financial support to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.

Commonwealth Finance Ministers have today issued their first joint statement in over a decade, in which they called on the G20, Paris Club, World Bank and IMF to extend financial support to vulnerable nations given the deep and widespread economic impact of the COVID19 pandemic.

An innovative toolkit to help countries unlock the potential of financial technology to deliver inclusive economic progress has been launched by the Commonwealth Secretariat.