Latest content: Small states

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has welcomed reports the government of Brunei Darussalam has placed a full moratorium on the death penalty, inclusive of the Syariah Penal Code Order (SPCO).

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has re-deployed a Commonwealth Observer Group to observe the referendum in Belize. The referendum was originally scheduled for 10 April, but subsequently postponed to 8 May 2019.

Samoa faced huge flooding in 2018 after torrential rain fell overnight, leaving a trail of destruction, 330 people evacuated and $10 million of infrastructural damage. The lessons learned from this experience made Samoa a suitable location to host the fifth Commonwealth Global Biennial Conference on Small States under the theme ‘Building Resilience Through Disaster Risk Reduction’. The conference brought together officials from 23 small states and 20 development agencies to discuss disaster risk financing solutions.

Commonwealth countries wrapped up two days of deliberations today, with a plan to support micro, small and medium-sized businesses looking to gain a foothold in global markets and supply chains.

A blog by Heather Cover-Kus, Technical Research Officer - Economic Policy and Small States, at the Commonwealth Secretariat

The Commonwealth’s Climate Finance Access Hub aims to more than double the number of advisers deployed to help vulnerable countries unlock funds to tackle climate change.

Pacific youth leaders at the Global Biennial Conference on Small States in Samoa have called for solidarity among young people to urgently address climate change and halt the existential threat to future generations.

A Commonwealth conference to strengthen small states’ access to disaster finance and help build their resilience against external shocks, has started in Samoa today.

Officials from small states have completed specially-designed training aimed at strengthening their skills in disaster risk financing. The two-day session in Samoa on disaster finance and disaster risk management was the first such activity delivered by the Commonwealth in partnership with the World Bank.

Small states in the Commonwealth are ideally placed to benefit from the development of solutions which reduce the devastating impact of natural disasters, according to the Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.

More than 500 representatives from governments, non-profits and global conglomerates joined forces to accelerate resilience building in Caribbean countries still recovering from hurricane devastation.

During the last leg of negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) this week in Poland, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu – an island nation of about 11,000 people located in the South Pacific acutely threatened by climate change – has called on the Commonwealth to leverage its 53-strong membership for climate action.

New research argues that the world’s poorest countries need to change their approach to entrepreneurship, if they want businesses to boost sustainable development. 

The small states of the Commonwealth could be losing out on $4.5 billion of overseas development assistance, a preliminary Commonwealth Secretariat study has shown.

Caribbean countries of the Commonwealth met in Georgetown, Guyana this week to deliberate on how to respond to major shifts in the global trade landscape.

Senior officials from Commonwealth small states have benefited from a roundtable human rights briefing, aimed at improving their ability to constructively engage with the international human rights system.

The Government of Seychelles in collaboration with the Commonwealth has launched the ‘Blue Economy Strategic Framework and Roadmap’ to build its ocean-based economy.

Mutual co-operation and respect for the rule of law received unanimous backing at the Meeting of Law Ministers and Attorneys General of Small Commonwealth Jurisdictions that has concluded in London.

The Commonwealth Small States Trade Finance Facility has become operational. Its supervisory board met for the first time today, in Malta. The Facility can now begin work to increase trade and investment flows for the 31 small states of the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, has recommended that small member countries put legal measures in place to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

The ‘Ask The Expert’ series features leading specialists who work at the Commonwealth Secretariat in specialised areas. In this fourth edition, Travis Mitchell, Head of Economic Policy and Small States, talks about the priority areas that will be discussed at this year’s Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting.

Pacific leaders have urged the Commonwealth Secretariat to ‘reshape and extend’ the Hub and Spokes programme beyond its proposed closure in November 2018.