Latest content: Trade and economy

The Think Trade, Think Green: Commonwealth Innovative Youth Essay Award has been launched by the Trade Competitiveness Section and the Commonwealth Youth Programme as part of activities planned for the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa. The 56 Commonwealth member countries have a combined population of 2.7 billion people, with over 60 per cent aged between 15 and 29. The role of young people as agents of positive change and creators of innovative projects in their communities and countries is increasingly recognised as they contribute to finding solutions to the myriad challenges facing our world.

The world is significantly off-track in terms of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on zero hunger by 2030. Eliminating hunger, ensuring food security and promoting healthy diets and better nutrition through the development of sustainable food systems are priorities for Commonwealth member countries. This 2024 edition of the Commonwealth Trade Review explores how trade, investment and resilient supply chains can bolster food security for the Commonwealth’s 2.7 billion people.

This report analyses how international trade in general, and agriculture trade in particular, can be mobilised to raise agricultural productivity, promote access to nutritious food and sustainably facilitate trade in agricultural commodities, and offers policy recommendations to support agricultural trade to achieve these ends.

Africa holds about 30 per cent of the world’s mineral resources, many of which are vital for the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables and low-carbon technologies, including electricity networks, battery storage and electric vehicles (Chandler, 2022). Global efforts to meet the Paris Agreement’s ambition of net-zero emissions by 2050, therefore, would place ‘Africaat the heart of the green energy transition, both in environmental and geopolitical terms’.

Critical minerals mining in Africa plays a crucial role in the global economy, supplying essential resources for advanced technologies. The continent is endowed with abundant deposits, nearly 30 percent of the world’s share of vital minerals, including cobalt, lithium, manganese and graphite, which are indispensable for producing electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. The demand for criticalminerals for these technologies is projected to increase fivefold over the next decade.

This paper, the first of a two-part series, examines the renewable energy landscape in least developed countries (LDCs) and explores the scope to expand renewable energy generation and trade in these countries by maximising the potential of their renewable energy endowments.

This paper, the second of a two-part series, focuses on the role of trade and investment in enabling the diffusion of green technologies to least developed countries (LDCs) to help their transition to renewable energy.

Advancements in blockchain and distributed ledger technology have had a revolutionary impact across many sectors, particularly finance. With these technologies likely to play ever more prominent roles in our economies, this Model Law for Virtual Assets provides Commonwealth member countries with a regulatory framework that will give much-needed legislative clarity to financial markets and vital protection to customers.

Data could be the conduit for boosting intra-Commonwealth trade and investment as enshrined in the ‘Declaration on the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda for Trade and Investment’. The sharing of data according to the Open Data Institute (ODI), can create social and economic value for people, organisations, and the wider economy. Ensuring data sovereignty including maintaining a secure, trusted data environment, governments have an important role to play in laying the foundations for a flourishing data-driven economy by pursuing policies that improve the flow of data and ensuring that companies who want to innovate have appropriate access to high-quality and well-maintained data.

Ghana is well positioned to tap into the potential of digitalisation across its agriculture sector. A multi-stakeholder dialogue with representatives from the sector, including digital agricultural services providers, confirmed that numerous organisations were already engaged in agricultural data management. Participants identified and shared experiences of several well-established systems and platforms for data management already operational in the country. However, they also described fragmented databases, an unwillingness to share data, operational inefficiencies, data collection fatigue, unsuited policies based on unreliable data and a data power imbalance.

Transitioning to green trade is a matter of urgency, given the drastic impacts of the climate crisis in several countries across the Commonwealth and world over.

This toolkit offers practical guidance on how to implement gender-responsive practices in marine conservation, fisheries, maritime transportation and tourism, in order to empower women and gender minorities and unlock the full potential of sustainable blue economies. Based on research and stakeholder consultations, and designed to provide clear guidance on meaningfully integrating gender perspectives into ocean policies and practices through practical guidance and best practices, the toolkit should serve as a valuable resource for it is an invaluable resource for policymakers, organisations and individuals dedicated to advancing gender equity in ocean sectors.