Opening remarks delivered by the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the Finance Ministers Meeting, held in Washington, in the margins of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings.
It is my great honour to welcome you to this year’s Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting, being held in Washington, in the margins of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings.
Excellencies, I want to begin by reiterating my deep gratitude for the trust your governments have placed in me. I approach this responsibility with deep humility and with determination to ensure that our Commonwealth delivers for every one of our 2.7 billion citizens.
We meet at a time when the global economy is being tested in a way we have not seen in contemporary times. Growth is becoming increasingly elusive. Debt vulnerabilities are rising. Trade is under serious pressure. Development finance is tightening, just as the climate crisis demands ever more of our resources.
For too many of our members — especially small states and least developed countries — these headwinds threaten to erase hard-won progress and constrain future opportunity.
But if the storm is real, so too is the opportunity.
At the heart of the crises we face is the breakdown of the rules-based international system. If we must be frank, even before the recent disruptions that have worsened economic performance and undermined living conditions and social protection, the international financial and trade system was no longer able to sustain growth in our countries.
For the Commonwealth, which has demonstrated exceptionalism in addressing the most difficult challenges, this is the moment to look within the Commonwealth to reverse course in our countries.
We are a family — spanning five continents, one-third of humanity, some of the world’s largest economies, and many of its smallest and most vulnerable. We share language, law, and institutions. And we trade with each other at lower cost and higher trust.
That is more than history. That is advantage: the Commonwealth Advantage.
Trade among our members is, on average, 21% cheaper. Intra-Commonwealth investment flows are ramping up. And if we seize this advantage, intra-Commonwealth trade is projected to reach two trillion dollars by 2030. That is real opportunity; real resilience — built on cooperation, not isolation. And it is why trade, investment, and economic transformation are at the heart of my vision for the Commonwealth, and central to our new Strategic Plan.
Together, with your leadership, we can ensure that small and vulnerable states move from the margins to the centre of global economic life; that we expand markets and purchasing power across the Commonwealth, so that Commonwealth businesses prosper and every Commonwealth citizen can see the value of our cooperation in their daily lives.
Honourable Ministers, the theme that guides our meeting — Strengthening Economic Resilience Amidst International Policy Shifts — could not be more timely. Because resilience does not happen by default. It must be built: through deliberate reform, bold innovation, and collective action.
We have seen the ingenuity of our members in pioneering new tools — from blue bonds for ocean conservation, to catastrophe bonds for disaster resilience, to our Commonwealth Meridian system, now used in 41 countries to strengthen debt management.
We have also seen the potential of Commonwealth advocacy in advancing fairer financing, from the Bridgetown Initiative to the recognition of multidimensional vulnerability in debt and finance discussions.
This year, as we mark forty years of the Commonwealth Debt Management Programme, we are launching the Commonwealth Year of Resilient, Innovative and Sustainable Debt — a reminder of our track record, and of the road still ahead.
But our task is larger than any single instrument or initiative. It is to build a global financial architecture that is inclusive, responsive, and structured to ensure shared prosperity. One that recognises vulnerability not only in terms of income, but in terms of exposure to shocks and stalled growth. One that enables governments to invest in their people and in climate resilience without being trapped in cycles of unsustainable debt.
Colleagues, our Commonwealth is uniquely placed to help lead this change. And that requires reimagining and reinventing the different dimensions of partnership for transformation and growth.
By combining the opportunities of our advanced economies, the dynamism of our emerging economies, and the ingenuity of our small states, we can model resilience for the wider world. This really matters – and today’s meeting will be a vital step forward. Here, we have a space to analyse the challenges, and to define a Commonwealth agenda for resilience that others can follow. Together, in the Commonwealth, we have the chance to write a new chapter: one where our shared history becomes the foundation of shared prosperity.
I am convinced that today’s threats can be tomorrow’s promise – if we choose to think beyond the past and today. If we see trade and investments and enlarged markets through the lens of endless possibility instead of old fears of risk.
That also means supporting the Commonwealth Secretariat to pursue its transformative agenda of resilience building and shared prosperity. The scale of our ambition set out in our Strategic Plan requires that we expand the funding available to the Secretariat considerably. I have already authorised the creation of a Resource Mobilisation Directorate to position us to bring in resources from traditional and non-traditional sources. I myself plan to visit a number of our member countries as well as non-member countries to advocate for funding of our core priorities as well as for partners, such as the Commonwealth of Learning, to expand its digital skills education to over 10 million young people. I appeal to you to become the champions for funding the Commonwealth’s agenda through early payment towards pledges as well as for funding the CFTC (the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation).
So let us be bold. Let us harness our shared values, our common interests, and our joint action. Let us turn our solidarity into prosperity.
Because if we stand together, we can turn today’s headwinds into tomorrow’s pathways of growth and opportunity — for every nation, and for every citizen, of our Commonwealth.
