The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 independent and equal countries. It is home to 2.5 billion people, and includes both advanced economies and developing countries. 33 of our members are small states, including many island nations. Our member governments have agreed to shared goals like development, democracy and peace. Our values and principles are expressed in the Commonwealth Charter.

The Commonwealth Secretariat is the intergovernmental organisation that supports member countries to achieve the Commonwealth’s aims of development, democracy and peace. It publishes authoritative, evidence-based research and knowledge products for policymakers, academics, professionals and wider publics across the world. Our areas of focus and expertise include small and developing states; environment and climate change; democracy, law and government; and social issues concerning young people, gender, health and education.

Changing the Law

Changing the Law: A Practical Guide to Law Reform is designed to provide practical assistance to users seeking to deliver high standard law reform outcomes. Using examples and experience from around the Commonwealth and beyond, it guides users through each phase of a successful reform, from initiation to final implementation.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291743
  • Publication Date: Nov 2017
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Judicial Resource Book on Violence Against Women for Asia

Niaz A. Shah

The Judicial Resource Book on Violence Against Women for Asia deepens our understanding of the forms of VAWG and raises awareness of the role that the judiciary can play in tackling them. It can be used by judicial officers and other professionals to promote justice and fairness in the judicial process for women who have been victims of violence.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291750
  • Publication Date: Mar 2018
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Small States Economic Review and Basic Statistics, Volume 20

Small States: Economic Review and Basic Statistics is a flagship publication of the Commonwealth Secretariat highlighting the development indicators of small states and disseminating knowledge on their economic performance.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291774
  • Publication Date: Apr 2018
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

A Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Elections in Commonwealth Africa

A Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Elections in Commonwealth Africa: Achieving 50:50 by 2030 reviews the systems, legislation and best practice that will need to be implemented and effectively monitored to get more women into politics and help to realise Sustainable Development Goal 5 – achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291781
  • Publication Date: Apr 2018
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Key Principles of Public Sector Reforms

Joan Nwasike

This book contains case studies from Cameroon, Ghana, Grenada, India, Kenya, Rwanda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago on the policy reforms, strategies and methodologies that support national priorities and greater policy coherence for sustained development and growth.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291811
  • Publication Date: Aug 2018
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The Economic Cost of Violence Against Women and Girls

A framework to assess the economic cost of violence against women and girls that captures linkages and secondary effects to assess the full impact of VAWG. Data gathered will be useful for reporting on SDG5 and SDG16, assess national statistical systems, and measure progress across all of the SDGs in a manner that is inclusive and fair.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291873
  • Publication Date: Jul 2019
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Least Developed Country Transition

Jodie Keane

Progress made in the Least Developed Counties (LDCs) in the Commonwealth will contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To this end, this book identifies areas in which international support measures could be improved to reduce economic vulnerability in Bangladesh, Mozambique and Solomon Islands.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291910
  • Publication Date: Mar 2020
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Cybersecurity for Elections

The use of computers and other technology introduces a range of risks to electoral integrity. Cybersecurity for Elections explains how cybersecurity issues can compromise traditional aspects of elections, explores how cybersecurity interacts with the broader electoral environment, and offers principles for managing cybersecurity risks.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291927
  • Publication Date: May 2020
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Overview of Youth Development in Ghana

This book makes recommendations for how Ghana can mainstream youth issues in its development strategies, providing baseline evaluations of socio-economic issues that particularly affect the youth demographic, such as underemployment, a lack of access to quality education and poverty.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291972
  • Publication Date: Apr 2021
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Alternative Development Strategies for SIDS

Kris Terauds

This Economic Paper builds on the 2014 SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway, which provides guidance on economic, environmental and social priorities in small island developing states. It offers detailed analysis and guidance on alternative economic development strategies and recommends policies to build competitiveness in new industries.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291989
  • Publication Date: Jul 2021
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Commonwealth Trade Review 2021

Commonwealth Trade Review 2021, 'Energising Commonwealth Trade in a Digital World: Paths to Recovery Post-COVID', presents empirical findings of the impact of the pandemic and proposals to boost trade recovery and resilience, by harnessing digital technologies, post-Brexit trading opportunities, and promoting sustainable green and blue economies.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849291996
  • Publication Date: Jul 2021
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Economic, Social & Cultural Rights in Practice

Yash Ghai

Examines the record of jurisdictions in which attempts have been made at judicial enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights. Contributions provide insights into the methods, specificity, and limits of judicial enforcement.

  • Imprint: Interights Publishing
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781869940270
  • Publication Date: May 2004
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Ultrasonography of the Bovine Musculoskeletal System

Johann Kofler

  • Format: Hardback
  • ISBN: 9783899939767
  • Publication Date: Jun 2021
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Overcoming Stagnation in Aid-Dependent Countries

Nicolas van de Walle

In this book, Nicolas Van de Walle identifies 26 countries that are extremely poor and grew little if at all in the 1990s. His sample excludes North Korea and countries where civil war explains some of their failure to grow (Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tajikistan and others). The 26 countries have limited infrastructure and human capital and the small size of their markets deter private savings and investment. Aid was meant to help overcome these problems, and these countries received a lot. Yet they have failed to grow. What is wrong? Is foreign aid a solution or part of the problem? What changes might make aid more effective? Given these countries require the financial and technical resources of the West, why haven't aid programs made a difference? Van de Walle blames their economic failure mostly on the venality and incompetence of their political leadership. He analyzes the contradictions and tensions faced by the aid community in poorly run countries, providing a sobering analysis of the perverse effects of aid where the politics is all wrong. Too often, resources provided by foreign aid keep the wrong government in office, and undermine adoption of economic as well as political reforms. Bad government combined with aid, in short, hurts poor countries – and particularly the poorest people in those countries. Despite good intentions, little progress has been made in implementing announced "reforms" of the aid business itself. A constituency for reform is lacking, in the donor countries and in the recipient countries, where those in power benefit from the status quo.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286013
  • Publication Date: Mar 2005
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Short of the Goal

Nancy Birdsall

Failed states are at greatest risk for collapse and pose an urgent threat to international security. Yet, ironically, new U.S. foreign assistance programs such as the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) routinely bypass these poorly performing countries, while providing increased aid to so-called good performers. This volume provides a lucid account of failed states that are ineligible for this new assistance, thus residing "on the other side of the MCA." The first part analyzes U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Indonesia, Yemen, Myanmar, and Central America in order to examine the fundamental causes of poor performance. The second part examines the role of specific U.S. policy instruments in building state capacity to prevent deterioration and collapse. Uncovering one of the most recognizable, yet poorly understood, trends in the developing world, Short of the Goal sets an important agenda for increased American engagement with failed states to promote both development and security in the developing world.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286051
  • Publication Date: May 2006
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Fair Growth

Nancy Birdsall

Until recently, students of development have put much more energy into understanding the causes and consequences of absolute poverty than of inequality. But globalization—with its new opportunities for winners and losers, and its new insecurities and competitive pressures—is changing that. Nowhere is the issue of inequality more worrying than in Latin America, the setting for many of the world's most unequal societies. This book presents a dozen ideas or "tools" meant to make life in Latin America more equitable and fair for the great majority of its people. It suggests policies and programs for making tax structures more progressive; giving small businesses a chance; protecting labor mobility and workers' rights; tackling corruption head on; and raising the levels of quality, efficiency, and equity of the education systems. Change and reform in the direction of greater fairness will require not only political leadership and technical know-how on the part of government officials and legislators, but support and input from the progressive business community, the increasingly effective and vocal civil society, and students and intellectuals.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286167
  • Publication Date: Jan 2008
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