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.

Citizenship Education in Small States

Patricia Ellis

These books focus on the outcomes of this project in the respective countries, providing valuable insights into the strengthening of values in a society. They set out the strategies and actions needed to support small states wishing to promote the values of good citizenship.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850927306
  • Publication Date: Jan 2002
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Citizenship Education in Small States

Una M. Paul

Identity and diversity in all its forms present major challenges to countries seeking to best equip citizens with the skills to participate effectively in their diverse societies. They set out the strategies and actions needed to support small states wishing to promote the values of good citizenship.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850927313
  • Publication Date: Jan 2002
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Kenya General Election, 27 December 2002

Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group for Kenya's general election held on 27 December 2002. The group was chaired by Professor Adebayo Adedeji and was comprised of 9 observers in total.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850927856
  • Publication Date: Aug 2006
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

The National Assembly and Presidential Elections in Nigeria, 12 and 19 April 2003

Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group for Nigeria's national assembly and presidential elections held on 12 and 19 April 2003. The group was chaired by HE Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, former prime minister of the United Republic of Tanzania and was comprised of 14 eminent persons in total.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850927863
  • Publication Date: Aug 2006
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

A Manual of International Dispute Resolution

Anthony Connerty

A practical guide to international dispute resolution and settlement, especially in the fields of trade and commerce, investment, and intellectual property. The book will be of interest to readers worldwide who need to understand international dispute resolution processes and institutions.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850928372
  • Publication Date: Nov 2006
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Financing Local Government

Nick Devas

Explores how fiscal decentralisation takes place alongside administrative decentralisation. This book considers the revenue sources available, systems of intergovernmental transfers between central and local government, and the procedures necessary to ensure that local governments use their financial resources appropriately.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850928532
  • Publication Date: Jun 2008
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Assessing the Playing Field

Camille Stoll-Davey

Full participation by small and developing countries in the financial services sector requires a "level playing field". This work analyses debates on this issue between the OECD and small and developing countries, and suggests ways to ensure fairness in international taxation matters.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850928563
  • Publication Date: May 2007
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Horticultural Chain Management for Eastern and Southern Africa

Ameliat Lombard

Designed to help trainers develop suitable materials to assist small farmers and producers to supply high quality horticultural produce for sale. This title provides the trainer with practical tasks that reinforce and enhance comprehension of theoretical training.

  • Format: Spiral bound
  • ISBN: 9780850928594
  • Publication Date: Mar 2009
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Gender and Trade Action Guide

Catherine Atthill

The Action Guide is flexible and can be used by trainers or for self-study. It includes case studies, activities, training suggestions and recommended readings provided on CD-ROM and can be used as a basic introduction or as a resource to develop capacity building for others.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780850928624
  • Publication Date: Jun 2007
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Reality Check

John Nellis

Throughout the 1990's, privatization of inefficient state-owned enterprises was strongly embraced in developing and transitional economies. Little attention has gone to the distributional implications of the privatization movement, a particularly surprising oversight given the current backlash in many settings against further privatization. This book offers a comprehensive set of country-specific studies on the effects of privatization on people—winners and losers in different income, employment, and education groups. The studies analyze the changes in public tax revenue from privatized enterprises, shifts in pension and other liabilities, and changes in income of different groups. Contributors include David McKenzie (Stanford University), Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University), Gover Barja (Universidad Católica Boliviana, La Paz), Miguel Urquiola (Columbia University), Samuel Freije (Universidad de Las Américas in Puebla, Mexico), Luis A. Rivas (Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Nicaragua), Máximo Torero, Enrique Schroth, and Alberto Pasco Font (Group of Analysis for Development [GRADE], Lima), Roberto Macedo (University of São Paulo, Presbyterian Mackenzie University, and Foundation Institute of Economic Research, São Paolo), Antonio Estache (World Bank), Michael Bleyzer and Edi Segura (SigmaBleyzer Corporation), Gary H. Jefferson, (Brandeis University), Su Jian (Brandeis and Peking Universities), Jiang Yuan and Yu Xinhua (National Bureau of Statistics, Beijing), and Malathy Knight-John and P.P.A. Wasantha (Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka).

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286006
  • Publication Date: Oct 2005
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Inexcusable Absence

Maureen A. Lewis

Girls' education, indisputably crucial to development, has received a lot of attention--but surprisingly little hardheaded analysis to inform practical policy solutions. In Inexcusable Absence, Maureen Lewis and Marlaine Lockheed propose new strategies for reaching the 70 percent of out-of-school girls who are "doubly disadvantaged" by their ethnicity, language, or other factors. The book will be an important tool for policymakers, informing interventions that can make a profound impact on the lives of the 60 million out-of-school girls.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286143
  • Publication Date: Dec 2006
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Exclusion, Gender and Education

Maureen A. Lewis

Girls have achieved remarkable increases in primary schooling over the past decade, yet millions are still not in school. In their previous book, Inexcusable Absence, Maureen A. Lewis and Marlaine E. Lockheed reported the startling new finding that nearly threequarters of the girls who are not in school belong to ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial, or other minorities. In this companion volume, they further analyze the determinants of school enrollment, completion, and learning in seven countries: the highly heterogeneous populations of Laos, China, Pakistan, India, and Guatemala and the homogeneous populations of Bangladesh and Tunisia. The authors find that in ethnically and linguistically diverse populations, minority groups—minority girls in particular— lag significantly behind the majority population in school attendance, while highly homogeneous populations like Bangladesh and Tunisia have successfully integrated girls into school on a par with boys. By increasing understanding about the major impediments to universal primary education, Exclusion, Gender and Education provides valuable new knowledge to those who are working to bring gender equity to the education systems of poor countries.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286228
  • Publication Date: Oct 2007
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Africa's Private Sector

Vijaya Ramachandran

Why is business performance lagging in Africa? To provide answers, this volume focuses on the day-to-day problems that private sector managers and entrepreneurs there encounter. Through enterprise surveys conducted in several African countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, these businesspeople identify poor infrastructure—particularly the lack of a reliable source of power—as a huge constraint on private sector activity.Politics also plays a key role in limiting the success of African businesses. Many countries there have private sectors that are ethnically segmented or dominated by ethnic minorities or both. Segmented networks in already sparse economic environments limit competition, encourage an ambivalent attitude toward facilitating a good business environment, and constrain the growth of firms outside the dominant network. Consequently, Africa has yet to see the emergence of a broad-based business class. Africa's Private Sector identifies several solutions to address both the infrastructure and political economy constraints hampering business growth in Africa.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286280
  • Publication Date: Jan 2009
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Beyond Lending

Guillermo Perry

When he began this book in early 2008, Guillermo Perry argued that developing countries remained highly vulnerable to external risks such as commodity price declines, capital flow reversals, and natural disasters. The economic crisis that has since ensued confirmed Perry's analysis. It has also made his proposal more important than ever: multilateral development banks (MDBs) should move beyond lending to provide innovative risk-management tools for developing countries to manage volatility. The risk that MDBs will fall into complacency as the short-term demand for traditional loans increases during the crisis should not deter innovations to ensure long-term stability.Contents1. Causes and Consequences of High Volatility in Developing Countries2. The Role of Financial Insurance and Hedging3. Dealing with Liquidity Shocks and the Procyclicality of Private Capital Flows4. Dealing with Currency Risks5. Dealing with Commodity Price, Terms of Trade, and Output Risks6. Dealing with Natural Disaster Risks7. Why Multilateral Development Bank Practices Are So Far from Their Potential8. An Agenda Going Forward

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286327
  • Publication Date: May 2009
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Due Diligence

David Roodman

The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is?Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286488
  • Publication Date: Dec 2011
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Cash on Delivery

Nancy Birdsall

Foreign aid has no shortage of critics. Some argue that it undermines development and inherently does more harm than good; others insist that aid must be seriously reformed to work properly. Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid proposes serious reform to make aid work well by forcing accountability, aligning the objectives of funders and recipients, and sharing information about what works.Public and private aid can improve lives in poor countries, but the willingness of taxpayers and private funders to finance aid programs depends more than ever on showing results. COD Aid is a funding mechanism that hinges on results. At its core is a contract between funders and recipients that stipulates a fixed payment for each unit of confirmed progress toward an agreed-upon goal. Once the contract is struck, the funder takes a hands-off approach, allowing the recipient the freedom and responsibility to achieve the goal on its own. Payment is made only after progress toward the goal is independently verified by a third party. At all steps, a COD Aid program is remarkably transparent: the contract, the amount of progress made, and the payment are disseminated publicly to highlight the credibility of the arrangement and improve accountability to the public. COD Aid is a new approach to foreign aid, but one that complements other aid programs and would ultimately encourage funders and recipients to use existing resources more efficiently.Cash On Delivery Aid: A New Approach to Foreign Aid explains the approach in detail and investigates its application in one sector: education. More specifically, the authors show how foreign aid agencies could use COD Aid to help developing countries achieve universal primary school education. The example illustrates how to deal with potential challenges of the approach—challenges that are no greater than those of traditional aid—and includes model term sheets for contracts that could be used for any COD Aid agreement.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286600
  • Publication Date: Apr 2011
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days