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.

Personal Financial Planning

Joyce Nga

  • Imprint: Scola Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9789675492761
  • Publication Date: Aug 2022
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Manoeuvring at the Margins

Emily Jones

Highlights three areas where small states can maximise their potential influence: establishing an effective negotiating team by strengthening human resources; harnessing the support of civil society and the private sector; and, improving negotiation strategies.

  • Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849290067
  • Publication Date: Feb 2010
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Public-Private Partnerships Policy and Practice

H.K. Yong

A comprehensive reference guide on Public-Private Partnerships theory and practice for senior policy-makers and other public sector officials in developing countries. The guide focuses on the key lessons learned - and emerging best practice - from successful and failed PPP transactions over the past thirty years.

  • Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849290203
  • Publication Date: Sep 2010
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

The Impact of China and India on Sub-Saharan Africa

Oliver Morrissey

Through detailed country-level analysis, this study examines the trading partnerships between China, India and sub-Saharan Africa. It assesses the economic impacts, identifies challenges and provides recommendations to assist policy-makers enhance the ability of SSA countries to derive benefits and to take advantage of new opportunities.

  • Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849290555
  • Publication Date: May 2011
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

The Commonwealth Guide to Advancing Development through Sport

Tess Kay

A Guide for governments and stakeholders seeking to strengthen the contribution of sport to development and peace work. Part 1 provides evidence-based analysis of the potential contribution of sport to development objectives. Part 2 provides a practical framework for analysis, planning and monitoring of sport in development and peace work.

  • Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781849290876
  • Publication Date: Jun 2013
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

City Slicker

Phil Kettle

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781925308372
  • Publication Date: Dec 2021
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Chookshed Blues

Phil Kettle

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781925308570
  • Publication Date: Dec 2021
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

The Rise and Fall of the Department for International Development

Mark Lowcock

  • Format: Hardback
  • ISBN: 9781944691134
  • Publication Date: Oct 2024
  • Availability: Not Yet Available - Pre-Order Now

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

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
  • Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 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

Emerging Africa

Steven Radelet

Emerging Africa describes the too-often-overlooked positive changes that have taken place in much of Africa since the mid-1990s. In 17 countries, five fundamental and sustained breakthroughs are making old assumptions increasingly untenable:• The rise of democracy brought on by the end of the Cold War and apartheid• Stronger economic management• The end of the debt crisis and a more constructive relationship with the international community• The introduction of new technologies, especially mobile phones and the Internet• The emergence of a new generation of leaders.With these significant changes, the countries of emerging Africa seem poised to lead the continent out of the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past. The countries discussed in the book are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286518
  • Publication Date: Sep 2010
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working 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

Oil to Cash

Todd Moss

What should a country do if it suddenly discovers oil and gas? How should it spend the subsequent cash windfall? How can it protect against corruption? How can citizens truly benefit from national wealth? With many of the world's poorest and most fragile states suddenly joining the ranks of oil and gas producers, these are pressing policy questions. Oil to Cash explores one option that may help avoid the so-called resource curse: just give the money directly to citizens. A universal, transparent, and regular cash transfer would not only provide a concrete benefit to regular people, but would also create powerful incentives for citizens to hold their government accountable. Oil to Cash details how and where this idea could work and how policymakers can learn from the experiences with cash transfers in places like Mexico, Mongolia, and Alaska.

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9781933286693
  • Publication Date: Jun 2015
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Excellent Online Science Teaching

Frances Karels

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780940017450
  • Publication Date: Sep 2019
  • Availability: Special order: Usually despatched within 14-18 days

Unheard Voices of the Next Generation

Sasha Toperich

  • Format: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9780960012718
  • Publication Date: May 2022
  • Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days