Sustainability

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Promoting environmentally and socially sustainable economic development in member countries is a crucial objective for the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The Secretariat supports the principles of the 1987 Brundtland Report which defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

To achieve this objective, our approach co-ordinates economic, environmental and social policies that aim to maintain and improve living standards for Commonwealth citizens.

What are the Secretariat’s goals in this area?

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s goal is to promote economic and social development, however, our prime concern is that this is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report, 1987)

If you would like to request assistance from the Secretariat what should you do?

Please contact Janet Strachan (j.strachan@commonwealth.int or +44 207 747 6270).

How do I become a volunteer with the Commonwealth Service Abroad Programme?

CSAP maintains a roster of expert volunteers and will not undertake any project unless and until, a talented volunteer is available of whom it could be proud. The prime trait that CSAP looks for in an expert is the ability to deliver results. Other desirable characteristics include being culturally sensitive, creative and innovative. If you think you have what it takes check yourself against the criteria by clicking this link

Please note the current capacity of CSAP is limited to about 15 projects a year requiring some 30 experts a year.

How can a government request CSAP Assistance?

In the government of each Commonwealth country, there is a designated Point of Contact from whom a request for CSAP assistance must come for CSAP's consideration. However, CSAP welcomes any specific project proposal for its opinion and ideas before you submit it formally to the government officials in your country.

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. (Source: UN).

The eight goals are:

• Eradcate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development

What do we mean by high level forums?

High-level forums are meetings attended usually by senior political dignitaries or their representatives, policy makers and academics, designed to bring new levels of understanding to particular challenges.

What is our definition of a small state?

We define small states as countries with a population of 1.5 million or less. These countries possess unique special development challenges – limited diversification, limited capacity, poverty, susceptibility to natural disasters and environmental change, remoteness and isolation, openness, and income volatility. Our grouping of small states also includes the larger member countries of Jamaica, Lesotho, Namibia and Papua New Guinea because they share many of the same characteristics of smallness.

How many Commonwealth countries are small states?

Thirty-two of the Commonwealth's 53 member countries are small states. They range in size from micro-states such as St Kitts and Nevis, Nauru, Niue, and Tuvalu with less than 50,000 people each, to countries like Botswana, The Gambia and Mauritius.

The small states are:

• Africa- Botswana, The Gambia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles and Swaziland
• Asia - Brunei Darussalam and Maldives
• Caribbean - Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago
• Europe - Cyprus and Malta
• Pacific - Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu

What is climate change?

Climate change refers to changes in average climatic conditions. It is caused by natural processes – including solar activity, volcanic eruptions, and cyclic changes of the earth’s orbit –and human activities, most notably those that release greenhouse gases (e.g. burning fossil fuel) and those that change the land cover (e.g. destroying ecosystems like forests and wetlands that have the capacity to move greenhouse gases from the atmosphere). (Source: Commonwealth Secretariat Discussion Paper – Local Governments and Climate Change)

What is urbanisation?

• increase in the proportion of a population living in urban areas;

• process by which a large number of people becomes permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.

(Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development website)

What is the Iwokrama International Rainforest Centre for Conservation and Development?

The ‘Iwokrama programme’ was an outcome of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malaysia in 1989 when the then President of Guyana, Desmond Hoyte, offered some 360,000 hectares of virgin rainforest for a project to develop and demonstrate methods of sustainable tropical rainforest use and of conserving biological diversity. The Commonwealth Secretariat serves on the International Board of Trustees.

What are human settlements?

Human Settlements are the areas where we all live. However, for the first time in history we have reached a point where more people now live in cities and towns than in rural areas. Cities and towns are now growing at an unprecedented rate, and this puts tremendous strain on existing infrastructure leading to a large increase in slum areas.

What is environmentally sustainable economic development?

Environmentally sustainable economic development, is economic development that maintains and protects the natural resource base, so that it can continue to provide essential environmental products and services for generations far into the future.

How many Commonwealth citizens live in slums?

Of the two billion people who live in the Commonwealth, almost one in six live in slums as poverty has become an urban phenomenon.

What is the Commonwealth Climate Change Action Plan?

This plan was endorsed by Commonwealth Heads of Government on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda in November 2007.

The Plan calls for action in six areas:

• quality and participation of governments in international negotiations on climate change;
  
• consideration of the human and economic aspects of climate change, drawing on Commonwealth networks;
  
• improved land use management and sustainable use of forest resources, including efforts to widen international knowledge and support of the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme;
  
• impact of the concept of carbon miles in food production and exports, especially with respect to developing countries;
  
• natural disaster risk management in member countries; and 
• technical assistance and other support to least developed countries and vulnerable small states.

Read the Commonwealth Climate Change Action Plan

More about the Commonwealth's work on Sustainability
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