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Capacity Development

Strengthening regional institutions

We work to strengthen regional institutions and promote intra-regional collaboration on environment, natural resources and climate change for sustainable development.  We provide technical support and broker relationships that help countries improve their institutional capacity for governance of natural resources.  For instance, at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, the Secretariat brokered the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between the Indian Ocean Commission, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. These landmark agreements are a commitment by the regional organisations to cooperate on practical steps to deal with the effects of climate change and to promote sustainable development. The partnership will enable the regions to collaborate on finding solutions to priority challenges of small island developing states and low-lying coastal states in sustainable development and climate change. Issues of focus include ocean governance, financing mechanisms, skills development and training, and youth engagement.

The Secretariat aims to provide continued technical policy advice and support to these regional centres-of-excellence to help them in implementing the Memorandum of Understanding, for example with emphasis on biodiversity, natural resources, climate change and valuation of natural capital.

Exchange of experiences and good practice

We also facilitate institutional capacity building on environmental governance issues, through the exchange of knowledge, experiences and good practices on our online network, Commonwealth Connects. The network is an online community of practice for government officials and policymakers to share policy documents and other knowledge resources and exchange experiences amongst Commonwealth's developed and developing countries.

The Secretariat provides technical advice to member states on environmental governance approaches when requested. We also facilitate placement of environmental experts to Commonwealth countries to provide technical assistance and share good practices in national and regional institutions, on the green economy, and integrated approaches to governance of natural capital and natural resources economics.