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Commonwealth Secretariat Gets More Financial Backing From CIDA

11 March 2005

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Winston Cox
Deputy Secretary-General Winston Cox
The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) signed two grant agreements totalling half-a-million Canadian dollars (£214,000) on 11 March 2005.

Commenting on the strengthening of collaboration between CIDA and the Secretariat, the Deputy Secretary-General Winston Cox said: "These generous contributions by Canada will be used to strengthen the participation of developing countries in the ongoing trade negotiations and to enhance their ability to identify and take advantage of opportunities offered by globalisation, as well as to enhance the Secretariat's work in the area of evaluation and performance measurement."

Robert Benoit, Senior Programme Manager of CIDA noted: "CIDA is contributing a further C$300,000 towards the Trade and Investment Access Facility (TIAF) to facilitate the integration of Commonwealth developing countries, especially the small states and least developed countries into the global trading system. This is particularly important for the ongoing negotiations on the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Other key contributors to the TIAF include Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Over £4 million has been contributed to TIAF since its inception in 1997 and to date, the Facility has funded more than 55 projects. Its major areas of focus has been in assisting developing countries in implementing agreements with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in such areas as sanitary and phytosanitary standards, technical barriers to trade, customs implementation, trade facilitation and assistance in trade negotiations. TIAF projects have also focused on enhancing investment flows and promoting long-term commercial investment in private sector companies in member countries, through the promotion of regional private investment funds. The TIAF supplements other trade and investment related work of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

A second grant of C$200,000 will support the Secretariat's performance management systems and evaluation process as part of efforts designed to enhance efficiency and a results-oriented approach. It will also contribute to financing a Gender Performance Audit to commence later this year, which is a key Secretariat commitment in the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality.

Canada is one of the main contributors to the Secretariat, and in particular, to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation. Funds provided through CIDA support sustainable socio-economic development in more than 60 Commonwealth developing countries and regional institutions.

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