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WASHINGTON DC, 21 September 2011: Commonwealth finance ministers, meeting in Washington DC on 21 September 2011, called on the international community to strengthen mutual accountability backed by transparency in delivery and use of aid, in order to make it effective in creating jobs, improving livelihoods and combating poverty.

Foreign ministers to prepare for CHOGM at their meeting in New York; finance ministers to meet in Washington DC

“New ways of raising funds for development, aid effectiveness and deepening relations with G20 to dominate agenda”

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma says common goals strengthen collaborative efforts for sustainable development

Most vulnerable countries face problems accessing climate change funds

Seminar strengthens capacity of drafting offices

Senior government officials from 46 Commonwealth countries and three regional organisations met in London from 6 to 8 July 2011 to discuss and agree to steps that need to be taken to sharpen and improve the delivery of the ����̽��’s development assistance.

Members of the Commonwealth and the Francophonie, including several developing countries from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Caribbean Regions, together with several G20 members of the two associations, met in Cape Town on 28th June 2011 to discuss the G20 Multi-Year Action Plan on Development. They received a presentation by South Africa, co-Chair with France and Korea of the G20 Development Working Group (DWG) on progress by the DWG; and welcomed the attendance and participation of a number of other G20 member countries and international organisations.

The ����̽�� and the Organisation Internationale de La Francophonie (OIF) - two global organisations whose members include about 100 of the worlds’ poorest, smallest and most vulnerable countries, with a population of about 2.5 billion people, are seeking to provide a series of practical inputs to the development agenda of the G20 – a  Group of the world’s most advanced and emerging economies.

“There is an emerging dynamism on the African continent. Purposefulness and energy are the new face of Africa” – Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith

Sharma visits Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines in official visit to the Caribbean region

Annual consultation to focus on investment aimed at women’s development and increased access to finance for women’s enterprise

Countries with deeper economic integration and regional co-operation are better able to pull resources together – Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General, Ransford Smith

“We want the Commonwealth to be an association of authority and impact,” declared the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, in an interim statement issued at its third meeting in Malaysia on 26-27 January.

“We want the Commonwealth to be an association of authority and impact,” declared the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, in an interim statement issued at its third meeting in Malaysia on 26-27 January.

Outcomes Document

Officials and experts from Commonwealth countries most vulnerable to climate change will meet in Sussex, near London, from 23 to 25 January 2011, to explore practical ways of accessing, managing and using funds to tackle the potentially devastating effects of changing global weather patterns.