Success Stories

On this page you will find a selection of case studies from recent grants awards featured in our twice-yearly magazine, Commonwealth People.

East Africa's Young Carers

It’s sometimes said that the global economy is like an iceberg. Most visible is the formal economy but below the surface lies all the unspoken unformalised infrastructure which includes social care. And some of the most invisible carers of all are young people.

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Debating Disability

That disabled people do not enjoy equal access to their human rights has been internationally acknowledged since the mid-1980s. The majority of people with disabilities live in poverty. For this part of the population society itself tends to be excluding, discriminatory, at best condescending, and ultimately disabling.

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A Tsunami of Tourism

The tsunami in December 2004 was the biggest natural disaster in modern history. Some 230,000 people lost their lives, many more their homes and livelihoods. Many survivors along the coasts of India and Sri Lanka used to fish to earn their living, farmed close to the sea or relied on low scale tourism.

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Developing Democracy

Under the 2005 constitution the Kingdom of Swaziland is an absolute monarchy. The monarch (His Majesty King Mswati III ) approves the Prime Minister, approves the cabinet and can veto laws and dissolve parliament, though no longer rules by decree.

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Two Cheers for “Aid Effectiveness”

When people talk of “aid effectiveness” they are often referring to the 2005 Paris Declaration on the issue – signed by donor countries of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) as well as developing countries and multilateral institutions.

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(Not just) Screen goddesses

Film is a growing and vibrant means of communication. All over the Commonwealth’s 53 countries people are watching and making films. There are notable success stories such “Bollywood” (Mumbai, India) which is now producing the most films in the world. More recently Nigeria has seen the rapid development of its video industry, meeting demand at home and increasingly for international and diaspora markets.

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Roadmap for growth

The vast majority of today’s citizens survive by working in the “informal” – unregulated economy: 92% of people in India, and 28m migrant workers in the developing world alone. Meanwhile, unequal trade liberalisation favours manufactured goods rather than primary commodities and trade barriers cost developing countries $100bn a year, twice as much as they receive in aid. This makes it hard for developing Commonwealth countries to overcome debt.

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Joining Hands for Peace

“Until very recently, we in Ghana have enjoyed relative interfaith peace in comparison with neighbours such as Nigeria, The Gambia and Sierra Leone,” explains His Royal Highness Togbe Kwame Akoto V. “This was shattered in late 2008 when violence broke out between traditional worshippers and Christians in my area (Tanyigbe, Volta region).

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Megacities and Climate Change

For the first time in history, more people are living in cities than in rural areas. The UN forecasts that today’s urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities. Although most of the growth will be in “small” cities of 1-2 million inhabitants, there are also the “Megacities” – metropolitan areas with over 10 million.

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