Nel­son Man­dela once said, “It al­ways seems im­pos­si­ble un­til it is done.” As I re­flect on my nine-year tenure as Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Com­mon­wealth, I find deep truth in these words. 

In a world marked by ris­ing geopo­lit­i­cal un­cer­tain­ty and the ero­sion of mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism, the Com­mon­wealth does not sim­ply en­dure, it is thriv­ing. We have reaf­firmed the rel­e­vance of our shared val­ues, demon­strat­ed the pow­er of col­lec­tive ac­tion, and laid a foun­da­tion for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions to pros­per to­geth­er.

From a group of eight na­tions in 1949, the Com­mon­wealth has grown in­to a dy­nam­ic fam­i­ly of 56 mem­ber states, en­com­pass­ing a third of the world’s pop­u­la­tion. 

Our com­mit­ment is not bound by treaty, but by a shared be­lief in democ­ra­cy, the rule of law, and a glob­al com­mon good. That is why, at a time when many in­ter­na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions are fal­ter­ing, the Com­mon­wealth re­mains a bea­con of uni­ty and pur­pose.

Eco­nom­ic Ad­van­tage 

Our strength lies not on­ly in our val­ues but al­so in our eco­nom­ic po­ten­tial. The Com­mon­wealth Ad­van­tage – root­ed in com­mon le­gal sys­tems, lan­guage, and busi­ness prac­tices – low­ers trade costs be­tween mem­ber states by 21%. 

Pan-Com­mon­wealth trade cur­rent­ly stands at US$800 bil­lion, pro­ject­ed to rise to US$1 tril­lion by 2026 and US$2 tril­lion by 2030. In­tra-Com­mon­wealth in­vest­ment has tripled dur­ing my tenure, demon­strat­ing the con­fi­dence and op­por­tu­ni­ty with­in our net­work.

Eco­nom­ic growth is not just about num­bers, it is about peo­ple. Through ini­tia­tives like the Com­mon­wealth AI Con­sor­tium and In­no­va­tion Hub, we are equip­ping our cit­i­zens with the skills and op­por­tu­ni­ties to lead in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my. With 60% of the Com­mon­wealth’s pop­u­la­tion un­der 30, in­vest­ing in youth is an im­per­a­tive which our mem­ber states are em­brac­ing.

Cli­mate Lead­er­ship 

The ex­is­ten­tial threat of cli­mate change is the chal­lenge of our times. Our most vul­ner­a­ble mem­ber states are pro­found­ly ex­posed, so the Com­mon­wealth is at the fore­front of prac­ti­cal ac­tion. Our Cli­mate Fi­nance Ac­cess Hub has un­locked over US$400 mil­lion for vul­ner­a­ble na­tions, en­abling projects like na­ture-based sea­walls in Fi­ji and sus­tain­able en­er­gy so­lu­tions in the Caribbean. 

The Com­mon­wealth Blue Char­ter and the Liv­ing Lands Char­ter are pro­tect­ing a third of the world’s ocean and a quar­ter of its land, en­sur­ing sus­tain­able stew­ard­ship of our plan­et’s vi­tal re­sources.

But the Com­mon­wealth’s scale pow­er can be de­ci­sive in fos­ter­ing glob­al agree­ment. Con­sen­sus among our Heads of Gov­ern­ment in 2015 helped to de­liv­er the Paris Agree­ment, just as con­sen­sus in 2022 helped to de­liv­er the Loss & Dam­age Fund at COP28. The fight against cli­mate change de­mands con­tin­ued lead­er­ship, and the Com­mon­wealth must re­main a dri­ving force in se­cur­ing cli­mate fi­nance, ad­vanc­ing adap­ta­tion, and cham­pi­oning the voic­es of small and vul­ner­a­ble states on the glob­al stage.

An Ex­pres­sion of Sol­i­dar­i­ty in Ac­tion

At its heart, the Com­mon­wealth is an ex­pres­sion of sol­i­dar­i­ty in ac­tion. Over the past nine years, our Good Of­fices team have worked qui­et­ly yet ef­fec­tive­ly to de-es­ca­late po­lit­i­cal ten­sions in dozens of mem­ber states, safe­guard­ing democ­ra­cy and sta­bil­i­ty. Our Uni­ver­sal Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty In­dex is re­shap­ing how the world views de­vel­op­ment fi­nance, show­ing that need, not out­dat­ed met­rics, should de­ter­mine ac­cess to re­sources.

And when the world was hit by an un­prece­dent­ed pan­dem­ic, the Com­mon­wealth’s spir­it of col­lab­o­ra­tion en­abled us to skil­ful­ly nav­i­gate the cri­sis. From health sys­tem sup­port to eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery ini­tia­tives, we stood to­geth­er and worked to­geth­er – be­cause that is what we do.

Em­brac­ing In­no­va­tion

The forces which will shape the world’s eco­nom­ic fu­ture – ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, and new fron­tiers of knowl­edge – do not recog­nise na­tion­al bor­ders. 

The ques­tion is not whether we will choose to be af­fect­ed by these changes, but how we will har­ness them for the col­lec­tive good. Through part­ner­ships with glob­al tech lead­ers, the es­tab­lish­ment of the Com­mon­wealth AI Acad­e­my, and cross-bor­der ini­tia­tives to mod­ernise pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery, we are en­sur­ing that our mem­ber states are bet­ter equipped than they have ever been to em­brace and shape the fu­ture.

A Com­mon­wealth for the Next Gen­er­a­tion

As I pre­pare to pass the ba­ton to my suc­ces­sor, I do so with a pro­found sense of op­ti­mism. The Com­mon­wealth to­day is stronger, more con­nect­ed, and more rel­e­vant than ever. Our con­tin­ued strength will re­ly on the Com­mon­wealth’s ca­pac­i­ty to de­liv­er con­tin­u­al progress. 

In this spir­it, the theme of this year’s Com­mon­wealth Day, ‘To­geth­er We Thrive,’ is a call to ac­tion. In an era of great change, the Com­mon­wealth stands as proof that co­op­er­a­tion, part­ner­ship, and mu­tu­al re­spect are not relics of the past, but the keys to a pros­per­ous fu­ture.

The world is watch­ing. And as his­to­ry has shown, when the Com­mon­wealth acts with uni­ty and pur­pose, the im­pos­si­ble be­comes re­al­i­ty. If the Com­mon­wealth con­tin­ues to stand to­geth­er, act to­geth­er, and thrive to­geth­er, it will con­tin­ue to suc­ceed – now and for gen­er­a­tions to come.

*The Rt Hon Pa­tri­cia Scot­land KC is the 6th Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al. She was born in Do­mini­ca and is the sec­ond Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al from the Caribbean and the first woman to hold the post.

*by Pa­tri­cia Scot­land KC

LON­DON, Mar 8, CMC  

CMC/cc/kb/2025