Commonwealth Secretariat adjusting to cope with fund cut

 Monday, 02 June 2014 

The Commonwealth Secretariat is reportedly in the process of making adjustments to development programmes to cope with the withdrawal of Canadian funds in protest over Sri Lanka’s Chairmanship of the Commonwealth Organisation, a spokesperson has said.

The Canadian Government announced in April that it was suspending its voluntary contribution of 10 million Canadian dollars (Rs. 1.2 billion) to the Commonwealth Secretariat.

“While Sri Lanka is Chair in Office, Canada’s $10-million annual voluntary Commonwealth contribution will instead go for two years toward supporting initiatives that espouse the Commonwealth’s values and help to deliver results for those who need them the most,” a statement from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said.
“We are immediately making necessary adjustments to our development programmes to manage this,” said Victoria Holdsworth, Deputy Director of the Secretariat’s Communications and Public Affairs Division. “We are hopeful that we can still deliver on important priorities agreed collectively by our membership, with sufficiently strong results and impact.”

“However, the reduction of a significant amount of funding will invariably have an effect on delivery,” she has added.

The Secretariat’s Board of Governors has met this week to examine its budget for the new financial year July 2014-June 2015.

Holdsworth has said the full impact of the funding cut would become easier to determine and view after the meeting. But despite repeated requests for information about what the Board of Governors had decided, the Secretariat did not respond.

Canada was the largest contributor to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, which was set up at its request. It contributed 30% of the CFTC’s budget. Authoritative sources said Canada’s action also had implications for Britain’s own contribution which is linked to the level of other countries’ contributions.