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    • Technical Cooperation and Strategic Response Group

Technical Cooperation and Strategic Response Group

Objective

The Secretariat’s objective is to promote and support the development of Commonwealth countries, especially the small and least developed. In doing this our priority is to strengthen the capacity of local, national and regional institutions in priority areas through the provision of specific, tailored and sustainable technical solutions in response to the requests of member countries and regional bodies. 

The Technical Cooperation and Strategic Response Group (TCSRG) was established in 2008 under the Institutional Capacity Development (ICD) programme to focus on:

• Closing gaps’ rather than ‘filling gaps’ by strengthening endogenous capability though intuitional development and capacity building. In doing so, we enable member countries to maximise their potential using the tools and resources (people, skills, technologies, institutions) at their disposal.
• The programme is demand driven with projects being developed collaboratively in response to requests wholly owned by the requesting country/organisation. We focus on providing high quality technical assistance that helps our membership to make their own decisions from an informed perspective on what is best for them.
• Application of Results Based Management principles to project design, management and monitoring to ensure that specific, measureable, and realistic outputs and outcomes are incorporated in project designs and that a cooperative and collaborative approach is utilised throughout.
• Collaboration with divisions, member countries, Commonwealth agencies, and all other relevant stakeholders.
• Providing assistance on a south-south basis. Since 2009, over 70% of the experts have been from other developing and emerging economies.
• Linking our projects to development priorities identified in national development plans of the member country and relevant Millennium Development Goals. Value for money is also a key concern which is factored into every PDD. 

Relevance

Many of Commonwealth member countries face a wide range of development challenges limiting their capacity to sustain development, reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We work to meet these challenges through responding directly to specific requests made by Commonwealth member aligned to the Commonwealth Secretariat’s strategic objectives. Our approach ensures that our programme responds to leadership within member countries and maximises project ownership.

We do not prioritise any one country, region, sector or approach. Our work facilitates the sustained strengthening of the capacity within local, national and regional institutions across all Commonwealth Secretaries priority areas.

Impact

Our Technical Assistance, provided mainly though long-term specialist expertise, provides Commonwealth members with support to develop local institution capacity. This support is closely monitored throughout its implementation to ensure that key outputs are achieved and that expectation from both the requesting member, the Secretariat and our partners are met. We focus on placing specialist expertise within governing institutions to provide a sustained presence through which to pro-actively build knowledge, relationships and institutional capacity against defined verifiable targets.

We have a track record of delivering high-impact results as can be seen in the examples provided under ‘Our Projects’.