Their Future, Our Action: Designing a financial system for Small Island Developing States

Their Future, Our Action is a three-year multi-stakeholder research collaboration between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge to accelerate SIDS (Small Island Developing States) access to sustainable finance, particularly in support of improving socio-economic resilience in the post-COVID19 recovery phase and during the current global economic crisis.

The focus is on the strategic question: How can we transform the capacity of governments in SIDS to attract sustainable finance to contribute to resilient economies? 

By fostering resilience thinking – a strategic, structured, teachable paradigm that enhances resource optimisation and strengthens institutions – the initiative empowered policymakers to navigate through shocks and uncertainty.

Within its first year alone, it generated a fifty fold return on investment, with more than $10 million invested directly benefitting Commonwealth communities.

The African Development Bank partnered with the Commonwealth for training in complex systems thinking and stress-testing the COMPASS model, with the VP and other high-level executives – 11 in total – participating in the collaboration. One of the recommendations that came out of this was the need for a Youth Investment Bank, which has now been set up. This $100 million Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank will promote private sector-led inclusive economic development by creating entrepreneurship opportunities for young Africans aged 18-35 and has received additional funding through the European Investment Bank and Nigeria Development Bank.