COL works in close association with Commonwealth governments and operates though a wide range of partnerships undertaken in a spirit of equality and participation. It seeks to create mutually beneficial linkages, especially of a "south-south" character, between Commonwealth countries. Key partners are the organisations linked to the United Nations - e.g., UNESCO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - and the Commonwealth, are key partners, as are regional governmental organisations such as the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern African Development Community (SADC).
COL also has strong networks of partners in its various areas of activity. In education, these include the Commonwealth's distance-teaching universities, open schools, SchoolNets, and regional centres for distance education such as the Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning (RETRIDOL) and SADC Distance Education Centre (SADC-CDE). For its work on rural livelihoods, COL has productive links with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and its associated bodies. It sustains links with NGOs in many countries and has an important relationship with the Hewlett Foundation for developing the use of open educational resources.
The Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Foundation and other Commonwealth agencies in management training, youth and health programmes, training of legislative drafters, technical/vocational programmes (training for laboratory technicians by distance education), gender, governance, Commonwealth ministerial meetings, as well as education;
The World Bank in information sharing, teacher training and the Global Distance Education Net;
The World Health Organization in identifying NGO partners for its media empowerment activity;
The Economic Development Institute of the World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership in building greater sensitivity to and use of knowledge systems, especially in developing economies;
UNESCO in basic education, technical and vocational education (UNEVOC network), literacy and staff development;
UNICEF, UNIFEM and UNDP to collaborate on the development of a gender training resources database;
Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) Working Groups on the teaching profession, higher education and distance education and open learning;
Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa in developing distance training programmes for laboratory technicians;
National and regional distance education professional organisations throughout the Commonwealth in promoting excellence in the practice of distance education and in presenting the Pan-Commonwealth Forums on Open Learning;
The Government of Brunei Darussalam in hosting the first Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (1999), the Government of South Africa and the National Association of Distance Education Organisations of South Africa (NADEOSA) in hosting the second (2002), the Distance Education Association of New Zealand in hosting the third (2004) and the Caribbean consortium or organisations (UWIDEC, CARADOL, JADOL, TTDLA and CEODL) in hosting fourth (2006);
The Government of Namibia in hosting the Pan-African policy dialogue on In-Service Teacher Training, using Open and Distance Learning (July 2001);
The Governments of India and Singapore in hosting several international conferences;
The national open universities of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in developing and offering a Commonwealth Executive MBA/MPAprogramme;
The Indira Gandhi National Open University in the delivery of the Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship Scheme (RGFS), the provision of several courses for use and adaptation throughout the Commonwealth, and supporting the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA);
India's National Institute for Information Technology (NIIT, private sector) in skills training programmes;
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in developing eLearning and open educational resources;
The Caribbean Broadcasting Union, the Caribbean Development Bank, the World Bank's InfoDev programme, the British Department for International Development, the Barbados Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture, the University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre and The Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions in presenting TEL-isphere 99, The Caribbean and Technology Enhanced Learning (Barbados, November 1999);
The Caribbean Development Bank in a feasibility study on the use of public broadcasting as an effective means of addressing educational and training priorities in the Caribbean;
The Asian Development Bank in teacher training and distance education system building;
The University of Abertay Dundee, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and the Association of African Universities in hosting an annual professional/strategic development programme series for African vice chancellors and senior administrators in higher education.
WorldSpace Foundation in using satellite-based, digital radio for non-formal education;
The International Literacy Institute (University of Pennsylvania) in developing literacy programmes;
Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC)'s Acacia Initiative, the British Council and the Government of New Zealand in exploring barriers to accessing information and communications technologies for women;
The British Department for International Development (DFID) in supporting studies on the development of virtual education, a project that explore the use of community learning centres and communications technologies to improve adult literacy programmes in selected Commonwealth countries, a programme to provide secondary education to out-of-school rural youth in Mozambique, and with DFID's Imfundo partnership for Information Technology in Education (sub-Saharan Africa);
Several Commonwealth Governments in generously providing some of COL's staff members through secondment arrangements;
Consultants and business/industry partners such as SchoolNet India Limited and Taylor & Francis/Routledge publishers