Programmes  

COL's Three-year Plan for 2009-2012 is entitled Learning for Development, continuing with the theme of the previous triennium. The broad term “learning” – which subsumes formal education and training – not only captures the variety of demands that development makes on people but also evokes the vision implicit in COL’s name: Learning is our Common Wealth.

Learning for Development expresses a vision that reaches beyond formal education to embrace areas of learning that are vital for better livelihoods, greater prosperity and a safer environment. Understanding development as the process of increasing the freedoms that people can enjoy, COL pursues this vision operationally within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the campaign for Education for All (EFA) and Commonwealth values.

While building on the extensive pan-Commonwealth consultation conducted for the previous triennium, COL has refreshed its understanding of current development priorities through regional meetings with the country Focal Points appointed by Ministers of Education. A rigorous external evaluation of its work in 2006–2009 has enabled COL to play to its strengths in responding to these priorities.

Programme activity

In the 2009–2012 triennium, COL will pursue eight initiatives in two sectors:

Education
   Open schooling
   Teacher education
   Higher education
   Virtual University for the Small States
   of the Commonwealth

Livelihoods & Health
   Skills development
   Learning for farming
   Healthy communities
   Integrating eLearning 

The cross-cutting themes of gender, quality and appropriate technology are pervasive throughout the programme.

COL pursues its aims through five core strategies:

• Partnerships: Fostering sustainable partnerships and networks in support of these aims.
• Models: Refining and sharing models for applying teaching and learning technologies to development challenges
• Policies: Assisting countries and organisations to develop and implement policies that support technology-mediated learning
• Capacity: Facilitating training and organisational development to increase the overall ability of partners to deploy learning systems and technologies effectively
• Materials: Working with partners to co-create learning materials and make them widely available

These strategies focus on co-creating value with COL’s extensive network of partners and stimulating new developments.

To be better present at the regional level, COL has its own unit in India, the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA). In West Africa it works with RETRIDOL (Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning) and in Southern Africa with SADC-CDE (Southern African Development Community Centre for Distance Education).

To adapt its programme to fit the unique needs of each country, COL develops individual Country Action Plans after extensive consultations with Ministers, Focal Points and partner institutions. These are monitored and updated regularly. COL in the Commonwealth, a compendium of individual Country Reports, is published at the end of each triennium.

COL practises results-based management. This is summarised through a logic model (link on the right) that lays out the expected long- and intermediate-term results (impacts and outcomes) over the three-year period. Outputs and activities, and the inputs needed to achieve them, are set out annually in log frames that are integrated with the logic model and are specific to each initiative. The log frames are regularly updated and include detailed performance indicators.

To build on its core strengths and operate effectively in a fast-changing world, COL has identified six critical success factors to help it manage risk: financial stability, partnerships, visibility, leadership, managing expectations and emerging issues.

Partnerships

COL exists through its partnerships and maintains relationships with many stakeholders, including member governments, institutions, donors and individuals. 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, WHO and the World Intellectual Property Organization) and the Commonwealth, 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 has had a long-standing Memorandum of Agreement with UNESCO and in July 2007 the two organisations updated their Workplan Agreement. COL has always worked with the Commonwealth Secretariat and in July 2009, formalised this by signing a Collaboration Agreement.

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.

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