ABSTRACT
The origins of the contemporary Commonwealth clearly lie in Britain's imperial past, a past which, however, ended de facto with the formal acknowledgement of the sovereign equality of the 'dominions'. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana proposed the establishment of a Commonwealth Secretariat and was widely supported, notably by Gwendoline Williams of Trinidad, Milton Obote of Uganda and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. Secretariat programme came to include the Commonwealth Science Council, the Commonwealth Youth Programme and the extremely important Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, designed to assist development in poorer countries. The aims of the Foundation indicate clearly its firm roots in the concept of 'Commonwealth' and suggest the reasons why it so enthusiastically supported the establishment and development of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration (CCEA). The encouragement and support of the CCEA by the Commonwealth Foundation presents an excellent case study of the Commonwealth at work.
