The Commonwealth has taken a keen interest in the reform of international aid system. As a result, the Commonwealth Secretariat, working in collaboration with other like-minded organisations, has been at the forefront of the discussion on international aid architecture. This project follows on from previous ODI work, M0152 and the last Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting (CFMM) in Colombo in September 2006. The CFMM, in its communiqué, encouraged the Commonwealth to continue to play an active role in the evolution of the international aid architecture and asked the Secretariat to establish a working group of senior officials to consider how best the Commonwealth can influence the continuing debate on the reform of international aid architecture. ODI was commissioned to write the background paper for the meeting of the working group and to subsequently edit the paper in the light of discussions for presentation to the next CFMM meeting and potentially the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later in 2007.