The Commonwealth at 60 – relevant then, relevant now

The Commonwealth’s diamond anniversary falls on 27th April 2009, 60 years since the signing of the London Declaration in which eight founding members constituted themselves anew, and ushered in a new era of collective and voluntary deliberation of global developments in the post-colonial era.

This anniversary year as in any other, many fine things have been and will be said of us. More things will be left unsaid. There will be some putting down through faint praise. The knowledgeable will know of the Commonwealth’s steady contribution to governance, small states and development. There will be positive associations, around the Commonwealth’s best-known brand names: ‘The Friendly Games’; the Commonwealth Writers Prize; the Commonwealth scholarships. Yet it is to one particular charge that I turn in this article: the claim that we are irrelevant. The charges are well worth repeating: sentimental residue of empire, no teeth, dated, decorative, stronger on words than deeds. It is useful to set the record straight.

RELEVANT THEN: 1949 to 2009

In the fast moving currents of 60 years, the Commonwealth’s relevance and far-sightedness have been its watchwords.

Rewinding – by decades

From the vantage point of 2009, the Commonwealth can look back:

• To 1999, when the organization readmitted a democratic Nigeria in the wake of the end of military rule, successful elections, and Olesegun Obasanjo’s assuming office as President. It was a decade that drew a firm line under the organisation’s rejection of military rule and determination to accept only civilian democratic governance.
• To 1989, when Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto was admitted, 17 years after it removed itself from the organisation, over the Commonwealth’s recognition of an independent Bangladesh. In the same year, the Commonwealth led global thinking on the environment and climate change with a statement and related action plan from its Heads of Government in Langkawi, Malaysia. That statement was to form the basis of the declaration made by the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

• To 1979, when the membership spoke as one on the inadmissibility of any form of racial prejudice in national life, and also gave a clear delineation of the path towards Zimbabwean independence. The Commonwealth would become the midwife at the birth of a nation. Since its very inception, it had orchestrated the fight against racism, especially in South Africa and Rhodesia.

• To 1969, when we paved the way to formalise the piecemeal technical assistance which had begun two years previously with UK, Canadian and New Zealand funding, and turn it into the multilateral Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation in 1971. The idea was that all – including the vast majority of net recipients – would contribute and feel ownership and involvement. The south-south nature of the CFTC was also an important step towards the Commonwealth’s status as a trusted partner, as much in development as in political dialogue.
• To 1959, when the first meeting of Commonwealth Education Ministers set up the Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships Programme, which, half a century later, now boasts 26,000 alumni – witnesses to the opportunities afforded by both education and international collaboration.
• And to 1949 itself, when the organisation answered the post-war and post-independence question as to how the old Commonwealth and the new would reconfigure themselves. The result was a visionary statement after three days of intense negotiation, agreeing on voluntary allegiance to the person of the King as the symbol of a ‘free and equal association’. The British Commonwealth had faded into history; the Modern Commonwealth was born, and a new global era of internationalism was inaugurated by this very organisation. British Foreign Secretary and later Prime Minister Lord Rosebery had hinted at the concept of equality, collectiveness and individuality in Adelaide in 1864, when he first coined the term ‘Commonwealth of Nations’, though in the limited context of dominions. From 1949, the process was irrefutable and irreversible.

Evolution

I believe that it was the Commonwealth which in 1949 pioneered the idea of an international community. The earliest meetings of Commonwealth leaders announced the arrival of the post-colonial world of sovereign states, with the right to an independent world view and aspirations for their own people. The leaders met then with no agenda except recognition of the desirability – indeed necessity – of forging a collegiate forum where national perspectives as well as views on global issues were heard and exchanged in the new world upon us.

This had not been seen before. The leaders met without formal agendas: they did not give this pioneering conclave a charter or articles of association. Freedom fighters met as national leaders. A warm and mutually respectful, unique club of world leaders took shape.

In its progressive evolution over decades, the Commonwealth provided a congenial political grouping of world leaders which was of enormous value to newly independent states, particularly the smaller ones. Each was given equal place and time, enabling an immediate opportunity to shape their global outlook through exchanges with those from different regions. It enabled the growth of their international and their national personality.

The exchanges between the leaders that joined the Commonwealth at different points of time constituted a very positive contribution to the creation of healthy internationalism in the second half of the twentieth century. It saw the emergence of the contemporary world. The growing Commonwealth was a force for creating a shared world view on many of the emerging issues before the world community.

In all this, the Commonwealth has been a leading contributor to the great task of the creation of a value-based global polity. The Commonwealth has done more than espoused the principles of enlightened governance: its member states have committed themselves to their practical application. Where members flout them in serious or persistent ways, they risk suspension from the workings of the organization.

The Commonwealth’s lead on this has been mirrored by other regional organisations such as the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism, and the Biketawa Declaration of governance principles in the Pacific, or in the CARICOM. South Asia constitutes more than three quarters of the population of the Commonwealth: all have embraced these principles. No organisation has made a greater contribution to the acceptance of the goal of value-based sustainability as the guiding principle of nation building. The fate of the twenty-first century will depend on its outcome.

Together with the aspiration, come the means for advancing and securing it. The Commonwealth is also in the engine room. The ‘good offices’ work of the Secretariat in nurturing harmonious political relations in member states, the building and consolidation of key institutions such as Election and Human Rights Commissions in safeguarding these principles, technical support to legislative and judicial areas, have all served to establish the Commonwealth as a trusted strategic partner to member states. The aspect of trust cannot be over-emphasised. Much of the crucial supportive work by the Commonwealth Secretariat is done under the radar screen of the global media. Indeed, much of this is possible because partner member states know this to be the case. The Commonwealth goes more for the win, and less the spin.

Rewinding – at random

Landmarks can be found in virtually any span of Commonwealth history. In amongst them are other Commonwealth highlights. Again the list is powerful:

• the Commonwealth’s championing of decolonisation, from the 1950s
• the creation of the Commonwealth Foundation in 1965 to promote the voice and work of Commonwealth civil society, and by now the 90 or so Commonwealth civil society organisations networking mutual professional support in important areas such as education, law and media. The People’s Forum which meets around CHOGM is simply the latest manifestation of the ‘organisation of peoples’
• its establishment of the first ever youth unit and youth development programme set up by an international organisation in 1974
• its global initiation of the concepts of bilateral and multilateral debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries, at Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meetings in 1987 and 1997 respectively
• its launch of a distance education programme through the Commonwealth of Learning in 1987
• also in 1995, its launch of a Commonwealth Private Investment Initiative which has since raised $800 million for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries
• its global launch of the study of small states (their special vulnerabilities, their unique potential), alongside the World Bank, in 2000 and 2005
• the launch of teacher and health worker recruitment protocols to manage migration in 2004, ... and many more.

RELEVANT NOW: 2009

Symptoms & solutions – a changing world order

In 2009, the Commonwealth remains on the global pulse.

In the broadest sense, the world is gripped by transformation, and the Commonwealth is part of that momentum in responding to fresh challenges and seeking rational solutions.

The old and seemingly entrenched political polarity between East and West is gone; that between North and South is going. Today’s world features new centres of both political and economic influence; and the global community now looks to a new paradigm of the collective good. Globalisation is comprehensive and irreversible. The Commonwealth contains these trends, and responds to them: its ways are those of collective approaches to collective challenges, and aiding the globalization of insight and wisdom.

The Commonwealth can be judged by its results, and those who do so can package them into the established pillars of our engagement: safeguarding and promoting Democracy, Development and Diversity.

The Commonwealth’s three Ds: recent illustrations

The Commonwealth promoting Democracy

Democracy is an unending journey, and its path has been as winding and incremental in the longest established democracies as in the newer ones. Most Commonwealth members – states for less than half a century – have had to move uncommonly fast in creating the laws, institutions and underlying democratic culture that are the bedrock of a system which has been observed to be only the best of several imperfect options. Democracy revolves around the painstaking processes of nurturing democratic culture and building good governance in the institutions of democracy – legislature, executive, judiciary, ombudsmen, human rights institutions, electoral commissions, and more.

It is in such a context that the Commonwealth’s democracy good news stories are easy to overlook. 2009 again sees us in the front line of supporting government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Fiji – democratic values and suspension

In February 2009, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group of nine Foreign Ministers met in London to discuss Fiji Islands, which suffered a military overthrow of a civilian government in December 2006 and which has been without elected government ever since. It was suspended from the Councils of the Commonwealth, and remains so. But with suspension comes determination to help Fiji return to the paths of civilian democracy, and resume its place in the Commonwealth. Alongside the United Nations, we have been asked to facilitate the processes of political dialogue in that country, between political parties, civil society, and other involves parties. We are in a role that is central to the country’s efforts to pull itself out of the ‘coup culture’ mire.

2008-2009 – three unsung successes

The turn of the year 2008-2009 saw three successful elections, all achieved with Commonwealth help, and all of which featured Commonwealth observer teams seen as sources of good sense, stature and fairness.

Bangladesh had borne two years of caretaker government. Its own achievements in that time were considerable, not least in creating a monumental electronic database of voters. The Commonwealth, meanwhile, was active in strengthening its national human rights commission. In December, the Commonwealth observed elections in which some 70 million people voted, with palpable enthusiasm and excitement. It was at the forefront of a democratic restoration.

In Ghana, where again we had strengthened both the election and human rights commissions, elections saw razor-thin margins in the first and the second rounds of voting, and power changing hands after 8 years. To the great credit of that country, order was maintained, and the country moved on. Again, the Commonwealth was instrumental to the success of the elections – and their preparation. Over a number of years it has given support to Ghana’s election commission, which in turn has shared its own experiences in preparing for elections with other members of the Commonwealth.

Ghana’s political leaders have also been closely involved in a Commonwealth programme to bring together representatives of governing parties, opposition parties and civil society from Commonwealth countries in West Africa to discuss their relationships with and responsibilities towards each other.

In the Maldives, the Commonwealth had used its advisors and a special envoy to help draft a national constitution and move a one-party state of 30 years into the realms of multi-party elections. Observed by the Commonwealth, the elections were carried out without incident; they were won by the opposition, and power was gracefully conceded. This remarkable transition in the Maldives made few headlines, and even if it had, the Commonwealth would have sought no plaudits.

Kenya – the long haul

Further back still, the Commonwealth observed the 2007/2008 Kenya elections which led to serious ethnic violence and loss of life. We were engaged with the subsequent efforts to secure stability, and while the country’s coalition government now seeks to rebuild, the Commonwealth is at work – offering technical advice to the Election Commission, offering judges to preside over the formal Reconciliation process, working alongside the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to strengthen Kenyan parliamentary committees and procedures, and advising media on the best principle and practice of conflict reporting.

The Commonwealth promoting Development

Development, too, is a journey of advance and reversal – with the concurrence of several global crises now showing the potential shakiness of economic foundations. For the three-quarters of a billion Commonwealth citizens living in dollar-a-day poverty, the Commonwealth simply cannot afford reversal. 14 of our member states are classified as Least Developed Countries. The current global downturn may make headlines for its origins and consequences in the richer world, but it is the developing world which suffers most.

Trade – renewing international frameworks

Trade is a motor of development, and the Commonwealth has engaged long and hard for a multilateral, fair and rules based global trading system under the auspices of the WTO, and for effective ‘aid for trade’. We famously said so with our multilateral trade declaration on the eve of the World Trade Organisation’s Hong Kong Ministerial in December 2005, which advanced the level of collective ambition.

The Commonwealth is also continuing a parallel track of supporting regional trade agreements. I recently hosted a meeting between the new Trade Commissioner of the European Union (three of whose members are Commonwealth countries) and the ACP (40), to provide a political impetus to Africa’s and the Pacific’s Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU, after the Caribbean one was signed at the end of 2008. Again, the Commonwealth was seen as mediator, adviser, partner – as well as a substantive player. The Commonwealth is as instructive in shaping debate on the general principles as it is in areas like rules of origin, trade facilitation, export capacity-building and negotiating capacity.

Trade – building national capacity

New rules and frameworks for trade carry little weight and meaning if developing countries are unable to take best advantage of a system that is potentially freer and fairer. Hence the practical Commonwealth help, for instance in completely overhauling the customs systems in places like Kenya, Sierra Leone, Mozambique. Hence, too, Commonwealth help in assisting small states to reorient their economies to open up new trading possibilities. The Commonwealth has been at the forefront, for instance, in helping transform Mauritius from a sugar-based economy, newly deprived of the trade preferences which had served it so well for so long, to make it a dynamic, export-processing economy, and new player in the global market for financial services and healthcare. Similar export strategy reviews and action plans have been developed for countries like Swaziland, Antigua, and Kenya.

Environment – preserving the planet

The greatest threat to the developmental progress we have made lies in the damage we have done to our planet. The painstaking gains of years can be undone by the erosion of our greatest resource: our natural resource. The Commonwealth cannot solve the world’s environmental problems on its own. But what it agreed with its Lake Victoria Commonwealth Climate Change Action Plan in Kampala two years ago was a start.

Work under the Action Plan is underway, for instance in facilitating global dialogue and negotiation in the run up to Copenhagen in December 2009 – the successor to Kyoto – by supporting small states preparing their positions. We are already seeing the value of using the extraordinary resource of Commonwealth civil society networks – the foresters, the meteorologists, the statisticians, and more – who are individually and collectively focused on the issue of climate change. The Commonwealth has carried out environmental research in areas like the carbon footprint of African and European cut flowers. It has established and shared best practice in preparing for – and if necessary reacting to – natural disasters. It has made a wide case for its initiative in the Iwokrama rain forest in Guyana, which involves innovative thinking on combining private sector funding, local ownership, government support and international partnership, to keep the forest as a living, breathing, working organism.

Above and beyond its environmental projects, the Commonwealth is now in the vanguard of a global call for renewed and revitalized international environmental governance, in the face of a multiplicity of laws and institutions. The report on the subject which we produced in June 2008 was called ‘the most valuable and honest’ contribution yet made to the debate, by the Executive Director of UNEP. Our role was reflected in my moderation of the UNEP Ministerial plenary in February, on the reform of international environmental governance, and the acceptance of my conclusions as to the way forward.

In an era of crumbling global governance structures a new relevance of the Commonwealth is the role of advocacy based on principles of legitimacy, representativeness, flexibility, responsiveness, accountability and transparency and effectiveness and inclusiveness to safeguard the voice of small and vulnerable states. These have been endorsed by the leaders in the Marlborough House Statement of June 2008 and are being pursued in the UN and the areas of international financial institutions and environment, where the interventions by the Commonwealth have influenced the terms of debate.

This is the Commonwealth of relevance and practicality in supporting the development needs and aspiration of its members, at global, regional and national levels. In any given year, we will have some 500 experts and resident in-house advisers carrying out small scale projects, in some 45 of our member states and their overseas territories. Their pursuit is sustainable development and good governance.

The Commonwealth promoting Diversity

As with Democracy, so with Development, so with Diversity: the Commonwealth is at the forefront of creating enlightened and harmonious societies.

The sinews of society

The Commonwealth’s 2007 report Civil Paths to Peace won plaudits for its perceptive insights on our multiple identities, and on the importance of democratic culture – above all in attitudes and policies for young people, women, media and education – as the key to addressing society’s most pressing problems. It has now gone considerably further, collecting examples of member state best practice, for sharing. A body of positive, shareable evidence is being developed.

Real and virtual exchange

The Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships Programme is 50 years old in 2009, boasting 26,000 alumni who have gone on to take up transforming roles in their own societies. It is now launching an Endowment Fund to open a new and important chapter for the awards by encouraging south-to-south and north-to-south awards, and thereby further sharing knowledge, and linking societies.

Women and youth – society’s ‘litmus test’

Meanwhile some of the key determinants of the success of diversity – and democracy and development – are the fortunes of women and young people. Their fortunes are the litmus test of any society. The Commonwealth is active and immersed in both areas – with its 35 year old Youth Programme run out of Georgetown, Lusaka, Chandigarh and Honiara, and with a host of initiatives for women, from promoting their political representation, to public education films on maternal health, to training women entrepreneurs as artisans in places like Malawi, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

But the priority, from which all such good works may later flow, is to entrench the required perspectives on gender and youth at the highest governmental levels. The Commonwealth seeks to convince that every government department has a policy, a work programme and an accompanying budget which caters for women and young people. We call it ‘mainstreaming’, and have seen its successes. In 2009, we are working with the governments of both Botswana and Jamaica in youth mainstreaming, by appointing youth focal points in each ministry to integrate youth issues into health and education.

And so to Port of Spain, and ‘CHOGM 2009’

Relevant now, relevant then – for governments and for peoples. This is the Commonwealth of 2009 which enters its 60th year within the maelstrom of converging crises – finance, fuel, food, climate, with the looming spectre of a surfeit of people and a deficit of resources with which to supply their most basic needs.

It is in this context that Commonwealth Heads of Government will meet in Port of Spain in November. The world cannot afford the luxury of any international institution that is irrelevant. The detractors may have little foundation, but the Commonwealth’s task remains to have a bearing for the benefit of its members, collectively and individually, and for the global good. It will also need to seek to be better known and understood.

At 60 years young, the Commonwealth has a clear focus on serving future generations. Its networks – Parliamentarians included – give it an enormous constituency around the world. Its values, its support for the weak and vulnerable, and its quest to move with the times to meet the needs of its members, continue to give it its reasons for being, and for continuing to be.

The way the Commonwealth works is responsive and necessarily contemporary: it cannot be otherwise. It embraces the call of both good governance and development. Its membership is cherished by existing members and aspiring ones. It is a great global good and will contribute to the reason and wisdom needed to guide the world in its critical transition. It has never been less than this. ENDS