Transforming societies – a democratic process

Last year in Maharashtra – India’s third largest state, Reuters piloted a scheme in which farmers received information on local crop prices and accurate weather forecasts, direct to their mobile phones.

This project, said Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, transformed the lives of some 200 farmers in the region and offers potential transformation for the 650 million others from the Indian agricultural community.

In the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Reference Report 2007, Mr McKinnon argues that “mobile telephony is just one important tool of transformation.” This report addresses some of the main themes discussed at the biennial CHOGM held in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, between 23 and 25 November 2007.

Mr McKinnon’s article is one of a number of pieces written for the report, which detail the wide range of work that takes place across the Commonwealth. Other contributors include Alpha Oumar Konaré, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union and Jamie Drummond, Executive Director of DATA – Debt AIDS Trade Africa - who suggests “new avenues for co-operation with African policy makers and civil society in the fight against poverty.”

“Transformed societies are societies in which all the people understand and support what is happening and why; and in which everyone plays a part and everyone benefits – individually, and collectively,” Mr McKinnon writes.

The mobile phone project in India is an example for Mr McKinnon of effective transformation, because the technology and its benefits were both understood and supported by those involved.

The Secretary-General also noted in the report that transformation must be democratic and that democracy and development are two mutually reinforcing goals at the heart of the Commonwealth’s values.

“People’s involvement is at the core of transformation: they have to believe in their leaders and their country, and share in its aspirations and goals,” he observed.

Earlier this year in August 2007, Kenny Anthony, Chairman of the Commonwealth Observer Group commended the “landmark election” in Sierra Leone. The promise of a shift in power from one elected government to another, for the first time since the civil war ended in 2002, added to the significance of these independent elections.

The government of Sierra Leone invited organisations, including the Commonwealth Secretariat, to send observer groups to assess the election in a fair and balanced manner, offering conclusions and recommendations. Transformation was achieved through efforts to strengthen democracy, with the support and understanding of those involved.

Mr McKinnon concluded his article in the report by stating: “‘Transforming societies’ is a fundamentally democratic process. At its heart lie all people’s greatest needs and their aspirations to rise to where they see others.”

The “needs” and “aspirations” of the farmers from Maharashtra and the leaders and people of Sierra Leone were realised by combining democracy and development to achieve transformation.

It is these goals – democracy and development – which the Commonwealth continues to aspire towards, so that the “vast differences…between the societies and countries that make up this world,” noted by Uganda’s President Museveni in the Foreword to the report, can be overcome.

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