Sharma sees the quest for globalism, governance and growth as driving the Commonwealth forward

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma on 2 October 2008 outlined his vision for the Commonwealth in a major speech delivered six months to the day since taking up the post.

Many of the Commonwealth’s greatest strengths are its longest-standing ones, he said – having “introduced the idea of an international community in global affairs”, “as a microcosm and template for the world in a way that no other organisation is”, and as a body which “has given voice and equality to small states” and pioneered an inclusive vision of the world.

The Commonwealth’s way forward, he said, can be built around the concepts of ‘Globalism’, ‘Governance’ and ‘Growth’, as a consistent variant of ‘Democracy’ and Development’. “Globalism tells you that you are a global citizen and you must act like one.” The focus of the Commonwealth’s Governance work is the “intrinsic strengths of a country, as shown in its own institutions”. He then cited the findings of the recent Growth Commission, and said that Growth is “joined at the hip with the social agenda of health and education”.

He saw several key contributions that the Commonwealth can make. In a compacting world, “it can add value where there is integration, and apply balm where there is collision”. It can advance the status of women: “I think women are the stronger, the more resilient, more value-centred and instinctively the more humanising gender.” It can engage international financing institutions and businesses in the concept of youth self-reliance and entrepreneurship, having asked the question: “If only 20 people out of 100 coming out of college are going to get jobs, then what is our policy towards the rest?”

Citing previous successful Commonwealth roles on the world stage as almost “globalisation by accident”, he stressed that the Commonwealth’s potential now had consciously to explore “a global interface”. “It is instructive that the three mandates emerging from the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – climate change, inter-cultural respect and understanding, the reform of the International Institutions – all involve the rest of the world.”

The Commonwealth’s 60th anniversary will be in 2009. “The Commonwealth is not retiring, it is starting again. That is why we have a theme for the year: ‘thecommonwealth@60 – serving a new generation’.

“It is also my hope that in this 60th anniversary we will also be able to welcome Zimbabwe,” he said. “If you subscribe to the Harare Principles, then it is a conscious, politically ethical and moral choice that you have made. You subscribe to irreducible principles respecting fundamental freedoms of your citizens: principles which cannot be compromised.” He said that he had urged the Government of Zimbabwe to act in that spirit.

Secretariat Links:

• Secretary-General

Related Websites:

• Royal Commonwealth Society