Excitement builds for Commonwealth Week 2010

Commonwealth organisations are gearing up for a packed calendar of events during next month’s Commonwealth Week, a highlight of the 54-member association’s 61st year.

In less than two weeks, public figures and people around the world will mark the annual event, which this year falls between 8 and 14 March 2010, with a panoply of activities under the 2010 theme ‘Science, Technology and Society’.

Legendary West Indies cricketer Brian Lara will conduct a cricket clinic and Q&A at Trinity School Croydon in London, while Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma plays host to visiting dignitaries including President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister and Commonwealth Chair-in-Office Patrick Manning.

Mr Kagame’s trip is the first official visit of a Rwandan head to Marlborough House, headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat, since the East African country became the Commonwealth’s newest member at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago late last year.

News conference and flag-raising

Kicking off proceedings on Commonwealth Day, Monday, 8 March, the Commonwealth Secretariat will host a news conference with Mr Kagame, Mr Manning and Mr Sharma, after which the flag of Rwanda will be raised into a permanent position on the grounds of Marlborough House.

“It will be a momentous event,” said Eduardo del Buey, Secretariat Spokesperson. “Prime Minister Manning and President Kagame will address Commonwealth high commissioners and invited guests at the flag-raising ceremony to mark Rwanda’s first Commonwealth Day.”

Mr Kagame and Mr Manning will next join Mr Sharma, Queen Elizabeth II and other leaders at an observance ceremony organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS). The UK’s largest multi-faith gathering, the ceremony is expected to be attended by more than 1,000 young people.

Danny Sriskandarajah, Director of the RCS, which is organising an array of other events during Commonwealth Week, said: “Commonwealth Week is a fantastic opportunity to bring the modern Commonwealth to life for people all over the world. Ceremony and tradition have their place, but this week is also a chance to be bold, innovative and eye-catching.

“From street science experiments outside Westminster Abbey, to 100 young people playing the roles of Commonwealth leaders, to welcoming the real President of the Commonwealth’s newest member to the RCS … we’ll certainly be making the most of it!”

Global celebrations

Events in the UK on 8 March are set to be mirrored by festivities around the 54-member association. In 17 legislatures across Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean and the Pacific, parliaments are holding youth parliaments, debates, essay competitions and art exhibitions focusing on the science, technology and society theme with support from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

In Australia, in the New South Wales parliament, Governor Marie Bashir hosts a lecture on 8 March with science broadcaster Robyn Williams and Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s chief political writer, Annabel Crabb.

In Uganda, the Commonwealth People’s Association, a national chapter of the Friends of the Commonwealth charity, will hold a special lecture on universal access to drugs with representatives from government, pharmaceutical companies, academia, and medical practitioners, among others.

International Women’s Day

Commonwealth Day 2010 coincides with International Women’s Day, and Commonwealth associations have been quick to ensure that both dates are cause for celebration. Commonwealth Nurses Federation Executive Secretary, Jill Iliffe, called on nurses around the world to take part in a “global dinner party” to highlight the need for safe health care for mothers and babies, a major theme of the upcoming G20 Summit in Canada this June.

Ms Iliffe said that she was in negotiations with the UK Royal College of Nursing to get their staff to specially wear white on 8 March, adding: “The theme for Commonwealth Day 2010 is particularly important for nurses and midwives who rely on science and technology to improve nursing and midwifery care and consequently health outcomes for their patients. This is particularly so in rural and remote areas where nurses and midwives are isolated and dependent on communication technology for support and advice.”

The following day, on 9 March, the Commonwealth Foundation will lay on a special lecture to discuss food security and the diminishing prospects for global fish stocks, hosted by aquaculture expert Arthur Neiland and Malcolm Beveridge, a director at the World Fish center, at the House of Lords, in London.

This will be swiftly followed the next day, on 10 March, with a lecture at Marlborough House from Trevor Baylis, creator of the wind-up radio, an invention which has helped to transform communications in the developing world.

Engineers, technology and society

Later in Commonwealth Week, the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council (CEC) plays host to a major conference on the contribution that engineers make to humanitarian assistance and international development.

Touching on the 2010 theme, CEC President Tom Foulkes described the work of engineers as of “vital importance within humanitarian assistance initiatives, providing the critical infrastructure essential for saving lives.” He added that he hoped the conference, on 10 and 11 March, would encourage more engineers to engage in humanitarian causes.

Mr Foulkes said: “The theme, science, technology and society, provides us with a unique opportunity to highlight the contribution of science and technology to the betterment of society. Through our own conference we intend to showcase the contribution of the engineer in mitigating the effects of disaster and conflict and in establishing the foundations of effective development across the Commonwealth and beyond.”

Commonwealth Youth Summit

On 11 March, Mr Sharma will speak to pupils at Ravensbourne school in south London. A Commonwealth Youth Summit, also that day, organised by the RCS in the East Midlands, UK, will bring together 120 young people aged 14 to 17 to play the roles of leaders, foreign ministers and journalists and debate global issues such as health, education and poverty.

The Commonwealth Business Council also hosts a special reception with Mr Kagame on 10 March for companies interested in investing in Rwanda.

Key Links:

• What is Commonwealth Day?