Commonwealth People’s Forum launch

Prime Minister Manning, Madam de Comarmond, members of Commonwealth civil society, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to join you for the opening of the 2009 Commonwealth Peoples’ Forum – the seventh such event since its inception in 1997.

Let me add my own thanks to all of you who have journeyed here to Trinidad and Tobago – from all over the 53-nation Commonwealth.

Whether you have come from Port of Spain, or Port Louis in Mauritius, or Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, or Port Vila in Vanuatu – this is your port of call: we are delighted that you are here.

I also thank Beverley Beckles, chair of the People’s Forum Steering Committee, and Dr Mark Collins and his colleagues at the Commonwealth Foundation, for everything that they have done to make this event a reality.

I feel great enthusiasm for you all, and for your audiences beyond this building – in civil society, in the media, in government, in business – at the potential of this event.

I see it as one of the great jewels in the crown of the collective gatherings that constitute what many now call the wider Commonwealth Summit, which culminates with the Heads of Government Meeting.

It has been a great distinction for the Commonwealth that it guarantees civil society a partner’s seat at the table.

Civil society has become stitched firmly into our very fabric.

Our Heads showed great leadership when they established not only the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965, to serve their governmental needs, but also the Commonwealth Foundation at the same time, to serve the needs at the people-to-people level, and to bring about dialogue between people’s organisations such as yours, and our governments.

This was an era before the terms ‘civil society’ or ‘people’s forum’ were even conventional parlance.

Our Heads have consistently paid tribute to the work of civil society, and have called for you to be involved in our decision-making discussions.

You have earned this space, and we watch this space.

It will be well used on behalf of the people you speak for.

You bring voices that will help both deepen and broaden the debates of Foreign Ministers and Heads of Government.

Yours is a voice of the people, and it will be heard.

In the Commonwealth, we often talk of the three-legged stool which brings together the public sector, the private sector, and the ‘third’ sector – that of civil society.

Civil society sometimes thinks that its leg of that stool is the shortest and the least secure; while Government sometimes thinks that civil society’s is the awkward leg which sticks out the furthest.

So there remains the need for better mutual understanding.

My perspective is that the three legs need each other, for the stool to stand up, and be of use and value.

And I would contend that they are supposed to be in creative tension with each other – each, after all, have their constituencies and their own reason for being.

And as we take a fresh look at our Commonwealth values and principles at this CHOGM, in this our 60^th year, I hope that this commitment to engagement with civil society might be further enshrined.

This CHOGM will be a meeting of its time, to consider the issues of its time: climate change, youth, responses to the global economic situation, and so on.

It will also be a meeting with a more inward focus: the Commonwealth has 60 years under its belt: where does it head in the next 60 years?

We can expect a focus, for instance, on how well we have journeyed so far in protecting and promoting the Commonwealth’s core values.

Looking ahead, if the leadership we have shown in the past is to be maintained, there is a need to commit not only to the values and principles afresh, but also to practical expression of them.

A network of election management bodies is one proposal on the table; further consideration of the remit of our values oversight body – CMAG – is another possibility.

But can we create more space for civil society to contribute?

If this gathering is to have an impact on the government leaders gathering later in the week, this is an issue to be explored.

Because civil society can and does have an impact.

It now employs more people worldwide than many global consumer industries.

The last decade or so has seen it extend into a new political space, where it seeks to shape the rules, the norms and the social structures which govern aspects of our social life.

Think back to the thousands of civil society people at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

Or reflect that there were about 6,000 international NGOs 20 years ago, and now there are over 40,000.

Civil society is international; it is regional; it is national; and it is local. Here, I think of the organisations in every town and village all over the Commonwealth, that pick up the pieces that the state cannot – whether providing shelter to victims of domestic violence, or enabling access to education.

We are civil society’s friend and supporter.

But still, perhaps, you wonder how seriously an intergovernmental organization, whose constituents are governments, takes you.

Very seriously, is the answer.

For a start, your concerns and your values are shared by us – the 119 paragraphs of the Kampala civil society declaration closely mirror the 96 which came out of that CHOGM.

We regularly recite the instances of civil society’s successes in influencing the work of Commonwealth governments.

We appreciate your involvement in our Ministerial Meetings.

We also know that much of your work is out of the limelight, and far away from the top table.

It is painstaking, unglamourous, under-resourced – a labour, you might say, of love, and of belief.

The intergovernmental Commonwealth hears what you say about both democratic and developmental concerns.

And we confess that we are particularly interested when you touch on our core subjects, like youth and women.

I’m delighted at the level of consultation we have had with civil society over a project which I believe is of the times: the Commonwealth Partnership Platform Portal, or CP3, which you will see presented tomorrow evening.

It promises a step change in creative connectivity between us.

We also solicit your understanding.

While we will always value what you say to us, we cannot always use it in the way that you might wish.

We may not, for instance, be able to take positions by pronouncement in the way that you are able to do.

We have to deploy information and advice as we think appropriate to engage our member states.

We are an attentive and sympathetic friend.

In being so, I can say that civil society at its most exciting has the great merit of being a thing of urgency, and of passion.

You have shown your ability to make an impact, and to do so creatively.

How best to use some of the avenues afforded to you by the Commonwealth, is something you no doubt keep under consideration.

The most telling civil society work makes creative use of media and technology; it gets out onto streets and into citizen’s lives; it probes and pushes our agendas.

You have a freedom which the inter-governmental Commonwealth does not have.

So how do these general civil society thoughts apply to a specific civil society meeting, here in Port of Spain in November 2009?

We believe they are inherently transferable into the currents of this meeting, where you are challenged to make waves.

How times have changed since the last People’s Forum in Kampala, Uganda.

We have all had a bad few years: of crisis upon crisis.

The fuel and food crises of last year have been compounded by a financial crisis in 2009, in which no less than half of our members are suffering negative growth.

Everyone is hurting – there is a strong case for saying that CHOGM 2009 constitutes a crisis summit.

And the message, which we thought we heard before, has become ever clearer.

The need for the three-legged stool – and the three-pronged route out of our current travails – has never been greater.

Join hands the public, the private and the third sector.

Government, we know, has its limits – some problems are too big for it, and some are too small.

It actively needs civil society as a partner.

Civil society offers many insights, and solutions.

In this respect, I would like to applaud the Foundation for sponsoring a very good piece of work which can fuel discussion on climate change (one of your eight assembly topics), and particularly this meeting’s theme and the wider meeting’s theme within CHOGM: ‘partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future’.

That is, the short paper entitled: ‘Road to recovery: mapping a sustainable economy’.

It is engaging, because it offers both different perspectives, and the same perspectives differently put.

The paper is challenging, particularly in the way it makes us think about the value, rather than the indeterminate status of the informal economy.

It is enlightening, in pointing out that so many of our solutions (especially in areas like climate change) lie not with governmental or intergovernmental bodies, but with long-standing local communities, and local civil society organizations.

And it is clever, in that it thinks out of the box on climate change, and asks us to look beyond low carbon solutions to those which nurture environmental assets such as soils, water and biodiversity.

It makes the simple point that while there may be deal-making between governments – here, and in Copenhagen next week – many of the solutions are before our very eyes, in the more immediate and less structured world of civil society, social enterprise, and the informal economy.

Innovative, challenging thinking – departing from conventional tracks – will no doubt also be applied to your seven other assemblies within this Forum….

… those of conflict and peace-building; culture, creativity and innovation; democracy and governance; human rights; the financial crisis and economic development; gender; health and HIV/AIDS.

It’s not for me to comment on them all now – you’ll be relieved to hear…

But in conclusion let me just say this: the downturn has touched all of us – the civil society community very much included.

Donor funds and charitable donations are down, but the demand for your services is up.

So you are even more challenged to innovate, and be ingenious.

Our Commonwealth education, and environmental and health organizations have found a way, by working in groups.

Coordinate and harmonize; seek new partners; attract new funds; make a little go a long way.

And continue, too, to reinvent yourselves as the practitioners of public-private partnerships.

Civil society has something to offer the Commonwealth in all of its fields of activity.

You protest, you cajole, you criticise, you hold accountable.

Equally, you advise, you offer support, applaud, you cooperate, you partner.

When all is said and done, our goals converge – to improve lives, communities, the world.

The Commonwealth is the one intergovernmental organization with an actual mandate to engage with civil society.

And civil society is tasked to engage in response: your constituencies of millions expect nothing less.

I wish you successful and productive debate here in Trinidad, and even more success back home, in your communities, doing your invaluable work.

Thank you.

ENDS