• Commonwealth:
• Documents:
• Speeches by Secretary-General Don McKinnon:
• Speech at the Rotary International Conference

Speech at the Rotary International Conference

Date: 17 Apr 2005
Speaker: Secretary-General Don McKinnon
Location: Manchester, UK

I'm delighted to be here with you this morning.

Thank you to Gordon McInally for inviting me to come and speak to you.

It is a great honour to take part in the celebration of the Rotary's centennial. The Commonwealth hasn't reached this ripe old age yet (we're not even 60!), but we have no doubt we will reach that age one day.

At any rate, we've been around longer than any other political grouping of countries. This, of course, is one of the great assets of the Commonwealth: we've weathered many storms and we've come out the stronger for it.

But our longevity can also cause us some problems. For instance, many people still believe that the Commonwealth is the British Commonwealth.

But the British Commonwealth is no more - in fact, the last time it was called the British Commonwealth, I was an eight year old kid!

Many people are also convinced that the Commonwealth - a community of 53 countries representing every region of the world - is still dominated by the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

But the Commonwealth is based on the principle of equality. In fact, it is probably one of the most egalitarian organisations around.

In the Commonwealth, no one is excluded, no one is pressured into taking positions they do not want to take.

All decisions are taken by consensus. The Commonwealth is a forum where the powerful and the less powerful have an equal say and come up with joint decisions that reflect all the views held.

There is no Security Council, no one group of countries that makes decisions on behalf of others.

In short, in the Commonwealth, everyone is a player in the field - no one is left on the sidelines.

But old ideas die hard and some people still believe that the Commonwealth is an Imperial organisation which should be wound up.

The best way of fighting these ideas is to tell people what we do. We want to be known through our works.

So today, I'd like to give you a snapshot of our work in the areas of

1. Economic development
2. Trade justice
3. And conflict resolution

I'd like to start, however, by letting you in on a - badly kept! - secret: I'm backing London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics and I've been actively supporting it for some time.
 
London is the only Commonwealth city bidding for 2012 and I'm passionately convinced - as a growing number are throughout our Commonwealth family - that there is no better candidate than London to hold these Olympic Games.
 
World famous venues such as Wimbledon, the new Wembley, Lords, Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade already exist in London.
 
London also has an impressive plan to build a new Olympic Park in east London that would house nine new venues including the main stadium and athletes village. And after the Games end, five of these venues will remain, leaving a fantastic legacy for London, the UK and for international sport. 
 
This city where we are today, Manchester, hosted the biggest Commonwealth Games ever three years ago. I saw the enthusiasm and energy this event generated; the undoubted capacity to plan and deliver such a complex series of events; and, most importantly, to deliver a Games with both a proudly British and also distinctly global feel to them: everyone felt at home.
 
London is a hugely diverse city, home to over 200 nationalities - in a sense it is like a microcosm of the Commonwealth. I truly believe that London would bring something unique to the Olympics and would deliver an impressive and inspiring event.
 
Of course, I am not able to lobby directly for London. The rules don't allow me. But I can, and I have been, telling the Commonwealth family why I think London's plans are so impressive. And I'll continue to do so right to the finishing line.

And the "Commonwealth factor" operates at other levels too. In the business world the Commonwealth helps foster business links and cut the overhead costs of international trade.

People are usually surprised when I tell them that it pays to trade within the Commonwealth family.

In fact, Commonwealth businesses that choose to trade within the Commonwealth enjoy a 15-20% cost benefit.

This is mainly due to the fact that Commonwealth countries share the same business culture: common legal systems, common accounting and auditing structures, common customs procedures.

1. Delivering development

By the time I finish speaking today,

• Over 100 children worldwide will have died because of lack of safe drinking water
• Over 250 people worldwide will have become infected with HIV/AIDS
• 500 people will have died of hunger
• 620 children will have died from preventable diseases

I know that fighting poverty and disease worldwide is one of the key aims of the Rotary.

Working with communities in the developing world, Rotarians help provide safe water to those who need it most. You help provide an education to some of the 150 million children who've never seen the walls of a classroom and you raised over US$100 million to support final stages of polio eradication.

Your work shows that individuals, through their dedication and commitment, can make a difference.

And this is one of the founding principles of the Commonwealth's work. The Commonwealth is not a huge bureaucracy where action on the ground is bogged down by a host of administrative procedures.

The Commonwealth is a people-to-people organisation. Like the Rotary, the Commonwealth is a family - we are a community of people who share the same values, the same objectives and who help each other achieve these objectives.

When I was in Fiji a few years ago, I met a young woman whose story has stayed with me ever since. She used to live from hand to mouth selling handicrafts in a corner of a flea market in Suva. With no business training and no access to bank loans, she was struggling to get a meagre income from tailoring clothes for family and friends.

But she explained that, thanks to the credit and training provided by the Commonwealth Youth Programme, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), she was able to set up her own business and to open a store in the upmarket Garden City area. This, she told me, meant that she was able to celebrate her son's birthday for the first time.

This is just one of the small ways in which the network of people in the Commonwealth can generate change and make a difference in other people's lives.

With nearly half the Commonwealth population under the age of 30, our responsibility to young people in particular in huge. In order to help young people take control over their lives, we run a Youth Credit Initiative, which provides micro-credit to young people to start or expand their own businesses.

Our Diploma in Youth Development, which is run in partnership with 24 universities in 40 Commonwealth countries, provides youth development professionals with the tools to influence policy and shape decisions that have an impact on young people's lives.

Through our Youth Ambassadors for Positive Living programme, we contribute to prevention efforts to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS.

This scheme, which started in Zambia, allows young people living with HIV educate others about AIDS prevention. Nearly 200 Commonwealth Youth Ambassadors are operating in 6 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia.
 
We also help improve education opportunities for all Commonwealth people.

Once, I addressed students in a village in Eastern Africa. There were a hundred of them crammed into a single classroom. After the talk, the teacher and I spoke for a while and I asked her about how she coped with the challenges of teaching a class of one hundred. "I wouldn't dream of doing anything else", she told me. "You see, I didn't go to school as a child, that's why I became a teacher: I don't want these children to go through what I've been through. I want them to do better than I did."

To me, this sums up what education is all about: making sure the next generation does better than us. Making sure they have better opportunities, more life choices and greater chances of leading meaningful, successful lives.

That is why this year's theme for Commonwealth Day was "Education: creating opportunity, realising potential".

Every day, 75 million children in the Commonwealth don't go to school, because they have no school to go to and no teacher to teach them. And yet, education is crucial to addressing some of the biggest challenges the world is facing today. That is why we, in the Commonwealth, are taking concrete steps to improve access to education.

We provide teacher training, offer governments support in formulating education policy and promote new methods of teaching.

Last year, Commonwealth governments agreed to implement a Teacher Recruitment Protocol to regulate the movement of teachers between Commonwealth countries. We also work with the Commonwealth of Learning, the Centre for Commonwealth Education in Cambridge and civil society partners to help improve standards and disseminate best practice within the Commonwealth family.

But for children and young people to thrive and fulfil their potential, they must evolve in a supportive and caring family environment. That is why the work of organisations like Hope and Homes for Children, chosen by your president Gordon McInally as his "Preferred International Charity" for this centenary year, is so important.

Over the past 10 years, Hope and Homes for Children - of which I'm proud to be a patron - has done a great deal to provide shelter and a secure environment to orphans in Africa and Eastern Europe.

Among their many achievements, they have helped victims of conflict and institutionalisation rebuild their lives. They are now also turning their focus on AIDS orphans, thanks the magnificent support of your Rotary's Africa Hope Campaign.

When my wife Clare went out with Mark and Caroline Cook to Rwanda last year, she was enormously impressed by the work they are doing thanks to your support.

I believe that the ever increasing number of orphans in the world is turning into a global crisis which we cannot ignore and that's why my association with Hope and Homes for Children is so important to me.

Nearly 80 years ago, Rotary International President Almon E Roth said: "Our success or failure will not depend upon the machinery of Rotary or its physical growth, but upon the extent to which Rotary's ideals or objectives are translated into positive, tangible results in personal, business, community, and international life. We shall be known by our works."

The Commonwealth also focuses on results and changing lives of people on the ground.

When the Boxing Day Tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, wiping out entire communities, the Commonwealth was quick to react. We contributed to the relief effort by sending doctors to some of the affected countries to help prevent the spread of disease.

We are also involved in strengthening advance warning mechanisms and response networks. At an International Small States Meeting in Mauritius earlier this year, the Commonwealth, along with the Caribbean Community, the Indian Ocean Commission and the Pacific Islands Forum committed itself to take steps to ensure more effective coordination of disaster prevention networks across international borders in future.

A new Commonwealth initiative will also help small states cope with natural disasters in the future.

The Commonwealth Disaster Management Agency is a private initiative which provides insurance against natural disasters to small states. It offers an accessible and affordable source of instant relief for disaster-stricken countries, enabling them to meet their financial obligations and channel emergency aid money where it is most needed.

2. Freeing up trade

One of the most effective weapons in the fight against poverty is, of course, international trade.

But developing countries are often prevented from reaping the benefits of trade by unfair trade rules and practices.

For instance, how can a farmer in Cameroon, barely grossing US$400 a year on 2 hectares of land, hope to compete with large American cotton producers who receive US$100,000 a year in government handouts? As one of these farmers once told me: "This is not just David fighting Goliath. It's David having to fight Goliath blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back."

For many years, developing countries have been told that the only way to prosperity was through trade liberalisation.

But while poor countries have heeded this advice and removed many of their trade barriers, many developed countries failed to reciprocate.

In precisely those sectors where developing countries have a comparative advantage, such as agriculture and textiles, developed countries have protected themselves through both tariff and non-tariff barriers, and extensive systems of domestic subsidies resulting in dumped exports.

It is a well known fact that governments in the rich world - the US, Europe and Japan - spend US$1 billion a day supporting their own farmers at the expense of poor farmers in developing countries.

The result is that farmers in the US can sell their cotton at a lower price than West African farmers even if it costs them more to produce it.

EU subsidies and market restrictions on sugar cost Mozambique US$38 million and Malawi US$32 million.

This is not only economically absurd. It's morally repugnant.

The longer this trade apartheid continues, the more anger and resentment it will cause. That is not good for world stability.

We all know that the single greatest thing advanced nations could do to help developing countries would be to give them access to their markets.

The World Bank has estimated that a deal to open up rich countries' markets to poor nations could lift up to 144 million people out of poverty by 2015.

Let me give you another fact - one you won't have heard before:

After the Second World War, each citizen in Europe received the equivalent of about US$220 under the US Marshall Plan. Today, in real terms, EU aid to Africa amounts to less than US$10 per African citizen - that's 22 times less than they received!

This is shameful. It's high time Europeans started digging deeper in their pockets and show the same kind of generosity they benefited from 60 years ago.

Today, rich countries must realise that opening their markets to the developing world and lowering trade subsidies is in everyone's interest.

First, phasing out subsidies would reduce real cost of products to consumers in the developed world.

Second, the money governments would save on subsidies could be invested in health, education and public services and could also translate into lower levels of taxation.

And third - perhaps most importantly - cutting subsidies and allowing developing countries to trade their way out of poverty would bring more stability to the world.

The Commonwealth has long been urging industrialised countries to eliminate trade subsidies.

We also help poor countries argue their case in trade talks.

Recently, the Commonwealth received 17 million euros from the European Commission to support poor member countries in trade negotiations and ensure they get a fair deal, not a raw deal.

2005 will be a 'make or break' year for trade negotiations, and we will play our part in bridging the divides to get the best outcomes possible for all.

Earlier this year, the Commonwealth Secretariat hosted a high level trade seminar aimed at putting development at the forefront of the Doha Trade Round. We are looking to secure a very strong outcome on the Doha Round when Commonwealth leaders meet in November in Malta, just before the WTO Hong Kong ministerial meeting.

3. Building peace

The Commonwealth is also committed to help prevent conflicts in its member countries through its good offices work. It is strategically placed to play an increasing role in this area. Here's why:

First, most conflicts today are within states rather than between states. The Commonwealth only intervenes at the request or with the consent of a member country. Our approach is based on building trust between the parties involved, acting with discretion and sensitivity.

Second, many conflicts today grow out of ethnic or religious tensions. The Commonwealth, with its experience in managing diversity and generating consensus, is well suited to help find a common ground of understanding between warring parties.

Third, many countries facing internal conflicts are often reluctant to accept outside assistance as they perceive it as a threat to their national sovereignty. The Commonwealth has no battalions and therefore does not intervene militarily.

It uses the force of argument rather than the argument of force to help opposing parties pull back from the brink and bring them to the negotiating table.

And fourth, at the root of many contemporary conflicts are issues concerning the application of democratic principles and respect for human rights and the rule of law. Here too, the Commonwealth can make a unique contribution. We have a long experience in upholding democratic principles and helping countries develop a stronger, more effective democratic culture, one which is home-grown, often influenced by other democratic traditions but never imposed from outside.

In recent years on the African continent we have facilitated considerable progress in Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Zanzibar (United Republic of Tanzania), to cite a few examples.
 
Lesotho is a good example of where the Commonwealth's multi-faceted approach to building democracy has paid dividends. Following the problems of the 1998 elections, the Commonwealth, in partnership with SADC, supported domestic efforts to develop an electoral system based on proportional representation.
 
By the time Lesotho held general elections in 2002, both domestic and international actors were of the view that the grievances held by political parties had been dealt with in a consultative and inclusive manner.
 
The Commonwealth is also proud to have helped in the consolidation of democracy and the reconstruction of the economy in Sierra Leone.
 
Together with the British government, we have participated in re-training the Sierra Leone Police Force. We have also provided substantial support to the Sierra Leone Elections Commission through the attachment of experts to the commission during the 1996 and 2002 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, and by sending Commonwealth Observer Groups to both sets of elections. In addition, during the 2002 elections, the Secretariat collaborated with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to train domestic election observers.
 
In Swaziland, we have been involved in a delicate exercise to encourage and facilitate constitutional reform, in a manner which takes into account that country's strong traditional practices and values. Two Commonwealth constitutional experts have assisted with the drafting of a new constitution and Commonwealth good offices have been used to defuse difficulties between the executive and the judiciary.
 
In Zanzibar in Tanzania, the Commonwealth has worked with the two main political parties to end a dispute over the conduct and results of the 1995 and 2000 elections, and is a moral guarantor of the agreement (Muafaka) which it helped to broker between the parties.

We have also been involved in providing assistance in the establishment of an independent electoral commission for Zanzibar. The Joint Presidential Service Commission (JPSC) has been receiving active support and cooperation from the Secretariat.

As one who received a Paul Harris Award in New Zealand, let me quote the great man, who said in 1910, "Man has affinity for his fellow man, regardless of race, creed, or politics, and the greater the variety, the more the zest. All friendliness needs is a sporting chance; it will take care of itself in any company."

This could be the Commonwealth's own credo.

The Commonwealth family is a place where diversity thrives. We see diversity not as a threat, but as a strength.

The huge variety of human experience and ideas that runs through the Commonwealth feeds into all our activities. It allows us to share best practice and adds value to our partnerships.

Any consensus achieved among such a great diversity of nations has to be taken seriously.

Diversity is also what allows us, in the Commonwealth, to reach out to others and extend a helping hand to our fellow human beings.

This, I believe, is one of our most important guiding principles - and one we share with the Rotarians.

Download the speech: Speech at the Rotary International Conference