Rebuilding Profile
Posted by DannyRCS - 25/11/09 at 01:11 pmA curious thing happened at the press conference to launch our report. The
Director of Communications at the Commonwealth Secretariat asked if the Commonwealth’s low profile was all his fault. It got me thinking: who really is to blame for the malaise that our research describes? The good news for the questioner is that it’s not just his fault – a comms director can only be as vocal and prolific as their institution permits.
The bad news is that all Commonwealth institutions share the burden of raising the Commonwealth’s profile. Member states need to invest more time or money, leaders need to come up with bold statements at their summits, the Secretary-General needs to be out and about more, intergovernmental institutions need to show they are effective and civil society organisations need to devise innovative programmes that have a wider appeal.
Meanwhile, the stream of leaders arriving in Trinidad is turning into a flood. I am told that there were no fewer than 13 motorcades waiting outside the BA plane that arrived here last night. And true CHOGM groupies can keep track of who’s on the red carpet via a live video feed from the airport that’s being aired at the conference venue. Riveting stuff.
But there’s apparently one leader who has shunned the formalities on arrival. Rumour has it that the Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been in Trinidad since Monday lounging anonymously by a pool somewhere until Rwanda’s membership application is considered by CHOGM on Friday. So watch out for a magically appearing 54th leader tomorrow.
Category : Director's Blog, The Commonwealth's Relevance
Tags: CHOGM, Common What, danny
Stay Updated : 
RSS 2.0 feed.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Am agreed with you that the he role of raising the profile is not CPAD Directors alone. All stakeholders in the Commonwealth including RCS has a role. However, the staff of the Commonwelath Secretariat has even more bigger role and it’s important that issues that effect the welfare of staff are addressed both by Comsec management and it’s leadership. Perhaps future CHOGM’s should have an agenda on staff matters as I am not sure whether they are are being addressed this time round.