The Commonwealth Conversation

After a fantastic opening ceremony (I hope you saw my tweets), things seem quieter at CHOGM. The leaders have gone into their ‘retreat’ (which looks just like any other big table with lots of be-suited men around it) and bilateral meetings. Continue reading…

It’s been a long day with lots of things happening. We concluded our T&T essay competition, did loads of media and recorded the BBC World Debate on the future of the Commonwealth (that will go out to an audience of over 100 million at the weekend!).

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A 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.

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It’s the end of the first day of my first CHOGM. As Derek Ingram, who is here at his 21st CHOGM told me this evening, “they are not always this chaotic”. Most of our day was spent going from booth to booth trying to collect accreditation, usually met by polite Trinidadians who unfortunately were not always in a position to help.

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Thank you to all those who have commented on the question of profile I raised in my last blog entry. Since that post all of us in the Conversation team have been trying to digest your comments into a report of emerging findings. After an intense few days, the report is off to the printers and will be published next week, just as Commonwealth leaders and officials turn up for CHOGM in Trinidad.

Anyone who has been a frequent visitor to these pages should have a good idea of the sorts of the things we will be saying. Our report is unashamedly provocative, not because we want to undermine the Commonwealth, but because we believe the Conversation so far should be a wake up call. In the spirit of public consultation, we also believe in reporting what we have been told, even if the truth hurts.

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As the Conversation has gone on, a question I am frequently asked is: why should public profile matter for an association like the Commonwealth? In fact, I’ve got myself into hot water from time to time for going on the record saying I think the Commonwealth has to do more to raise its public profile.

I would be fascinated to hear views on this question. The profile debate seems to go to the heart of what we are trying to achieve in the Conversation.

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Over the next six weeks, in the run up to CHOGM, over fifty Commonwealth Conversation events are taking place around the world. From Abuja to Arusha, Nairobi to New Delhi, London to Lusaka, hundreds of people are adding their voices to the debate.

I’ve already had the pleasure of attending a few of these and I am about to head off on whirlwind tour to attend another half dozen of them (in four countries over seven days!) to explain what we are trying to achieve.

To try and build a picture of the work we are doing, we have included a new events section on the website. The green button at the top of the page will take you to a calendar which will include information of all past and future Commonwealth Conversations taking place around the world.

Photos and videos of the events are starting to come in and we will be putting those up on the website as well.

If you want to attend an event please get in touch, or if you have already been to one, and what to tell us what you thought of it, please leave a comment under the specific event post. Or, better still, if you want to organise your own event, there’s still time. This project is all about collecting your opinions, so make sure your voice is heard.

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I’ve just come out of a fascinating Commonwealth Conversation on climate change. We had some of the world’s leading experts on climate change around the table to discuss how the Commonwealth could add value in the global efforts to promote sustainability. The discussion was held under the Chatham House Rule so I cannot say who said what but I did want to flag up a few key things that emerged.

Perhaps because it was a bunch of climate experts, everyone seemed to agree that there was real potential for the Commonwealth to engage more in this area. But, again not surprisingly, we didn’t quite agree on where exactly the emphasis should be.

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