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The Foundation was established by Commonwealth
Heads of Government in 1965, at the same time that the Commonwealth
Secretariat was set up to be the Commonwealth’s ‘civil
service’ to serve and link the governments of the Commonwealth.
Since then, both agencies have been based in Marlborough House
in London. And, like the Secretariat, the Foundation is funded
by Commonwealth governments.
Each member government makes an assessed contribution
to the Foundation’s resource base each year, generating
about £2.5 million pounds. In recent years we have been
successful in raising additional funds through additional
voluntary contributions to our resource base from private
grant-making Foundations such as the Ford Foundation, and
from member governments, including those of the UK, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, and Nigeria (this latter in respect
of the 2003 Commonwealth People’s Forum). The voluntary
contributions are always in respect of particular, designated
Foundation programmes or activities.
From the outset the Foundation has been governed
by a Board of Governors comprised of representatives of member
governments, who are most commonly their High Commissioners
in London. The Board is chaired by a distinguished Commonwealth
citizen, nominated and elected by Commonwealth Governments.
The post is held currently by Mrs Graca Machel of Mozambique,
who commenced her term of office in January 2001. Membership
of the Foundation is not automatic but rather, voluntary.
I am glad to say that 46 of the 54 governments of the Commonwealth
are members, the most recent one being Belize. Associate membership
of the Foundation is open to states and territories associated
with Commonwealth member governments.
What the Foundation does
At the outset, in 1965, the Foundation’s mandate was
to “……..administer a fund for increasing
interchanges between Commonwealth organisations in professional
fields throughout the Commonwealth”. In 1979 this
original mandate was widened by decision of the Lusaka CHOGM.
While the Foundation continued to serve and support professional
groups and associations, other groups and fields of human
endeavour were added: these included, in particular, activities
in the field of arts and culture; and the work of what are
generally called voluntary, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) working in Commonwealth countries as well as at a pan-Commonwealth
level.
As a result of this change of mandate the
Foundation’s focus broadened considerably during the
1980s, albeit with the focus still on people, and on people-to-people
interaction, whether among professionals, artists, or voluntary
sector workers. In the field of arts and culture, a number
of activities were instigated, including the Commonwealth
Writers Prize. Relationships were established with regional,
national NGO umbrella/coordinating organisations, and many
other NGOs, and from 1991 onwards, the Foundation took the
initiative to organise a Commonwealth NGO Forum, which has
brought together NGO leaders from around the Commonwealth
during the year of every other CHOGM – that is on a
4-yearly cycle. The first such Forum was held in Harare in
1991, and the fourth will be in Abuja in 2003, where it will
be called the Commonwealth Civil Society Meeting.
While there is neither space nor need here
to list all the activities in which the Foundation is involved,
our mandate is such that the canvas on which it paints its
modest resources is a large one. All these years on from the
Foundation’s establishment our mission statement currently
(since 2001 in fact) now reads as follows:
“The Foundation is an inter-governmental
organisation resourced by and reporting to Commonwealth governments.
Its mission is two-fold:
Civil society: To strengthen the ability
of citizens and civil society organisations to work together,
and with government and the private sector, towards the achievement
of fundamental Commonwealth purposes and values, and especially
those relating to good governance, people-centred and sustainable
development and poverty eradication.
The People’s Commonwealth: To facilitate
pan-Commonwealth and inter-country connections between people,
their associations and communities at all levels so as to
encourage and enable mutual learning in the fields of personal,
professional and community development, and arts and culture;
and to recognise and celebrate excellence and achievement
in these fields.
To put the two parts of the mission more simply,
the Foundation is, in large measure about making connections,
and in particular two types of connection. Firstly, that connection
that must exist between people and government, and secondly
the connection that that must exist between people themselves,
to share and learn from one another at all levels, including
across the Commonwealth.
But there is little point in connecting people
with one another and with government unless at least one party
has something to say to the other. So in recent times we have
developed this very brief statement which seeks to convey
the very essence of our work and purposes:
“Creating change by making people’s
voices heard”
“People’s voices” –
meaning what ? For the Foundation these voices come in two
forms. First the direct voices of people themselves; and second,
the voices of civil society organisations. The origins of
listening to and making heard the voices of people themselves
go back six years. Between 1997 and 1999 the Foundation carried
out an ambitious project called Civil Society in the New
Millennium. Through the project, we interviewed some
10,000 Commonwealth citizens, across 47 countries. Or in other
words we found and heard their voices. Most of them were the
kinds of voices who don’t often get sought out , let
alone heard. We asked them three questions:
What is your view of a ‘good society’?
To what extent does such a society exist today?
In such a ‘good society’ what roles are best played
by citizens and what roles are best played by state institutions
and other sectors?
What would enable citizens to play their roles more effectively
in the development of such a society in the future?
What emerged from the project is that people
see three ‘building blocks’ at the heart of a
good, well-functioning society. Basic needs are met: for food,
shelter, security, peace, human rights, health and education.
In addition people are able to associate with one another
for the purposes of common good and want the rights needed
for them to do so. Finally government - whether local, national,
regional, Commonwealth or global – is inclusive, participatory
and accountable.
Three other clear, common themes that emerged
from the study: the voices say that a ‘good society’
would be characterised by:
a strong state and a strong civil society.
These are seen as complements, not alternatives. A strong
state meaning in particular a facilitating, listening and
empowering state as well as a ‘doing’ state. A
strong state meaning one that encourages and enables civil
society actions in other words
a deepened democratic culture, one that is
“not merely a matter of ballot boxes on election day”
as the Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has put
it. A participatory democracy; a democracy characterised by
inclusive governance rather than exclusive government;
a more active role for citizens, which means
treating them not as subjects, mere voters or passive beneficiaries,
but as empowered partners in social, economic and
political development.
The Foundation presented these findings to
the 1999 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban,
and in their Communique they stated that:
“….people must be directly involved
in the decision-making process and in the implementation of
development plans and programmes …. [Heads of Government]
noted the significance of civil society in empowering people
to benefit from globalisation, in contributing towards goals
of poverty elimination, equal opportunity and fair distribution
of resources, and in helping to deal more effectively with
ethnic, racial and religious conflicts…”
And in their Fancourt Declaration on Globalisation
and People Centred Development issued at the same meeting,
they added:
“..if the poor and the vulnerable are
to be at the centre of development, the process must be participatory,
in which they have a voice … good governance and economic
progress are directly linked …. good governance requires
inclusive and participatory processes….”
It is clear that there is a substantial, if
not complete, coincidence between the voices of citizens the
stated views of government leaders. And I would also add here
that there was also a substantial coincidence in our findings
between the voices of citizens in the so-called developed
countries and those of citizens in the so-called developing
countries.
Since 1999 the Foundation has been following
up the Civil Society in the New Millennium study
with its Citizens and Governance Programme. It has
had a simple objective: to come up with practical answers
to a key question: ‘how can citizen voice and participation
in governance be achieved?’ At this CHOGM and Civil
Society Meeting here in Abuja this week, the Foundation will
be releasing the first results of this programme.
I noted earlier that there is a second source
of voice that the Foundation tries to seek out and make heard:
this is often, and perhaps rather confusingly, called ‘the
voice of civil society’. I say ‘confusingly’
because the many organisations and associations that comprise
‘civil society’ - of faith, of labour, of youth,
of NGOs, of the media, of thousands of specialised concerns
and interests – cannot be said, or indeed expected,
to have a singular voice. Indeed, it is very difficult to
define what exactly civil society is !
That said, and necessarily left aside here,
the Foundation, by virtue of its intergovernmental status,
its role in serving civil society across the Commonwealth,
and its consequent ability to offer a ‘safe space’,
sees its role as enabling and facilitating dialogue, understanding
and partnership in that space between the governmental and
civil society sectors, and indeed between the private and
civil society sectors. We endeavour to do this at every opportunity
– one such being the opportunity of the CHOGM itself.
That is why we are here in Abuja this week: not just to organise,
with our partners in Nigeria (including government Ministries
and civil society organisations), that space called the Commonwealth
People’s Forum, but also to connect that space with
the CHOGM itself.
Why is it important? Because if the
voices of people and of civil society don’t connect
with one another, through dialogue, misunderstanding and mistrust
are likely to flourish, and in a world beset by so many urgent
and pressing needs and concerns, that gets us nowhere.
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