Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting In London - 2018

The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary league of sovereign and independent countries that were once governed by the British. It was formed under ratification in the year 1949, with eight countries by the then King of England, King George IV. Over the years, it has grown as an international organisation in wealth and in numbers. Today, it has a numerical strength of 53 nations including both advanced economies and developing countries from the Pacific, Africa, Caribbean, Asia and North Americas. The theme for the 2018 summit “towards a common future” raises a lot of interesting issues even about the name of the organisation - the common in the wealth. This literally suggests that member states have a wealth, which is common to all. In her first interaction with the accredited media personnel at the summit, the Secretary General, Patricia Scotland was of the view that there are several common themes among member nations, which need very urgent attention. These she said include, the common ocean, common environment, common trade, and common law, common boarders among others. Then, the big question is posed, and that is, what is the common wealth and who keeps it and who benefits? Indeed each and every member state has its own peculiar issue to battle with apart from these common factors. The summit’s theme is focused on building on the strengths of the Commonwealth and to ensure that this unique organisation is responsive to global challenges and delivers a more prosperous, secured, sustainable and fair future for all its citizens, particularly its young people.

The queen of England, Elizabeth 11 who took the reigns of leadership of the organisation in 1952 after succeeding his late father, has worked acidulously not only to ensure its expansion but also established and sustained unity, stability and worth creation. She is said to have made over 200 visits to all Commonwealth countries to keep in touch with developments through regular contact with the Commonwealth Secretary General and the Secretariat. Today, the organisation embraces about 2.4 billion citizens from member countries, about a third of the world’s population. More than 60 percent of this population is under the age of 30. An issue which throws huge challenge to the worldwide organization. The unprecedented global security threats of today, such as challenges of terrorism, serious organised crime, cyber-crime, violent extremism, human trafficking ignored borders among others can only be addressed by an increased multilateral action and cooperation from member states.

In deed Commonwealth member states are ideally placed to partner, and provide assistance and support to each other, focus of which must be on the 31 smaller nations within the organisation. Member states must also learn from each other in tackling these threats among other global matters. This is basically so because by working together, through pragmatic facilitation by the organisation, a lot could be done not only in this area but importantly in the area of trade and investment as a means to drive economic growth, create jobs, and ensure the prosperity of commonwealth citizens. Commonwealth Heads of State biennial summit could be seen as a dynamic and forceful mechanism pursuing workable agendas towards the provision of dignified living conditions of citizens. The summit must not been regarded as business as usual.

Every two years, the assembling of government leaders from the Commonwealth countries must review previous themes, goals and projects and evaluate them in the light of development and prosperity of citizens. There is one thing setting a goal and choosing a theme and another ensuring the practicalities of discussing as well as the implementation of outcomes. Like it is also said that, talking is very easy than doing. At the Commonwealth level, the talking must be backed by walking. Above all, The Commonwealth’s shared vision of democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law to which every member state has subscribe must be the guiding principle in relations to holistic development of member states. By upholding and promoting these principles fairer, secured and prosperous future would be certain for all members of the Commonwealth, and provide the essential basis for sustainable development.

BY: NANA SIFA TWUM, A MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT BASED IN THE UK.

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