ENGAGING WITH CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE COMMONWEALTH
ENGAGING WITH CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE COMMONWEALTH
Report from the Commonwealth People’s Forum
Vijay Krishnarayan is the Director of the Commonwealth Foundation. He has supported civil society organisations in the Commonwealth over the last 25 years. A land- use planner by training, he has a special interest in the relationship between development and the environment. Before joining the Commonwealth Foundation in 2006, he spent over a decade in the Caribbean, most notably as Managing Partner for the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), one of the region’s sustainable development think tanks.
Commonwealth Foundation colleagues travelled back from Malta last November quietly happy with the job that we had done together with our Maltese partners to bring civil society organisations together on the subject of resilience. We saw nearly 350 delegates from 44 countries immersed in 19 sessions getting under the skin of the concept of resilience over three days at the Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF 2015).
An initial sense of having done something good was borne out as the results from the delegate survey came in. They scored the People’s Forum highly – particularly as a space for fellowship and learning but with the benefit of a few months distance it is a little easier to appreciate the significance of the gathering and start to think about the implications for the future.
The People’s Forum’s theme
was ’What Makes Societies Resilient?’ and it struck a chord with many in civil society. With ‘resilience’ being invoked at every opportunity and in every development arena, CPF 2015 aimed to provide civil society with an opportunity to define the term based on the realities they witness. The development discussion on resilience to date has been confined to economics and the environment but the Forum heard that the concept
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has much wider application. The theme also provided an opportunity to acknowledge the leading role that small states have had in making the case for resilience, using the Commonwealth as a platform. The complexity of the
challenges and the consequent need for sophisticated strategies was reflected in the outcome statement – The Malta Declaration on Governance for Resilience. It provided analysis and recommendations as well as an annotated record of the proceedings. Credit is due here to the team of session producers, chairs, rapporteurs and the Chief Rapporteur. Together they produced a focussed document that makes an important contribution to the continuing global discussion on the inter-relationship between governance and development. It is already being cited (either as a whole or its specific sections) as an agenda for dialogue by civil society organisations. In delivering the People’s Forum, there were a number of successes and firsts, which are worth recounting. The most significant of these was the space made for policy dialogues. For many years civil society organisations have been asking for room to engage directly with ministers and government policy makers. This call has been loud when it comes to the biennial Heads of Government Meeting.
While that issue remains on the agenda, the Foundation has sought to create new spaces where dialogue can take place. In Malta policy forums were set up, which brought civil society and government representatives together. The agendas for these interactions were designed by civil society organisations. These constructive engagements
“In delivering the People’s Forum, there were a number of successes and firsts,
which are worth recounting. The most significant of these was the space made for policy dialogues. For many years civil society organisations have been asking for room to engage directly with ministers and government policy makers.”
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