The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has called for the need to build greater resilience to enable governments to reduce the risk of present and future shocks and accelerate progress toward the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.
Madam Botchwey, who was speaking at Chatham House, London, said to meet the ambitions of Commonwealth citizens, there was a clear need for a development cooperation framework that works for the entire Commonwealth as a community.
She noted that the Commonwealth Secretariat’s purpose as articulated in the Revised Agreed Memorandum would help member states by facilitating and promoting consultation on matters of common concern and expanding and adapting to experiences to carry out its functions.
“We, therefore, need to rethink the new Commonwealth by looking into the original impetus for its creation and the 2005 Revised Agreed MOU. As we do so, we must be inspired by the aspirations set in the Charter and the realities of our time,” she added.
Madam Botchwey highlighted six areas to reposition the Commonwealth to transform the economies of its member states and ensure their resilience. These are trade and investment; youth education, skills, innovation, start-ups; mobility and labour markets, climate change, small states; and managing resources for an effective Commonwealth institution.
She stated that the majority of Commonwealth citizens do not earn enough to power the production and market expansion required to create economic security, “Whether, in the industrialized or developing regions of the Commonwealth, we need to deliver a framework for Commonwealth trade to surpass the potential $2 trillion trade within the Commonwealth.”
According to the Minister, having a common Commonwealth strategy for industrialization and economic diversification strategically linked to Regional Integration Agreements and Economic Partnership Agreements within and beyond the Commonwealth was a guarantee against stagnation across the countries.
Touching on youth, education, skills, innovation and start-ups, Madam Botchwey noted that young people in the Commonwealth constitute a third of all young people in the world. With the improvement in ICT and innovations of social media for distance learning, building the tech and other workers of the twenty-first century for a Commonwealth-wide market, was an achievable goal in the short term.
“Closing the Commonwealth’s digital gap in health, education and trade; building the digital infrastructure to boost connectivity within and between Commonwealth countries is an important way forward. Taking advantage of the best practices and attainments across the Commonwealth, we can design core curriculum and common standards and facilitate access to borderless financing to ensure that we are the leaders in innovation, start-ups, and services in the world,” she stressed.
On climate change, the Minister pointed out that it was impossible to look at a future Commonwealth without a robust strategy on climate adaptation, adding, “We need to achieve a resilient Commonwealth by enhancing climate change leadership and technical assistance; unlocking vital finance for vulnerable countries; building blue and green economies across the Commonwealth and helping members overcome external shocks,” she added.
She indicated that priority should be given to small states so that they gain better access to sustainable financing, build resilience, and have a voice on the global stage.
Madam Botchwey also noted that an ambitious Commonwealth should be funded at comparative levels as other multilateral organisations.
“Together with a more credible Programme resource envelope, it is time to review the human resourcing and budget of the Secretariat. This would enable more resources to be ploughed back into programmes, as well as ensuring a resilient secretariat with long-term stability, attracting, and retaining the best of the Commonwealth’s talent in service of all members,” she emphasised.