CHOGM 2007: Kampala puts a new face on the Commonwealth: W. David McIntyre reports on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2007.

• Author: McIntyre, W. David
• Position: Conference notes

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The 2007 Chogm was headline news in Uganda but not in New Zealand. The Dominion Post managed to ignore it and the Press produced the most negative editorial your reporter has ever read. 'Chogm', it is true, is a rather unlovely acronym. Like so many such brand names it is now treated as a word, rendered usually in lower case, but is well known only to the cognoscenti --and, briefly, the citizens of host cities. It has the advantage of brevity and familiarity, yet has a regretfully blunt unmusical ring. But the chief disadvantage is that it fails to convey the dynamism of the multiplex of events it now encompasses and which, in late November 2007, prompted the proud headline in Kampala: 'CHOGM HAS KICKED OFF'.

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Before the Heads of Government Meeting (the title used since 1971), there was the Youth Forum organised by the Commonwealth Youth Programme, the Business Forum organised by the Commonwealth Business Council, the People's Forum organised by the Commonwealth Foundation, the pre-Chogm Meeting of Foreign Ministers and a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on the Harare Declaration(C-Mag), as well as numerous presentations in-the-wings such as a Royal Commonwealth Society meeting addressed by Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader from Zimbabwe; the Para 55 Group on HIWAids; the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on coping with the aftermath of genocide; and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation launch of COMARCI, the Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative. As veteran Commonwealth journalist Derek Ingram put it: Chogm week has a 'cast of thousands'.

Bare facts substantiate this. There were over a thousand participants for both Business and People's Forums, as well as over 600 official delegates, along with 850 accredited media people. If the Chogm Task Forces from both the Secretariat and the Uganda government, and the police and security forces are added, the total has to be doubled. Chogm is a vast happening. Don McKinnon admitted in a daily Kampala blog: 'I have long lobbied for a change of name for this great coming together of all things Commonwealth.'

The most significant trend over the past decade has been the emergence of the tri-sector Commonwealth. As the political Commonwealth has been blunted by the global challenges of terrorism, poverty, and environmental degradation, the corporate Commonwealth of private business and the voluntary Commonwealth of civil society organisations have grown in stature, participation, and impact. Their pursuit of similar goals, by different routes, adds to the uniqueness and attractiveness of the association.

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Opening event

The opening event for 2007 was the Sixth Commonwealth Youth Forum, held at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe, 14-21 November, on the theme 'Breaking Barriers: Unleashing Young People's Potential for Development'. Delegates between the ages of 18 and 25 from 45 countries called for the inclusion of 'young grassroots activists' in policy planning to represent those who comprise half the population of the member countries. Forum discussions focused on conflict management and social transformation; sustainable development and climate change; and disparities in access to health care. Their communique made recommendations to the Commonwealth, to governments, to civil society, to business, to the media, and to young people, all prefaced with the declaration: 'Give young people half a chance and we will astound you....'

The Business Forum, held in the Kampala Sheraton, 19-22 November, tackled the theme of 'The Untapped Potential: Transforming Societies through Economic Empowerment'. With ample sponsorship from eleven business corporations and thirteen support companies, the Business Council can always lay on a rich programme generously laced with networking breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Eleven hundred attendees from twenty-seven Commonwealth and twelve non-Commonwealth countries heard over 100 speakers including contributions from the presidents of Ghana, Guyana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda, and the prime ministers of Antigua and Mauritius. Of particular interest was a session chaired by Michael Frendo, the Maltese Foreign Minister, on the role of information and communications technology in providing the 'infrastructure of infrastructure' and permitting 'interconnectivity' for rural populations.

Even bigger than the Business Forum, the People's Forum, held in the Hotel Africana, 18-22 November, attracted twelve hundred participants from a wide range of civil society organisations, including professional associations, care, welfare, educational, and legal bodies, as well as such well-established trail blazers as the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC). From its rich variety of plenary sessions, inter-action workshops, field trips, and feedback sessions, it produced the Kampala Civil Society Statement, a detailed and extremely ambitious document. Alongside the Forum was the 'People's Space" an area of covered pavilions where a moving feast of exhibits, presentations of various sorts, and discussions took place, around an open arena with a stage for larger performances. A 'People's Wall of Greatness' was available for people to post creative work. Open to the public as well as the forum delegates, it did not attract as much attention as Mark Collins, the Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, had hoped for, possibly because of the security arrangements.

Hard-hitting statement

The hard-hitting fifteen-page Civil Society...