Commonwealth Foundation: Difference between revisions

{{About|the London-based organisation|the Pennsylvania think tank|Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2013}}

 

{{Infobox organization

| image_size = 250px

| alt =

| abbreviation = CF

| formation = {{Start date and age|1966|df=y}}

| purpose =

| headquarters = [[Marlborough House]]<br>[[London]], {{postcode|SW|1}}

| coords = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LON|display=inline,title}} -->

| membership_year =

| leader_title = Chair

| leader_title2 = Director-General

| leader_name2 = Anne Gallagher

| website = [http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/ commonwealthfoundation.com]

}}

 

 

== Structure and governance ==

The Commonwealth Foundation, along with its sister organisation the Commonwealth Secretariat, was conceived at the 1964 Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers. The idea of a Commonwealth Secretariat was first floated by President [[Kwame Nkrumah|Nkrumah]] of Ghana and the concept of the Commonwealth Foundation was proposed by [[Alec Douglas-Home]], the British Prime Minister.<ref>Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers, Final Communique (London, 1964).</ref> The British Government offered to contribute half the proposed annual income of £250,000. Initially, the idea of locating the Foundation in London was dismissed on the basis that the Commonwealth Secretariat would be based there. However, it was later agreed that it should be based in London as many of the professional associations operating throughout the Commonwealth had offices in Britain.<ref>Chadwick J., 1982, ''The Unofficial Commonwealth: The Story of the Commonwealth Foundation 1965–1980'', pp. 51–52.</ref>

 

 

While the [[Commonwealth Secretariat]] was established to support the political endeavours of the Commonwealth, the "Foundation was brought into being in the hope that it would give further substance to the old truism that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as of governments".<ref name="Chadwick J 1147">Chadwick J., 1969, "The Commonwealth Foundation: Progress 1966–1969"; Royal Society of Medicine 62 (11P1), pp. 1145–1147.</ref>

In 1979, the Foundation's mandate was extended to include work with a broader range of non-governmental organisations involved in work such as rural development, social welfare, disability, gender and arts and culture.

 

 

The Commonwealth Foundation was already unique as an intergovernmental body established solely to support civil society, but in 2004, the Foundation took the additional step of revising its governance structure to include civil society representatives. Uniquely for an intergovernmental organisation, five members of civil society now sit on the Board of Governors alongside representatives of member governments.

=== Governance ===

 

 

Throughout its history, the Foundation has been led by highly accomplished people. The first Chairman of the Foundation was Nobel laureate [[Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet]] and the first Director was John Chadwick. Today, the Chair of the Foundation is Ambassador Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing, and the Director is Vijay Krishnarayan.

 

==== Member States ====

 

===== Africa =====

* {{Flag|Botswana}}

* {{Flag|Cameroon}}

* {{Flag|Ghana}}

* {{Flag|Kenya}}

* {{Flag|Sierra Leone}}

* {{Flag|South Africa}}

*{{Flag|Tanzania}}

* {{Flag|Uganda}}

* {{Flag|Guyana}}

* {{Flag|Jamaica}}

* {{Flag|Saint Lucia}}

* {{Flag|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines}}

 

===== Asia =====

* {{Flag|Bangladesh}}

* {{flag|Bhutan}}

* {{Flag|India}}

* {{Flag|Malaysia}}

* {{Flag|Pakistan}}

* {{Flag|Sri Lanka}}

 

===== Europe =====

* {{flag|Cyprus}}

* {{Flag|Malta}}

* {{Flag|United Kingdom}}

 

* {{Flag|Solomon Islands}}

* {{Flag|Tonga}}

 

==== Associate Member State ====

 

==== Other Commonwealth Nations ====

 

* {{Flag|Fiji}}

* {{Flag|The Gambia}}

* {{Flag|Nauru}}

* {{Flag|Samoa}}

* {{Flag|Singapore}}

* {{Flag|Tuvalu}}

 

=== Vision ===

Complementing its work with the professional associations, the Foundation provided grants to help with the development of three new professional [[magazine|journals]] namely:

 

* ''Appropriate Technology'' was launched in co-operation with the Intermediate Technology Development Group (now known as [[Practical Action]]).

* Support was given to help produce a French-language Dental Journal into a bilingual Anglo-French publication.<!-- can't find the name of this -->

Since 2002, civil society organisations have presented statements at the annual Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting. Reflecting the themes of the meetings, statements have been published on "Financing for Development" (2002); "The Provision of Essential Services" (2003); "Capacity of International Institutions to Support Pro-Poor Trade Liberalisation in Low-Income and Vulnerable Countries" (2004); and "Giving Practical Effect to the Millennium Project Review" (2005). Each year, civil society organisations met immediately ahead of the Ministers Meeting to prepare the statements. In 2006, the outcomes of an e-consultation process was used to further inform debate and shape the statement on "An Agenda for Growth and Livelihoods".

 

 

[[Heavily Indebted Poor Countries]] (HIPC) are judged to have the highest levels of poverty in the world and are subject to international debt relief measures that seek to reduce their external debt to sustainable levels. Commonwealth HIPC Ministers meet twice a year to discuss issues of common interest. The Commonwealth Foundation supports civil society participation at these meetings, giving civil society representatives an opportunity to share their views with Ministers and take information back to national and regional networks engaged in work on debt and HIPC issues.

==References==

 

 

==External links==

*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.theasa.org/ Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth]</span>

*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.comarchitect.org/ Commonwealth Association of Architects]</span>

*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.commonwealth-planners.org/ Commonwealth Association of Planners]</span>

*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.capsl.org/ Commonwealth Association of Public Sector Lawyers]</span>

 

Professional Centres

*<span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930092235/http://www.opasrilanka.com/ Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka]</span>

 

*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.acu.ac.uk/ Association of Commonwealth Universities]</span>

*<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.cba.org.uk Commonwealth Broadcasting Association]</span>

 

{{Commonwealth of Nations topics}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Commonwealth Family]]

[[Category:Foundations based in the United Kingdom]]