Executive Director participates in Round Table 2015 discussion on “Renewing the Commonwealth”

In the run up to the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government and States (CHOGM), the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London organized round table discussions on some of the reform agenda for the “Commonwealth of the future”. The discussions follow serious indictment of The Commonwealth as “a sick and dysfunctional organization” by the Chair of CHOGM President Joseph Muscat of Malta (the host of the 2015 Summit) in a lecture delivered at the London School of Economics in July 2014.

The Round Table discussion focussed on the reform agenda for the new Commonwealth Secretary General who is due to be elected later this year. The key note address was given by Mr Matthew Neuhaus, a seasoned Australian diplomat who also once served as Director of Political Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat. According to Neuhaus, the next Secretary General has, not only the duty to lift the organization’s profile internationally by taking a bold stand on critical international issues such as radicalization and migration, but also “understand the development agenda and needs of small and developing states” especially with regard to domestic resource mobilization necessary to “achieve post 2015 sustainable development goals”.