Vibrant discussions on common problems

The Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF), the largest ever representation of grassroots level civil society organisations among Commonwealth nations gathered at the Chaaya Tranz Hotel, Hikkaduwa after a glittering inauguration ceremony at the historic Galle Fort. They ended their five-day deliberations from November 10 to 14, on a positive note, arriving at key recommendations to be made to the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meeting.

The Commonwealth People’s Forum was formerly known as the NGO Forum but changed its name at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia in 2011. The CHOGM 2013 was held in an Asian country the first time in 24 years.

More than 700 delegates representing diverse civil society organisations of the Commonwealth nations had their deliberations under the theme 'Equitable Growth and Inclusive Development: Beyond 2015' while enjoying the scenic beauty of the Sri Lankan beaches in the tourist city of Hikkaduwa.

The CPF was organised by the Commonwealth Foundation in partnership with Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sevalanka Foundation, Federation of Sri Lanka Local Government Authorities and the Government.

At the inauguration ceremony at the Galle Fort, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma and guests from the Commonwealth Foundation, Civil Society Organisations and Government representatives laid a strong foundation to kick start the deliberations to find effective ways to overcome the challenges faced by civil societies in Commonwealth Nations.

“It is heartening to see that during the next few days, each of you will be able to air your views and concerns. More importantly, the environment will enable you to come together, collectively as one voice, to explore solutions for the best way forward on the post-2015 development agenda,” President Rajapaksa said.

“I look forward to seeing your Civil Society Statement, which will provide a solid foundation to facilitate this work, as a people-centric agenda. One cannot underestimate the creativity, insight and the specialised knowledge of civil society that will add to the successful outcome of CHOGM, and subsequently aid its members in the implementation process,” he said.

“I am certain that you have the capacity and the mandate, to work with your communities and your leaders, to meet the key issues affecting our peoples. Your ability to contribute positively will improve and enrich the lives of our peoples on a daily basis,” the President said.

“I am certain that in the years to come, we will do better, as we address the related core parameters such as competitiveness, press freedom, inequality, democracy, gender gap, peace, human development, youth and environmental performances,” the President said stressing the fact that Sri Lanka can move forward among the Commonwealth Nations with positive developments.

The President said that it is crucially important for them to have feelings for one’s motherland and commitment to her well-being and the stature and territorial integrity of the country though it is natural to have diverse opinions in civil society.

From left: Vindyani Hettigoda, Director, Hettigoda Industries (Pvt) Ltd, Harsha Kumara Navaratne, Chairman, Seva Lanka Foundation, Dr. Lalith Chandradasa, Chairman, Commonwealth People's Forum, Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, Founder, MERCY Malaysia, Anand Satyanand, Chairman, Commonwealth Foundation, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary, Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement and Vijay Krishnarajan, Director, Commonwealth Foundation.

Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, Anand Satyanand said that it was the first Commonwealth Forum held after the new Commonwealth Charter was implemented in March 2013.

Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma said that the pulse of the Commonwealth beats from the civil society organisations and called on them to protect the Commonwealth Charter.

The keynote address by the founder of MERCY Malaysia, a Medical Relief Organisation, Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, at the first session of the People’s Forum on Monday, was on the theme ‘The role of civil society in post-2015 development architecture, equitable growth and inclusive development’.

She said that local organisations rarely see the divide between humanitarianism and development but look at their communities as a whole. “They need to be recognised and play a more prominent role as they are the first to assist and the last to leave”, Dr. Jemilah said.“Civil society actors need to take ownership of being part of the process of contributing to the formulation of the agenda. This inevitably means we need to be sitting at the table with policy makers whether in formal or informal settings and not just be bystanders or shout from the sidelines”, she said.

“We need to be more savvy in our collective lobbying and advocacy, to build trust where it has been lost, and to engage in constructive ways even with the most challenging actors and policy makers.

We need to deal with to push for real and sustainable change. We need to foster greater acceptance by governments of the role played by civil society. They should not be seen as a threat, and in equal measure, civil society should not view governments as the enemy," Dr. Jemilah said.

The plenary discussions following the opening session on the theme 'Exploring the post-2015 development agenda: Consensus, divergence and opportunity'.

The workshops were held on the theme 'Equitable Growth, Inclusive and Sustainable Development'.

Commonwealth People's Forum, Chairman Dr. Lalith Chandradasa said the opening session was followed by panel discussions and eight concurrent sessions on unemployment, women empowerment, climate change, reconciliation, migration, governance and diversity, and creative expressions.

"Delegates had good discussions and we have prepared the outcome document, and handed it to the Foreign Ministers meeting for their consideration and also for consideration at the Heads of Government meeting," Dr. Chandradasa said.

Accordingly the Commonwealth People's Forum statement called upon Commonwealth Heads of State and Government to:

1. Recognise, in line with the Istanbul Principles for civil society development effectiveness and the Busan partnership for development framework, the centrality of civil society in development and invest in supporting the conditions that create an enabling environment for civil society to participate in development processes more fully, proactively and effectively.

3. Strengthen institutions and promote processes that support participatory governance and cross boundary knowledge sharing.

4. Commit to a framework of mutual accountability at the global, regional and national level.

5. Ensure that all development policies and processes are firmly grounded in a human rights based approach.

Apart from this the Commonwealth People's Forum also identified great potential to improve global development effectiveness offered by a new post-2015 development agenda and recommended 13 issues to be addressed by the Commonwealth countries.

One of the recommendations calls for the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth to declare a stand-alone goal of gender equality; of empowering girls and women to achieve their full potential, prevent and eliminate violence against women and integrate women's empowerment into all relevant goals including specific concerns such as economic, political and social environment including sexual and reproductive health.

He said one important element of their discussions was that deliberations were not aimed at specific countries.

"We discussed common problems faced by the Commonwealth nations and how those problems relate to the Commonwealth but not individual countries. But during discussions people were happy about what was happening in Sri Lanka and they said that they had not expected to see such a peaceful country," Dr Chandradasa said.

However, he said an ugly incident took place on the last day when British Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Minister for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Hugo Swire, suddenly rushed in at the closing session and made a statement against Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

"That was not in keeping with our principle of not having country specific discussions. This created lot of disharmony at a time the Government was trying to do something with the civil society organisations," Dr. Chandradasa said.

"He gate crashed and made bad remarks about Sri Lanka and the Maldives and now both governments feel that we purposely permitted the forum to attack these governments. This is totally untrue and we never talked about country specific issues. He created a big problem for us especially our relationship with Sri Lankan Ministers who think that we did it purposely. This has strained relationships further," he said.

However, Dr Chandradasa said they are optimistic that the Government will understand the embarrassing situation they faced."We hope that our report will be seriously considered by the Commonwealth Heads of Government for the civil societies to move forward in the post- 2015 development agenda," he said.