Commonwealth heads: How do we put the “common” back into wealth?

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]eaders of 53 Commonwealth states gathered in London and Windsor, UK from April 16th to 20th to discuss equally beneficial paths forward during a time of siginificant global shifts. On Thursday, April 26 Saint Lucian Prime Minister the Hon. Allen Chastanet appeared alongside Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland to discuss the importance of strengthening the Commonwealth’s bond.

“There has never been a more important moment for our Commonwealth. We are 53 countries, 2.4 billion people, 60% of whom are under the age of 30, and we come from six different regions,” stated Baroness Scotland, beaming over the group’s fluidity during last week’s gathering. She added, “I was so pleased to see the larger countries in our Commonwealth saying that they stand shoulder to shoulder with the small states. And there were poignant moments when leaders who had not perhaps fully understood the enormity of what is happening both here and in the Pacific, came to realize that this was absolutely critical now and said to the other small state leaders: ‘We stand with you.'”

Sustainability, trade and climate change were amongst a broad list of areas addressed. On trade, Scotland stated, “In 2015 we identified that there is a 19% advantage in Commonwealth countries trading with each other. It is 19% easier, cheaper, and better.” She clarified that this benefit is made possible as a result of shared language and legal structures. By strenghening relationships within the Commonwealth at a time of Brexit and America’s plan of making the country “great again”, Scotland highlighted that joint efforts were essential and predicted deeply felt and longstanding benefits.

Last year, in an interview with the STAR, Secretary-General Scotland spoke of the organisation’s intentions on bringing forth a new framework for building preparedness and resilience against natural disasters in the Caribbean. As an update, she informed that although this year’s hurricane season is less than 40 days away, and the region and Commonwealth are not fully prepared, due to the structuring of initiatives like “build back toolkits”, we should not feel despair. Scotland explained, “We are not prepared; we need to be better prepared. And so one of the things that we are doing at the secretariat is pulling all the knowledge we can have, wherever we can have it, to try and get a strategy together as to how we can respond better, faster and more successfully. That way, we don’t have to keep on re-inventing the wheel.