Dr Linda Yueh CBE, Executive Chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society, had the honour of delivering the keynote address, shedding light on the untapped potential of the third pillar of the Commonwealth.
Keynote speech:
The Potential of the Third Pillar of the Commonwealth
Dr Linda Yueh CBE
Executive Chair, Royal Commonwealth Society
“International Relations and the Commonwealth of Nations” Conference
St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK
29th November 2024
It is a pleasure to be here today to share a few thoughts as the Executive Chair of the oldest charity dedicated to the Commonwealth, the Royal Commonwealth Society. The RCS is the oldest charity dedicated to the Commonwealth and consists of a network of members and branches in more than 60 countries.
The RCS has been privileged to serve as a trusted convenor of the Third Pillar, utilising its position to bring together the different parts of the Commonwealth, namely, the diplomats and the inter-governmental organisations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat together with civil society and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that form the Third Pillar of this voluntary network of nations and peoples. For instance, the RCS does this by convening meetings that bring together young leaders with policymakers, connecting community champions with diplomats. This is all to facilitate the people-to-people links that differentiates the Commonwealth.
This Third Pillar, and its potential, is what I’d like to focus on in this keynote address.
The Third Pillar
In my day job as an economist at Oxford University and London Business School, I had endorsed a book by Chicago economist Raghuram Rajan, former central banker of India and Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, who has seen how policymaking works at the highest level.
In The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind, he outlines the importance of community and how policymaking that does not properly incorporate the third pillar contributes to socio-economic discord and polarisation, which sadly has been widely seen in society today.
From my privileged position at the RCS, I have seen the power of community when we collectively undertake acts of service that can, and have, transformed lives across the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth is rather unique – if that isn’t a non-sequitur – in having three pillars declared as part of its network. Other supra-national organisations and groupings focus on government-to-government forums such as the G7 or the G20, which are forums for major economies to gather and collectively act on the issues of the day.
In the Commonwealth, the governmental pillar and the inter-governmental pillar exist alongside the Third Pillar of NGOs, community organisations and charities. Indeed, rather than leaving community behind as bemoaned by Rajan, the Commonwealth incorporates the non-governmental organisations both in its structure and in its bi-annual CHOGMs (Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meetings) that includes four fora devoted to the Third Pillar, namely, the People’s Forum, Youth Forum, Women’s Forum and Business Forum.
This, the potential of the Third Pillar in the Commonwealth is certainly worth reflecting upon and highlighting since the need for collective action to support global aims such as equality and global public goods like the environment is evident.
Indeed, the cooperation of the peoples of countries is essential to the achievement of the collective goals of humanity, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030. There is just over five years to achieve the 17 SDGs, ranging from eradicating poverty to gender equality to protecting the environment.
In my speech at the United Nations at the High-Level Forum on the SDGs in July 2022 in New York, I stressed the important role of community efforts in helping countries achieve these aims.
As policymakers are well aware, issuing top-down diktats don’t work to bring lasting change when it comes to equality and behaviour. It is only by working collaboratively with people at the grassroots, in their communities can progress truly be made.
When it comes to global public goods, such as safeguarding the environment, it is essential that people work together across national borders since pollution, for example, recognises no man-made boundaries.
Unlike others, the Commonwealth has the Third Pillar whose constituents have members across Commonwealth countries so they can come together in shared endeavour.
As one example, the Royal Commonwealth Society launched the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Plastics Campaign at CHOGM in Samoa last month. This pan-Commonwealth initiative aims to prevent 1 million pieces of plastic from entering the Commonwealth’s waterways. Through the RCS’s international network of Associate Fellows and branches, there is reach across communities in the Commonwealth to create a shared campaign that is tailored to local conditions in each country since the delivery on the ground is with a local partner. I’ll say more about this in a moment.
This is but one of many examples of the potential of the Third Pillar of the Commonwealth. Like Rajan, himself a member of the Commonwealth diaspora, the neglect of communities has a broader societal impact in terms of fragmentation. The Commonwealth has the structure and the norms to promote the Third Pillar, which offers significant opportunities to enhance the impact of the Commonwealth in areas that directly improve people’s lives.
Recognising and supporting this potential could be key to unleashing the potential of the Commonwealth. Through its Third Pillar, the Commonwealth could be a part of the solutions to our greatest shared challenges.
Commonwealth at 75
I want to say a few words about the Commonwealth at 75 and why the Third Pillar is more important than perhaps ever. Throughout history, hitherto powerful groupings of countries have waxed and waned, e.g., G20 was influential after the 2008 global financial crisis but has become less so with growing tensions among the great powers. Or, take the G7 in the 1990s which had ceded ground to the larger group, the G20 which included emerging markets, but is now enjoying a revival of sorts as these economies forge common positions on a range of issues in this era of great power competition.
Yet, the world is facing numerous shared challenges, and the Commonwealth shares those as well, particularly relevance - a not uncommon challenge for supranational organisations.
But, as the Commonwealth is different because of its Third Pillar, its people-to-people links, this aspect holds huge promise but is also a significant challenge, as in, how can the Commonwealth maintain its people-to-people links in a meaningful and relevant way in its 75th year.
For young people in particular, purpose, relevance and concrete impact matter. The challenges for the Commonwealth include ensuring its relevance including through empowering organisations to provide platforms for young people to come together and deliver positive change.
Engaging its large population - 1.6 billion - young people in efforts that positively impact their lives in concrete ways, such as working together to achieve the UN’s Agenda 2030 is one example of what’s can make a real difference.
Where there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity.
We need global cooperation to solve shared problems, so this voluntary group of nations has the opportunity to show what is possible when people-to-people links form the basis of cooperation across the globe.
In terms of concrete examples, I want to mention that the RCS supports the Commonwealth Youth Gender Equality Network. CYGEN is the UN-recognised group of young leaders who work tirelessly to achieve gender equality (SDG 5) by 2030.
UN Secretary General António Guterres highlights that “[g]ender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away.”
I want to give a sense of how charities can provide the people-to-people links to change society for the better by mobilising young people across the Commonwealth.
The RCS serves as the Secretariat to this self-organising and self-governing network of young leaders, who are mostly former Queen’s Young Leaders.
We provide them with platforms - virtual and physical gatherings – so they can come together and collaborate on a common agenda and then take action in their countries. These platforms and meetings allow them to support each other, learn from other countries what has worked and what has not, as well disseminate their knowledge to those beyond their network. The CYGEN Knowledge Hub hosted on our website is an example of a knowledge sharing platform.
We have brought CYGEN members to every CHOGM since we launched this network at the 2015 Malta CHOGM, so they will soon be celebrating their 10th anniversary. In that short period of time, they have become the UN-recognised youth voice for gender equality in the Commonwealth, which is no mean feat.
We provide funding, often supported by Commonwealth governments seeking to promote gender equality in their foreign and aid policies, to CYGEN to provide an enabling environment for their efforts.
But, they determine their agenda, so it is organically derived from their grassroots work on the ground in Commonwealth countries. Their five areas of current work are:
· Early child and forced marriage
· Sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC+)
· Gender and governance
· Sexual and reproductive health and rights
· Youth transitions (e.g. education, training and employment)
To magnify their impact, we connect them with policymakers, for instance, at CHOGM where they speak at the Youth Forum and host side events at the meeting of heads of government. We also do so on other occasions when we organise audiences for them with Presidents, Prime Ministers and Parliamentarians to share their perspectives and research. We also support them as they engage with the United Nations and other global bodies to ensure that youth voices in the Commonwealth are part of global dialogues to further equality and better the lives of citizens.
I hope this example of how the Third Pillar can contribute to the UN Agenda 2030 gives a sense of what has worked. It highlights the immense challenges the world continues to face and why it is important that we all do our part.
Confronting our shared challenges
In recognition of the necessity of us all doing our part, the RCS launched the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Plastics Campaign at CHOGM last month. The UN says that plastic is the worst form of pollution of our waters. A shocking observation by some is that there could soon be more plastic than fish in the sea!
The Commonwealth accounts for a third of the world’s oceans and is disproportionately affected as nearly half (25 out of 56 nations) are Small Island Developing States. They are particularly impacted by climate change and environmental degradation, so a pan-Commonwealth effort is necessary since pollutants don’t respect national borders.
This campaign was highlighted by our Patron His Majesty The King and launched at CHOGM at an event that featured the UK Foreign Secretary. We will seek to prevent 1 million pieces of plastic from entering the Commonwealth’s waterways, and help achieve UN SDG 14 Life Below Water, working in partnership with the Commonwealth Games Federation. The aim is not only to pick up plastic litter but to change behaviour through education and knowledge of alternatives.
Similar to how we work with CYGEN, this is a youth-led, country-specific campaign whereby local partners determine the pick-ups and recycling.
It is very ambitious for us to launch another pan-Commonwealth environmental campaign. The RCS was the managing partner of The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, the first environmental initiative in The late Queen’s name. It was launched at the Malta CHOGM in 2015 and achieved seven years later as highlighted by the then Prince of Wales at the Rwanda CHOGM in 2022. It took partnership and local engagement to achieve a pan-Commonwealth initiative.
We will aim to do so again by mobilising our Associate Fellows and this time, the impressive Commonwealth athletes. We will provide toolkits based on working with local partners in all 56 countries to equip these young people to lead this campaign. They will organise their own clean ups and share their learnings with each other. Their efforts will be highlighted, especially during the week when the Commonwealth Games baton travels to their country.
Opportunities
In summary, the opportunities for the Commonwealth to make a significant impact arises from the shared challenges that we all face. By utilising its great asset, its people as encapsulated in its Third Pillar, the Commonwealth can contribute to the world’s collective challenges, which are considerable.
But it is precisely during those times when the challenges seem insurmountable, I always bear in mind the observation of the South African leader, a towering Commonwealth figure, Nelson Mandela, who said, “it always seems impossible until it’s done.”
Thank you all for your kind attention, and I hope that you have a very fruitful conference.
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