Beth Button
Director of External Affairs
Last month, I joined the ACU’s delegation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) – a summit of heads of government of Commonwealth nations which takes place every two years, which took place in Apia, Samoa from 21-26 October 2024.
The first to be held in a Pacific Small Island Developing State, the theme of this year’s CHOGM was ‘One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Common Wealth’.
Building on progress since CHOGM 2022, which the ACU also attended on behalf of our members, Commonwealth leaders came together to deliberate on global economic, environmental and security challenges, and discuss how Commonwealth countries can work together to build resilience, boost trade, innovation, growth and empower the Commonwealth’s 1.5 billion young people for a more peaceful and sustainable future.
A busy week of events at CHOGM for the ACU delegation included a series of high-level engagement with Commonwealth leaders, stakeholder forums, ministerial meetings, side events and other activities that the ACU participated in.
Climate resilience and indigenous knowledge
This year, there was a thematic focus on climate resilience and particularly on oceans, which are critical to addressing this global challenge, and nowhere more so than in the Pacific. The resulting ‘Ocean Declaration’ will be an important mechanism for ACU to engage its members in the commitments made by Commonwealth Governments, where we’ll seek to broker collaboration and harness ACU’s academic convening power on issues such as marine ecosystem restoration, and the Blue Economy (via the COBE).
In the side events, the indigenous voice was a prominent theme. I chaired a session at the Peoples' Forum on indigenous knowledge, ably led by Associate Professor Amelia Turagebeci from our member Fiji National University (FNU). Professor Turagabeci addressed the question of how to bring together well-established local knowledge and indigenous assets/expertise with the relevant Western science and the public policy response to help build climate resilience in terms of human health. That combination will be key to our collective success, and supporting greater collaboration in this triangulation will be a key focus for ACU in the coming years.
Championing ACU members across the forums and side events
Throughout the week of CHOGM, ACU was well-represented in the many forums and side events.
At the Business Forum, ACU’s Chair of Council Professor Cheryl De La Rey spoke on a plenary on regional skills whilst our Chief Executive and Secretary General, Professor Colin Riordan, chaired a roundtable on Lifelong Learning. Both garnered lively discussions and agreement that whilst change in the future job market is inevitable, it's going to be difficult to plan for, but there is a high degree of awareness of the need for upskilling and greater collaboration between university and business which will be key to meeting the opportunities and challenges in this period.
At the Youth Forum, Professor Robin Mason, Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and PVC at the University of Birmingham UK, represented the ACU on a panel on entrepreneurship and employability, where he spoke of the importance of greater connectivity between universities and industry, and introduced the CCS’s new ‘Time Limited Programme’ in this area, which will facilitate incubation training and a ‘protected’ space to further refine and advance entrepreneurial ideas.
The ACU co-hosted two official side events during CHOGM. The first with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on climate justice convened an eminent panel of judges and legal experts to delve into the pressing challenges and potential opportunities presented by existing national, regional, and international legal frameworks for advancing environmental and climate justice across the Commonwealth.
The side event with our partners in the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative on resilient urbanisation built on our work at the 2022 CHOGM to support the Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation from Governments. Professor Cheryl De La Rey spoke to the importance of partnerships and collaboration across the Commonwealth to connect engaged universities and governments towards this shared endeavour, and shared the experience of her institution, the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand, who have played a key role in supporting enhanced resilience in the city after the devastating 2011 earthquake.
Professor Colin Riordan also gave the opening address at the launch event of the National University of Samoa's Pacific Expo, which bought together many ACU members from the region to identify priorities for collaboration. Professor Riordan emphasised the leading role that Pacific universities can play in realising the CHOGM agenda of a resilient Commonwealth, drawing on the Samoan concept of ‘aiga’ or family.
King’s Commonwealth Fellowship Programme launch event
The big event for the ACU was the launch event for the new King's Commonwealth Fellowship Programme. The prestigious initiative will fully fund, train and support multiple cohorts of undergraduate, postgraduate and mid-career King’s Fellows from Commonwealth Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
To celebrate the launch of this exciting initiative, we brought together over 100 students from across the Pacific, in collaboration with the University of South Pacific and National University of Samoa, for a special engagement with His Majesty The King.
Having been welcomed by a group of student representatives and a performance by students, His Majesty was delighted to have the opportunity to meet with and talk to many of those present about the importance of education and scholarship in building climate resilience. You can view full photos of the event here.
Ceremonially launching the new scheme, ACU Secretary General Professor Colin Riordan gratefully acknowledged His Majesty’s support and that of the Khalili Foundation as a Founding Member. He talked about the origin of the programme and how it was inspired by the King’s own conversations with Prime Ministers in the Caribbean. After one of the periodic cyclones had devastated a number of islands, the King realised, as Professor Riordan paraphrased it, that ‘higher education was one of the most important ways to support Commonwealth island states to meet the challenges of climate resilience, with its implications for population health, food and water security, and myriad related issues’. It was fantastic therefore to have the Prime Minister of the Bahamas attend the event, representing these Caribbean SIDS. Both the Prime Minister and the UK Foreign Secretary who was also in attendance spent time with students present.
Speaking to the ACU’s Secretary General, Prof Colin Riordan, His Majesty spoke of how proud he was to be the Patron of the ACU. A personal highlight of the week at CHOGM was the opportunity to hear His Majesty formally announce the programme in his inaugural speech as Head of the Commonwealth.
In his speech, His Majesty King Charles III commented:
‘In this spirit and following the conversations with many Commonwealth leaders gathered here, I asked the Association of Commonwealth Universities and its numerous members to consider the vital issue of access to education. I am delighted therefore by the offer to launch a new Commonwealth Fellowship Programme for students from the Small Island States to build skills that will underpin a resilient future, such as in nursing, teaching, engineering, and the green transition.’
This recognition by His Majesty during the opening ceremony is a huge honour for the ACU, and acknowledgement of the significant contribution that ACU members make to the Commonwealth and its ambitions for a sustainable future.
CHOGM final communique – key themes
Beyond the many side events, forums, panels and formal Ministerial sessions, we were also pleased to meet and engage with a number of Commonwealth Heads of Government, Ministers, and Commonwealth ‘family’ organisations. As Samoa takes up the chair in-office, we look forward to taking forward the important discussions and conversations and using our academic convening power to translate the high-level commitments made, into action and impact.
The final CHOGM communique, though silent on universities specifically, does reference many themes on which the ACU has made recommendations and where our work can contribute. There are opportunities not only for the Higher Education Taskforce, but for our programmes and our new expert groups.
Below is a summary of some of the key CHOGM declarations and recommendations that align with the ACU’s key proposals in our submission, reinforcing universities’ role in advancing Commonwealth priorities:
1. Support for Small and Vulnerable States (SIDS)
CHOGM emphasised the need for urgent, collective climate and economic resilience and sustainable practices tailored to SIDS.
ACU advocacy: the ACU has advocated for increased Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowship Plans (CSFP), especially for vulnerable states, to foster resilience and sustainable development. The newly launched Kings Commonwealth Fellowship Programme is targeted specifically at Commonwealth SIDS.
2. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and societal values
CHOGM urged Commonwealth nations to focus on SDG-related research and teaching, shaping societal values, and advocating for peace and environmental sustainability.
ACU advocacy: The ACU emphasised the role of universities in promoting SDG-focused learning, research excellence, and partnerships to drive development and resilience, particularly for small island developing states.
3. Climate action, knowledge exchange and sustainability research
CHOGM urged advancing environmental management knowledge to support climate targets and prioritised knowledge exchange across the Commonwealth, integrating science with policy and recognising the value of Indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge.
ACU advocacy: The ACU called for acknowledgement of the vital role that universities play in contributing to climate resilience, and called for collective climate action, underscoring the need for university-led initiatives and toolkits for climate resilience.
We communicated how universities support the development of sustainable technologies, environmental science advancements, and training future leaders in sustainable development, directly reinforcing CHOGM’s environmental objectives. CHOGM’s call for prioritising knowledge exchange and integrating science aligned directly with our emphasis of the need to equip institutions and individuals with the knowledge and skills to address global challenges. Through fostering knowledge sharing and aligning research with policy needs, ACU’s efforts help advance the Commonwealth’s priorities by supporting cross-border collaboration and interdisciplinary research, making HEIs a bridge between science and policymaking.
The ACU was also championing the importance of greater integration of indigenous and local knowledge in policy making; the topic of our delegate-led session at the People’s forum.
Finally, the big news at CHOGM was the election of a new Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Honourable Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, who is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana. The incoming Secretary-General highlighted matters that are central to the ACU in her media statement, promising to promote ‘trade, education, skills development and innovation for the teeming numbers of young people across our Commonwealth’. We look forward to working with the new Secretary General, and as ever, we will continue to work closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Governments on these issues and more.
More information
- Find out more about the ACU at CHOGM 2024
- Find out more about the King’s Commonwealth Fellowship Programme
- View the full image gallery of the King’s Commonwealth Programme launch event here