KEY POINTS:
It is time for the Commonwealth's biennial summit. The 53 nations of the association meet in Kampala, Uganda, from today. In the wake of meetings of foreign ministers, young people, businesses and civil society organisations, our heads of government will spend the weekend in retreat on the shores
of Lake Victoria.
No officials may accompany them into their talks at Munyonyo and far less any television cameras. They are free to talk as they please and to address what concerns them. Their decisions will touch the lives of many.
Two years ago, a three-hour debate on world trade in one of the leaders' retreats in Malta led to a declaration agreed by all Commonwealth countries - large and small, rich and poor - calling on richer countries to give more than they receive in the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round.
The world took notice and, however incomplete the advances made at the WTO ministerial in Hong Kong two weeks later, they included further erosion of the injustices of world banana, sugar and cotton regimes which were so debilitating for poorer countries' capacity to trade their goods on world markets.
It was a good example of Commonwealth political action having positive practical impact.
The Commonwealth summits, or CHOGMs, have a long and colourful history. The political dramas that threaten to waylay them, often define them.
Twenty years ago, the meeting in Vancouver was riven over responses to South Africa under apartheid. Five years ago, the Coolum CHOGM saw deep division over Zimbabwe that would lead, ultimately, to that country pulling out of the Commonwealth in 2003, when its suspension for flawed elections was extended at Abuja.
The meeting starting today puts Fiji and Pakistan at the top of the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, whose task is to respond to members in serious violation of the Commonwealth principles set down by heads of government in declarations of 1971 and 1991.
So what do we expect to come out of Kampala? As the Commonwealth approaches its 60th birthday in 2009, how does it respond to those who would pension it off into retirement?
In the years after World War II, there was a new United Nations and a handful of other international organisations.
When the British Commonwealth died in 1949, the modern Commonwealth that replaced it set out with just eight members. In 2007, our members are faced with acronym alphabet soup, with scores of regional and global bodies. The Commonwealth knows full well that it must compete for allegiance and relevance, and never rest on its laurels.
Its challenges are four-fold. It has to stay true to its values, responsive to what its members want. It must be inclusive for the people who need it most and open to new members and partners. It can show itself to be all those things and more this weekend in Uganda. And whatever the headlines, its core work of promoting democracy and development can't be blown aside.
Fidelity to values means working with our members to embrace and observe them. Where we criticise, we then seek to walk alongside our members on the unending journey and constant work-in-progress that is democracy.
Whatever we say about Fiji and Pakistan - with the latter perilously close to joining Fiji in suspension from our councils - we will work with them and with all our members to nurture the democracy that we treasure.
Beyond credible elections and strong democratic institutions, perhaps our priority is the true culture of democracy which is for all, by all, with all.
Responsiveness to challenges should see us taking a stand on climate change on the eve of the UN summit in Bali. Climate change is happening before our very eyes.
Look at the thawing of the Canadian tundra, the expanding Nigerian desert, the rising water levels in Bangladesh or some of our Pacific Islands. Our environment and finance ministers have responded with roadmaps for action.
Our civil society networks of Commonwealth geologists, meteorologists, foresters, statisticians, as well as parliamentarians and ministers, are already at work. Now, Commonwealth leaders will take a stance at CHOGM.
Inclusiveness for the neediest is born of the fact that 800 million people in the Commonwealth live in dollar-a-day poverty. Two-thirds of the world's unschooled children, and two-thirds of those who suffer from HIV and Aids, are Commonwealth citizens.
At this meeting, we will renew our commitments - backed up with money and practical programmes - to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Half of the Commonwealth's 1.8 billion people are under 25. Its future is its young people, for whom the flower of youth is often deprived of life-giving water. At CHOGM, our leaders will state the priority place that young people must hold in every branch of national life and, above all, in the practice of democracy and building communities by understanding and resolving fracture.
Openness to those beyond us is central to the alliance of governments and peoples that is the Commonwealth.
Its network of civil society organisations nears 100, worldwide. Its policy and programme partnerships are growing - with the World Bank on vulnerable small state economies, for instance, the World Health Organisation on migrating doctors and nurses, the International Labour Organisation on migrating teachers, and the European Union and the African Union on reinforcing governance in Africa.
Sixty years later, the Commonwealth has a number of countries that would like to join it.
At CHOGM, heads of government will review the way they take on new members - how they should do it and what we should expect of them.
Their task it to remain faithful to character and open to possibility: true to values; responsive; inclusive and open - a dynamic and evolving organisation in a dynamic and evolving world.
