Victoria Rutter (Chief Executive Officer) and Beth Ward (Strategic Lead - Workforce Capability Building) reflect on their experience advocating for our profession and our patients at the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa
One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Commonwealth
Victoria Rutter (Chief Executive Officer) and Beth Ward (Strategic Lead - Workforce Capability Building) reflect on their experience advocating for our profession and our patients at the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa
From 21st – 28th October 2024, representatives of 56 Commonwealth states gathered on the tiny Pacific island of Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) – the first time a Pacific island has hosted this biennial gathering of leaders.
From the moment our plane touched down, the beauty and warmth of not only the island, but its 200,000 inhabitants was made apparent to us. Villages along the route from the airport were adorned with Commonwealth flags, with each village themed to represent a particular Commonwealth state, capturing the spirit of unity and celebration.
The week preceding CHOGM is marked by the Civil Society Forums, dedicated to themes that bring people together for dialogue on defined pressing issues. This year there were four Forums focusing on: The People, Women, Youth and Business.
The 2 day People’s Forum provided a platform for CPA and other accredited organisations and representatives of wider civil society to participate in a vibrant exchange. The sessions were hosted by two of the most engaging female Masters of Ceremonies that we’d ever seen!
We joined discussions on the three themes of Health Justice, Climate Justice and Freedom of Expression, with powerful sessions featuring dance, drama, song and poetry. These creative expressions deepened the discussions with highly respected experts and representatives of civil society, and added to the voices of minority groups, including those with disabilities and from indigenous peoples. They also played to the Freedom of Expression theme, provoking much thought – and often, emotion.
CPA's Side Event: Equitable Access to Medicines
At a side event to the People’s Forum on Equitable Access to Medicines, we showcased a video that captured the testimonies of member organisations from around the Commonwealth, highlighting medicines access challenges and some of the solutions tried to tackle this growing global problem.
This video formed the basis of the discussions, which began with a panel discussion focused on the challenges faced by Small Island and Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific, where shortages of life-saving medicines impact communities at a human rights level. For some, managing end-of-life care without morphine, diabetic care without insulin, infections such as TB without essential antibiotics, or even liquid paracetamol for children has become an almost insurmountable problem.
A visit to Samoa’s main hospital distribution centre further emphasised the extent of the problem, which also caught the attention of Dame Carol Black, the Commonwealth’s Special Envoy on Healthy Aging.
As a retired medical doctor and having launched a Commonwealth report on this topic during the week of CHOGM, Dame Carol Black understood well the need for essential medicines to support our global ageing population and the tsunami of NCDs that are on our doorstep, as well as the need for access to antimicrobials to tackle the growing problem of AMR.
Dame Carol Black helped us raise the profile of this issue with policy makers, emphasising the urgency of the Commonwealth network to collaborate on solutions to address this health injustice. In addition, conversations with David Lammy, UK Secretary of State for FCDO, representatives of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Lord Collins of Highbury, UK’s Minister for Africa all resulted in unanimous support.
In collaboration with our Samoan colleagues, we produced a policy paper as a result of this dialogue, calling for support from governments to implement some tangible solutions through leveraging the expertise and capabilities of the Commonwealth network.
We will also submit a paper to the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Health (CACH) in the lead up to the next Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting (CHMM) in early 2025, to move this issue further up the political agenda and seek buy-in to suggested collaborative solutions. In parallel, we will be continuing conversations with key stakeholders to work up some tangible solutions.
The Road to CHOGM24
As a major gathering of world leaders, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is the culmination of a year of advocacy work by CPA. Weeks before, CPA’s Grace Grange represented the Commonwealth Health Professions and Partner Alliance (CHPA) – whose Deputy President is CPA Trustee and Past President Raymond Anderson – at a pivotal pre-meeting for CHOGM 2024, where she presented recommendations from the 2024 Commonwealth Civil Society Policy Forum. These same recommendations were taken by CPA to the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting in May 2024.
Aligning Health Justice with Civil Society and Government Dialogues
Discussions in official side events to CHOGM throughout the week reiterated the importance of tackling NCDs and mental health in the context of Healthy Aging, a theme that was carried to the civil society roundtable with Foreign Ministers. The dialogue at this event was largely around the topics of the People’s Forum with Forum speakers posing questions directly to government representatives. Â
Looking ahead
The Heads of Government Retreat, hosted by HRH King Charles III and HRH Queen Camilla, culminated in the announcement of the new Secretary General (SG) for the Commonwealth, the Hon Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Foreign Minister of Ghana.
The resulting Leaders Statement encompassed many topics, and we were pleased to see that health remained as a focus with a clear call to work together to address the NCD epidemic the Commonwealth is facing, alongside continued efforts to tackle AMR. We look forward to working under the new SG’s leadership and acknowledge the public support the current SG has given to the pharmacy profession during her time in office.Â
CHOGM 2024 really brought home to all in attendance what a unique and valuable network the Commonwealth represents. The vision for making a difference for the good of humanity was not only evident from the discussions but it could be felt in the atmosphere.
This resonated with recent calls to strengthen the Commonwealth’s role as a stabilising network for good in a turbulent world. It is perhaps unsurprising that as echoed in the remarks by Sir Keir Starmer in his press conference, a new,clearer Commonwealth direction is essential.
We look forward to advancing this vision with partners across the network in the weeks and months to come.
We depend on the generous support of our Patrons to be able to do this important advocacy work, from funding policy recommendation development to enabling us to send delegations to lobby influential decision-makers at events like CHOGM. For just £15 per month, you can become a Patron of CPA and make an important contribution to our efforts to strengthen healthcare systems and improve patient outcomes around the world.