Commonwealth Values and government policies: our startup's just launched
What are your values? What do you stand for? For the Commonwealth of Nations, sharing the same values is very important. Its values include democracy, human rights and the rule of law. As it’s developed out of the British Empire, the Commonwealth links its members together by focusing on these shared values.
To show their links, Commonwealth members show their commitment to the shared values. They made major statements about them at meetings in Singapore (1971), Harare (1991) and Trinidad & Tobago (2009). In 2012, members signed the Commonwealth Charter, a document setting out 16 specific values and aspirations they share. We call these the Commonwealth Values.
What do the shared values have to do with the strength of the Commonwealth? We think its strength doesn’t come from governments committing to them. After all, governments are imperfect. They make policy mistakes, banning things they shouldn't and encouraging things they shouldn't. As they make policy, they might very well forget the Commonwealth Values.
In New Zealand, there is a proverb of the indigenous people, the Maori:
He aha te mea nui o te ao. What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata It is the people, it’s the people, it’s the people
We believe the strength of the Commonwealth comes from the people living within it. It's people that hold governments to account. They should know that others expect more from their governments, expect policies to show the Commonwealth Values. We are creating a new startup to promote in the UK the Commonwealth Values. It will share experiences of government policies. People will see others holding their governments to the Commonwealth Values.
We're calling our startup Commonwealth Values Exchange UK. The UK is the birth place of the Commonwealth – we will focus on bringing to it knowledge of policy experiences in other members.
To be effective at sharing policy experiences, it's important we are independent. We will remain separate from formal Commonwealth organisations and from governments.
We’ve launched
Last week, we had our first policy experience shared in the UK. The think tank Institute of Economic Affairs published this post on its blog, The economics of disaster relief. It concerns research into the policies of New Zealand’s Government, after a major earthquake in 2011. This relates to the Commonwealth Value of Good Governance.
We will shortly be publishing further articles about policy experiences. For further information and to follow what we’re doing, please come and see our website: https://www.commonwealthvalues.org.uk/
The CoVE UK team
Founder and Chairperson, Mike Wilkinson
Mike is a commercial economist from New Zealand with over ten years’ experience in telecommunications. He moved to London in 2016. With a background involving think tanks and public policy, Mike is a keen observer of how societies change. The sharing of policy experiences internationally seems to him an essential part of that. With a British wife, Mike is also fascinated by the strong similarities between societies in Commonwealth countries. Mike hopes this organisation will contribute in some small way to the ongoing success of the Commonwealth.
Board member, Sam Collins
Sam has worked in policy and politics across New Zealand, the United States and United Kingdom, as a parliamentary candidate, political staffer and not-for-profit policy advisor. He moved from New Zealand to the UK in 2010, and since then has worked for organisations such as The Hope Foundation for Street Children, Progressive Vision, the Age Endeavour Fellowship and currently at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Sam has a great interest in widening and deepening relationships between Commonwealth countries, helping to support best practice and the common values of the organisation across the world.