By Hannah Dadzie
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, says Commonwealth countries need to create over fifty thousand decent jobs each day until 2030 to provide opportunities for young people entering the labour market.
Delivering a speech at Chatham House, London, at Chatham House Members’ Event, Madam Botchwey said it is estimated that, together, Commonwealth countries need to create three in every five jobs in the world as the labour force in countries such as Japan, China and Europe shrink.
She said within the Commonwealth itself, labour mobility does not correspond to the labour rigidities of the economies, denying markets the skills and resources needed to create goods and services needed to power greater inclusive growth and wealth creation. She noted that it is quite clear that countries have failed to draw the link between young tech workers, the ubiquity of services they provide and anxiety over physical migration.
The Foreign Minister highlighted six areas for repositioning the Commonwealth to transform the economies of its member states and ensure their resilience. These are Trade and Investment; Youth Education, Skills, Innovation, Start-Ups, Mobility and Labour Markets, Climate Change, Small States, and Managing resources for an Effective Commonwealth Institution.
“If we are to meet the ambitions of the citizens of the Commonwealth, it is clear that we need a development cooperation framework that works for all the Commonwealth as a community,” She underscored
On Trade and Investment, she said the largest number of citizens in the Commonwealth do not earn enough to power the production and market expansion needed to create economic security, whether in the industrialized or developing regions of the Commonwealth.
“We need to deliver a framework for Commonwealth trade to surpass the potential two trillion dollars trade within the Commonwealth Having a common Commonwealth strategy for industrialization, and economic diversification, strategically linked to Regional Integration Agreements and Economic Partnership Agreements within and beyond the Commonwealth, is a guarantee against the stagnation that is widespread across our countries,” She added
On Climate change, Madam Ayorkor Botchwey said it is impossible to look at a future-looking Commonwealth, without a robust Commonwealth strategy on climate adaptation. She said there is the need to achieve a resilient Commonwealth by enhancing climate change leadership and technical assistance, unlocking vital finance for vulnerable countries, building blue and green economies across the Commonwealth, and helping members overcome external shocks.
“Within the Commonwealth, we have huge needs for development and installation of renewables; we also have leaders in the production and servicing of renewables. With credit and other financing from the richer part of the Commonwealth, we will ensure that each Member of the Commonwealth benefits from the renewable revolution and low-carbon transition of their economies, and those concerned about the cost of transition, would be open to implementing the emission standards agreed to at the Conference of Parties. This is the true win- win. No one loses, including those who provide financing at market rates.” She said
She said the Commonwealth has the world’s greatest vulnerability to Climate Change with thirty-two of its members, being small states. As extreme weather events annually wipe out infrastructure, resulting in devastating droughts and food insecurity, and impede other development gains in many Commonwealth countries, most notably in Small Island Developing States, the scope of the strategic failure for a common strategy around renewables is mind-boggling.
She noted that ambitious Commonwealth should be funded at comparative levels as other multilateral organizations. She believes together with a more credible Programme resource envelope; it is time to review the human resourcing and budget of the Secretariat. This would enable more resources to be ploughed back into programmes, as well as ensuring a resilient Secretariat with long-term stability, attracting, and retaining the best of the Commonwealth’s talent in service of all members.
“Across the organization, we need to make decisions on how we take advantage of the expertise of Member States, including from academia and research organisations as secondments to the Secretariat to enable the cross fertilization that would enrich the work of the Secretariat and transform the Commonwealth. The potential for tapping into the pool of experienced and retired Commonwealth professionals who want to offer their expertise pro bono to Commonwealth countries also remains to be exploited,” Madam Ayorkor indicated.
She indicated that the rich part of the Commonwealth needs the poorer part as much as the poorer part needs the richer part, adding that we strategize on how to make the developing country members of the Commonwealth, who constitute 94 percent of the organization, a vital part of an agenda of ensuring and promoting democracy and good governance, economic transformation, and resilience in all the Commonwealth, we shall all be the poorer for it.