For the past three days, senior officials from all the 54 Commonwealth member states have been meeting in London to finalise a policy document for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2022 slated for Kigali in June. This was announced by Clementine Mukeka, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation who doubles as the head of CHOGM 2022 Taskforce. Over 5,000 delegates are expected to attend the Kigali meeting that is slated for June 20-25. The meeting is expected to host over 30 heads-of-state who have confirmed their attendance, high-level government officials, business people and academicians among others. The head of @CHOGM2022 Taskforce and Permanent Secretary of @RwandaMFA, @MukekaClem talks about the final preparations as the senior officials from the 54 commonwealth countries met in London. #CHOGM2022 pic.twitter.com/NBRHeJsJRa — CHOGM Rwanda 2022 (@CHOGM2022) May 19, 2022 In an interview that was posted on her timeline, Mukeka explained that officials had come together in the preparatory meeting to ensure all the communiques, statements and declarations are ready. “We can feel in the room the excitement people are having towards CHOGM because they haven’t been meeting for the past four years and hence eagerly looking forward to meeting in-person in Kigali,” she highlighted. The high level meeting was supposed to be held in 2020 but was pushed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mukeka also reiterated Rwanda’s readiness, saying: “As you know, this event had been postponed twice, and our team has been working tirelessly to ensure that delegates have fruitful engagements in Kigali, but also enjoy the hospitality, so we are ready to host all the commonwealth member states in Kigali”. According to her, being part of the Commonwealth is such a unique platform, “You could see the energy in terms of collaboration,”. This is a unique organisation of 54 member states, she added, and they are all working towards the same commonwealth values, looking at democracy, human rights, trade sustainability, climate and environment with youths being a key component. “So it’s unique to look at the whole market of 2.5 billion people all working towards the same goals, it’s unique”, she observed. CHOGM takes place once every two years and is an opportunity for member states of the commonwealth to advance the shared interests and discuss the common challenges. This year’s theme will be “Working together to deliver a common future,”. During the meeting, a series of devoted forums will take place in Kigali. These include the women’s forum, the business forum, the youth forum and the people’s forum.
