The Commonwealth

The Coalition Government is committed to strengthening its commitments with the Commonwealth. As a member of the Commonwealth, the UK feeds back on its commitments under the Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action (2005-2015). The GEO works across the UK Government to implement its commitments on the Gender Plan of Action. It also liaises across government to co-ordinate, negotiate and present the UK’s position on gender equality, including the Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting (WAMM) and the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting

The CHOGM is the most important body of the Commonwealth. It is held every two years to review global, political and economic developments and to conduct an overview of the Commonwealth's work in support of the interests of member countries. The next meeting will be held in Perth, Western Australia, from 28 to 30 October 2011.

Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting

WAMM are held once every three years in a different region of the Commonwealth and are attended by Ministers responsible for gender and women’s affairs.

Summary of the last WAM Meeting:

The Ninth Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting (9WAMM) was held in Barbados from 7 to 9 June 2010. The theme was “Gender Issues in Economic Crisis, Recovery and Beyond: Women as Agents of Transformation". Information is available on the Commonwealth Secretariat's website.

Delegations from 32 countries, including the United Kingdom, attended the Meeting. The GEO represented the UK at the meeting.

The main outputs from the Meeting were:

• a Communiqué
• an analysis of progress on the delivery of the Mid Term Review (MTR) of the Commonwealth Plan of Action (PoA) for Gender Equality and;
• a statement from the Commonwealth Partners’ Forum

The Mid Term Review of the Plan of Action for Gender Equality

The Commonwealth PoA provides the framework within which the Commonwealth advances its commitment to gender equality. Please refer to the following link for more information:

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/33902/38116/poa_2005_2015/

The UK submitted its response to the MTR in December 2009. An analysis of Commonwealth Member Countries responses can be found at:

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/files/225543/FileName/WAMM1010EPDraftFinalReport-MTRofPoAElla27Maytoprinting.pdf