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COMMONWEALTH CONTEXT
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Malta in 2015, Commonwealth countries welcomed adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and committed to work together to create an enabling environment to implement the agenda8. The launch of this survey has been timed to coincide with the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that is due to be held in London in April 2018, in the hope of drawing attention to its findings and focusing effort on tackling the issues raised. The theme for CHOGM20189 is for the Commonwealth to work collectively: ‘Towards a Common Future’ in accordance with the values and principles declared within the Commonwealth Charter10. At the summit, leaders will come together to focus on delivering: a more sustainable future, a fairer future, a more secure future and a more prosperous future.
The unique character of the Commonwealth While urbanisation is a global phenomenon the diversity of the Commonwealth creates a unique set of challenges and opportunities, eg: The unprecedented scale of the challenge11 in the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth comprises 53 countries with a total population of over 2.4bn, a third of the world’s population, 93% of whom live in Africa (circa 500m) and Asia (circa 1.7bn). India alone is predicted to add 404 million urban dwellers and Nigeria 212 million over the period to 2050, ie over 19 million new urban dwellers per annum or over 1.6 million per month in these two countries alone. The vulnerability of small island developing states (SIDS). Many countries in the Commonwealth particularly in Pacific and Caribbean regions are small island developing states which are particularly vulnerable to climate change and other impacts due to their small size, fragile economies, lack of resilience in the face of hazards including sea level rise, cyclones, earthquakes and other extreme weather events as evidenced most recently by hurricanes Irma and Maria.
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http://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/files/news-items/ documents/CHOGM%202015%20Communique.pdf https://www. 9 chogm2018.org.uk/ 10 http://thecommonwealth.org/our-charter 11 https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Report. pdf 12 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ fields/2212.html 13 http://fundforpeace.org/fsi/data/
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High rates of urbanisation are anticipated in some of the Commonwealth’s most fragile states (ie vulnerability to conflict or collapse). 14 Commonwealth countries are rapidly urbanising at rates of more than 3% per annum12 eg: Rwanda (5.59%), Uganda (5.30%), Tanzania (5.00%), Zambia (4.35%), Nigeria (4.30%), Kenya (4.15%), Malawi (4.02%), Solomon Islands (3.79%), Namibia (3.63%), Cameroon (3.40%), Mozambique (3.36%), Vanuatu (3.23%), Bangladesh (3.19%), and Ghana (3.07%). By comparison, the average among OECD countries participating in the survey is 1.08% per annum.
Planning for Rapid Urbanisation