A five-point plan to make the Commonwealth Foundation’s re-launch transformational

Next month, a little-known London-based intergovernmental organisation with a core budget of £3m, will relaunch. In this Opinion, Daisy Cooper argues that the Commonwealth Foundation needs more than a re-launch, it needs a complete overhaul. She outlines how the Commonwealth People’s Forum is completely out of touch with the global development agenda and the Commonwealth’s own priorities, how the Foundation’s Civil Society Advisory Committee has no legitimacy, and how over the years the organisation has let its mandate drift to such an extent that it cannot demonstrate either a clear focus or any impact from its work. She explains how some of the recent proposals to reform the organisation were ill-conceived, and sets out a five-point plan which could help the Foundation transform itself into a significant actor on the international stage.