22 Apr 2018

President Mokgweetsi Masisi arrived in Gaborone on April 22 morning from the 25^th session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London.

The summit officially closed on April 20 and on April 21, President Masisi, first Lady Ms Neo Masisi and other Commonwealth leaders joined the Royal family to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s 92^nd birthday at a party reception hosted at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London.

The Queen’s birthday party concert featured performances by Sting, Shaggy and Kylie Minogue and was broadcast live on BBC TV and Radio.

The Queen hosted Commonwealth leaders this past week, where her son Prince Charles took over the reins. 

To wrap up an eventful week, the Queen started the 38^th annual mass participation of the London Marathon on April 20.

Meanwhile, the five-day summit in London among other burning issues discussed how the Commonwealth could contribute to a future that is fairer, more sustainable, secure and more prosperous.

Given that 60 per cent of the Commonwealth’s population are under the age of 30, Heads of Government affirmed that youth empowerment as well as gender equality were critical in realising the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) and the Aspirations of the Commonwealth Charter.

Leaders committed to ratifying and implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), through legislation, policies and programmes that mainstream and promote gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in social, economic and political life.

They agreed to mainstreaming youth priorities into national development policies and plans, and to promote the participation of young people at all levels of decision making as underscored by Commonwealth Youth Ministers at their nineth meeting in Uganda in 2017.

In his address after taking the oath of office last month, President Masisi vowed to work tirelessly to address the challenges of youth unemployment.

The London summit buttressed his ambitions when it stressed the importance of creating meaningful employment opportunities for the Commonwealth’s growing youth populations.

They agreed on the need to invest in a systems approach to support young people including through skills building, entrepreneurship, apprenticeships and the need for better data to target interventions effectively.

Leaders also expressed concern that without urgent action to mitigate climate change, reduce vulnerability and increase resilience, the impacts of climate change could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030.

They recognised that temperature and sea level rise and other adverse impacts of climate change, were a significant reality and risk to many of the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable member countries.

They renewed their commitment under the Paris Agreement to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Commonwealth leaders welcomed the ratification by all member countries of the Paris Agreement and encouraged member countries that had not yet done so to consider ratifying and implementing the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and the Doha Amendment for parties to the Kyoto Protocol. ENDS