Evaluation of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Consensus Building Programme

Detailed project description: The Commonwealth Secretariat delivers support to member countries using its quadrennial Strategic Plans as guidance. The most recent Strategic Plan, for the period 2017/18 – 2020/21, built on the results achieved and lessons learnt during the previous Strategic Plan period (2013/14 – 2016/17) and was developed based on performance feedback from member countries as well as internal audits and external evaluation of the previous Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan 2017/18 – 2020/21 is built on strategic, intermediate, and cross-cutting outcomes. The five Strategic Pillars are: a) Democracy; b) Public Institutions; c) Youth and Social Development; d) Economic Policy; and e) Small and Vulnerable States.

Consensus Building meetings and supporting processes convene high-level officials, ministers and heads of states to discuss, share knowledge and propose responses to common issues impacting the Commonwealth and/or issues specifically affecting sub-groups of member states such as the small states and island nations. Consensus in these meetings and events is reflected through outcome statements that confirm agreement among the member states.

With the period of the Strategic Plan 2017/18 – 2020/21 coming to an end, the Secretariat commenced the process to develop a new strategic plan in March 2020. The evaluation of the Consensus Building Programme is expected to inform the development of a Global Advocacy Strategy for the Secretariat and feed into the new strategic plan.

Detailed description of the assignment: As a key recommendation, the mid-term evaluation of the Commonwealth’s 2017/18 – 2020/21 Strategic Plan called for an evaluation of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Consensus Building Programme to assess its effectiveness. As a result, the evaluation of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Consensus Building Programme assessed the Secretariat’s performance in utilizing its convening power, global presence, visibility and influence through its various consensus-building mechanisms and processes such as ministerial and high-level meetings, to deliver benefits to and promote the interests and voices of its member states.

Consensus Building is a major cross-cutting theme undergirding the work undertaken by the Commonwealth Secretariat. As a result, the evaluation included not just the current Strategic Plan period (2017/18 - 2020/21) but also the previous Strategic Plan period (2013/14 – 2016/17), for a total of eight years. The Consensus Building Programme for the strategic period 2017/18 to 2020/21 comprise nine projects with each supporting one or more of the programmatic outcomes. The CHOGM, ministerial and high-level senior meetings as well as other supportive mechanisms such as the working groups were also included in the assessment.

Accordingly, the evaluation team also carried an in-depth review of four specific thematic areas (Rule of Law, Education, Health, Trade Connectivity) of the Secretariat’s work, profiling the various Consensus Building initiatives with the results achieved, impact generated, implications for future project and initiatives assessed, and lessons learnt gauged.