Submit your abstract using the form below on or before 5pm GMT 19 March 2018.

As a delegate, you will have an opportunity to design and run a session at Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) 2018. We will provide a space for three 30-minute lunchtime sessions on 16 and 17 April, for groups of up to 30 delegates each. The sessions should relate to one or more of the themes of CPF 2018 and their intersections as described in the CPF programme and should be grounded in your own work.

If you would like to run a delegate-led session, please submit an abstract of maximum 250 words which outlines the rationale, objective, content and methodology of your proposed session.

Any queries regarding the submission process for your abstract should be sent to T.Andrews@commonwealth.int with the heading ATTENTION: Delegate-led session – CPF2018

If your submission is selected, we will let you know on 27 March 2018, with further guidance on preparing for your session. Only successful delegates will be contacted.

Background

Commonwealth Writers aims to strengthen civic voice and shape public discourse through creative expression by less heard voices.

Commonwealth Writers is a cultural programme within the Commonwealth Foundation.  The Foundation is an international organisation established by Heads of Government in support of the belief that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as it is of governments.  It is the Commonwealth agency for civil society; a unique, stand-alone organisation established by, funded and reporting to governments.

The role

We are looking for an Intern to work in the exciting arena of Commonwealth Writers.  The internship will be London based and support activities of the programme, in particular the two websites, www.commonwealthwriters.org and www.addastories.org, and various projects including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and craft development initiatives.

The person

The individual should have strong writing skills, research ability and experience, experience of working with websites and various social media tools, ability to meet tight deadlines, Microsoft Office knowledge and good administration skills.

Under UK immigration law you must have the right to live in the UK either by having a Nationality from a qualifying member country of the European Union or by possessing an appropriate visa. The Foundation is unable to sponsor any visa applications, so this must be in place at the time of applying for this role.

Closing Date:  

Friday 26 January 2018, midday (UK time)

Interviews:  

Week of 12 February 2018

Allowance & Duration:

• £50 per day allowance
• 6 to 12 months duration
• As an internship this does not constitute employment with the Foundation. There are no payments for holiday or sickness.

Closed for Applications

Photo Credit: Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology

Commonwealth Writers and the School of Advanced Study, University of London, are looking for submissions from writers whose heritage includes the experience of indentured labour.

The anthology (title tbc) will include poetry, nonfiction and fiction and will be published in 2018 by the School of Advanced Study to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of indentured labour. Twenty of the 52 countries of the Commonwealth were affected by indentured labour migration in the twentieth century. The anthology will explore and be shaped by the legacy of indentured labour.

All writers from the Commonwealth are eligible.

Please submit only ONE of the following:

One Poem or

One nonfiction proposal or

One short story

Please ensure your name, the title and page numbers are included on the document you submit.

The length of the short story/nonfiction should be between 1,500 and 5,000 words. Please include a short biography, stating what your nationality is, and your writing history.

Send your submissions to: commonwealthwriters@gmail.com. Please write ‘Indentured Labour Anthology’ in the subject heading.

You can find out more at the Commonwealth Writers Website.

What is a one-arm Zeruzeru doing at a security guard interview? I could sense their disbelief but I didn’t let their gaze deter me. I had travelled far for this job. I needed it.

I’d put on my best outfit – a dark blue polo shirt tucked in my combat-green cadet trousers. I adjusted my sun hat and waited in line.

‘Yona Kazadi,’ the receptionist called.

My heart was thumping but with my head held high, I walked into the interview room. Two men sat beside a woman behind a large wooden table. They had stacks of paper in front of them. I held out my hand to greet them. The woman asked me to sit. I took off my sunglasses and sun hat, and sat on the wooden chair in front of them. The room was quiet except for the buzz of the ceiling fan, as its blades sliced through the heat of the room.

Dressed in a yellow hijab and a dark blue long sleeved dress, the woman introduced herself as Miriam, the human resources manager. The men were superintendents. From the way they looked at me, I knew they wanted to know just one thing: what in the hell made me – a man with a missing arm – want to be a security guard?

‘Tell us about yourself,’ the woman said.

And so, I sat before them and told them.

*

It was the dead of the night, I said. I lay awake on my thin sponge Dodoma mattress listening to the sound of rats running on the plywood above me. I tried to force myself to sleep. I had been having trouble sleeping since Baba Joseph told me it was time to move out of the home. I was almost 18, he explained – an adult in the eyes of the law, and old enough to survive the streets. But I wasn’t ready; I didn’t know what I would do to survive in Serema – a town seething with hate for people of my kind.

The faint squeak of the rusting hinges of our front gate broke into my thoughts. It might have been my mind playing tricks. It’s hard not to be paranoid when you’ve been hunted all your life. I heard footsteps outside my window. I held my breath and forced myself to lay still. Sweat ran down my brow, and my mind began to churn with images of the massacre of the thirty children asleep in the rooms of this asylum – and me, Yona Kazadi, unable to protect them.

I tried to pray but God has always been elusive to me, even though my grandmother and Baba Joseph, our guardian, insisted he was real.

From infancy, I was called a child of the devil. They said my mother slept with Shetani, which is why my skin and eyes are pale, and my hair the colour of maize. People pointed when I passed and called me Zeruzeru. They spat into their clothing whenever they were close, to protect themselves from the evil they thought I carried. They feared my blinking eyes, and the wobbling of my head.

But that night I clutched the rosary beads my grandmother gave me, and said, ‘God, if you exist, if you hear me, protect us.’

It felt like a defeat – an acceptance of my own weakness – but I wanted to believe that someone out there was more powerful than the evil in the hearts of men. Where was God all these years we have been ridiculed and killed? Where was his power when machetes chopped off our limbs? And when he created us, did he run out of melanin?

The abduction and killings had started with people calling albinos dili. Witch doctors had told them that potions made with albino bones could make them rich, and the younger the zeruzeru, the more potent the potion.

I was living with Bibi Ghasia, my grandmother, in Siwanda when the rumour started. Siwanda was a village on the plains, with a handful of trees and red mud huts with thatched grass roofs. The red plains rolled all the way into the clouds.

We lived on one of the hills, kept chickens, grew cassava and cultivated millet on a small patch of land in front of our house. Abandoned pits of old gold mines pockmarked the bare valley beneath us. In the distance, we could see the shiny aluminium roofs of Victoria Gold – the Mzungu’s mine. People weren’t allowed near it but, occasionally, locals broke in to steal gold.

I’d just started primary school when news of albino abductions became commonplace. The prime minister begged people to stop the killings, but that didn’t help.

My school was 5 kilometres from our house on the other side of the valley, where the Christian mission and the church were. With a khanga draped over my head to protect me from the sun, my grandmother walked me to school every morning. She was old but strong, and was never without her panga – a machete secured to her waist by a tight khanga. She wore a red rosary on her neck. I always felt safe with her. People feared her; they called her a witch. But Bibi told me to ignore them. One day they will get tired of their own ignorance.

It wasn’t long before the superstition about albinos reached Siwanda. Impoverished miners began seeking our bones.

My grandmother and I were walking to school one morning when two miners wielding machetes launched themselves at us from a fence. I can still hear the scream from my grandmother when they caught me. I remember her charging with her panga, and trying to drag me from their hands. I remember the crack of bones as a blunt panga shredded my flesh. I remember the blood, the sharp dizzying pain, and my grandmother’s shivering body against mine. I remember the silence from her God.

A worker from the mission found me later – my grandmother had died protecting me. They said it was a miracle I was alive. My forearm was barely attached to my elbow. They brought me to Lubondo hospital where, they said, it had to be amputated. I was later taken to Kivulini asylum.

Kivulini means ‘under the shade’. I was nine years old when they took me to live there. It was in the outskirts of Serema. A red-bricked wall topped with broken glass enclosed a half-acre compound, which consisted of a large dormitory for children, a few classrooms, a chicken hut, a pigsty, and a small vegetable garden. Baba Joseph opened the doors to this place in 2007, after his wife and son had been murdered by a gang of men. He doesn’t talk about what happened, but I’d seen the story in the newspaper. We all have similar stories: fugitives running from human poachers – some even from their own parents.

I got up from my mattress; I couldn’t just lay there and wait for something to happen.

‘Courage is not the absence of fear, my children,’ Baba Joseph told us. ‘I know you are afraid, but you must learn to live even when you are afraid.’

I tiptoed to the corner of the room and grabbed a spear from the stash of weapons I kept there. A machete would make me more like them, and I refused to be like them. I tiptoed to the door, and with a shaking hand, I turned the key of the Solex padlock. The door opened into the room where all the boys slept. The girls’ dormitory was on the other side of the wall, but they left and entered through a different door. Sophia, the only other adult, took care of the girls and helped in the kitchen.

Continue reading on addastories.org…

Background

Commonwealth Writers aims to strengthen civic voice and shape public discourse through creative expression by less heard voices. The purpose of this role is to manage projects that fit within this social change sphere.

Commonwealth Writers is a cultural programme within the Commonwealth Foundation.  The Foundation is an international organisation established by Heads of Government in support of the belief that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as it is of governments.  It is the Commonwealth agency for civil society; a unique, stand-alone organisation established by, funded and reporting to governments.

The area of work and role

This role will have responsibility for several projects, often dealing with individuals as opposed to large organisations.

The three main areas of the programme are: Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Craft Development and Transformative Spaces, which include meetings, conferences, literary and film festivals.

Under these areas key tasks include supporting narratives from storytellers outside the mainstream and promoting them on Commonwealth Writers and other platforms, which include electronic and printed publications.

Communications, including social media, and the administration of the Writer’s website will provide a substantial portion of this role.

The person

You will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the international literary scene. You will possess excellent project management skills. You will have excellent communication skills, with attention to detail and be a self-starter who is able to prioritise your own workload and multi task as required.  Experience in the use of online platforms including web and social media in order to expand audience engagement is essential.   Experience of working within the area of communications would be an advantage. The use of Results Based Management would also be an advantage.

Under UK immigration law you must have the right to work in the UK either by having a Nationality from a qualifying member country of the European Union or by possessing an appropriate visa. The Foundation is unable to sponsor any visa applications, so this must be in place at the time of applying for this role.

Closing Date:  

Friday 26 January 2018, midday (UK time)

Interviews:  

Week of 12 February 2018

Salary & Key Benefits:

• Salary – £30,000 per annum
• 15% of monthly gross salary paid in a tax free gratuity payment, payable at end of contract
• Holiday allowance of 30 days plus bank holiday and privilege
• Some international travel maybe required, though is not guaranteed

Closed for Applications

Background

The Commonwealth Foundation is an international organisation established by Heads of Government in support of the belief that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as it is of governments.

It is the Commonwealth agency for civil society; a unique, stand-alone organisation established by, funded and reporting to governments.

The Foundation is dedicated to strengthening people’s participation in all aspects of public dialogue, to act together and learn from each other to build democratic societies.

Ultimately, the Foundation seeks to ensure that policy and government institutions are more effective contributors to development through the influence of civic voices.

The area of work

The purpose of this role is to support the implementation of the Learning and Communications programme in close collaboration with the Programme Manager, Knowledge, Learning & Communications and the Programme Officer, Communications. This position is responsible for knowledge management within the Foundation and champions a learning, collaborative and outcome-driven performance culture, both within the organisation and with partners.

The duration of contract

This role will commence in January 2018, with a short handover period with the current incumbent.  The duration of the contract is likely to be between 9 months to 12 months, exact dates will be confirmed at interview stage.

The role

Works with the Programme Manager, Knowledge, Learning and Communications to harvest and analyse learning from programme and project outcomes to drive programme accountability, synergy and quality. The role will be responsible for producing periodic reports and other documentation for relevant audiences – both external and internal.

The person

The successful candidate will have experience of working in developing country(ies)and an understanding of international development issues. You will have excellent project management skills and a sound understanding and experience of applying monitoring, assessment and learning methodologies.  You will have extensive experience in the field of Knowledge Management.   You will have excellent organisational skills, with attention to detail and be a self-starter who is able to prioritise your own workload and multi task as required.

Closing Date:  

Monday 27 November 2017, midday (UK time)

Interviews:  

Week commencing Monday 27 November 2017

Salary & Key Benefits:

• Salary – £35,000pa. This will be pro rata to the length of the contract
• 15% of monthly gross salary paid in a tax free gratuity payment, payable at end of contract
• Fixed term contract to cover maternity leave – 9 to 12 month duration
• Holiday allowance of 22.5 days to 30 days (dependent on length of contract) plus bank holiday and privilege days that fall within the contract period
• Some international travel maybe required, though is not guaranteed

Process

Applications must be accompanied by a Curriculum Vitae and Cover Letter. Find a full job description below. Note that legislation changes for paid work mean that applicants must have right to work and live in the UK.

Background

The Commonwealth Foundation is a development organisation with an international remit and reach, uniquely situated at the interface between government and civil society.

The Foundation supports civil voices, so that it can engage in policy processes more effectively. This means supporting organisations, networks, and collectives to develop, articulate and progress an agenda and then to identify and utilize the spaces available in governance structures.

The area of work

The Foundation facilitates the design and implementation of initiatives that promote constructive engagement between civil voices and governance institutions (global, regional and national, in the Commonwealth and beyond). For the strategy period of 2017-2021, one of the main programmes of the Foundation is Participatory Governance and Gender. The Commonwealth Foundation will focus on strengthening civic voice, promoting constructive engagement in policy processes, enhancing capacities to address gender disparities, and foster learning.  The Participatory Governance & Gender (PGG) team will consist of a Manager, two Senior Programme Officers (SPOs) and one Intern. The roles of the two SPOs are detailed below. Both will have a Participatory Governance focus and Gender focus; however, one will lead more on the Gender side.

The role

This position is responsible for supporting the capacity development programme of the Foundation on participatory governance and the integration of gender in all areas of the Foundation’s work, which includes gender and its intersectionality.

The person

The successful candidate will have extensive experience in gender integration and women’s empowerment in international development. The successful candidate will have worked in developing country(ies) and developed an understanding of the sensitivities of cross cultural work and have a good knowledge of international development issues.  You will have excellent project management skills and a sound understanding of monitoring and evaluation methodologies using results based management. You will possess a good understanding of civil society organisations and the field of participatory governance with experience of working with networks and proven record of working with networks in cross cultural settings. Extensive experience in the design and delivery of capacity development methodologies and tools in the context of open system model. Field experience in this area an asset. You will have excellent organisational skills, with attention to detail and be a self-starter who is able to prioritise your own workload and multi task as required.

Closing Date:  

Monday 28 August 2017, midnight UK time

Interviews:  

Week of 4 September 2017

Salary & Key Benefits:

• In the region of £35,000 to £37,000pa
• 15% of gross salary in a tax free gratuity payment. This can be used for personal pension scheme.  The monies are available for withdrawal every 3 years
• Holiday allowance of 30 days (plus 8 bank holidays and 4 privilege days)

Process

Applications must be accompanied by a Curriculum Vitae and Cover Letter. Find a full job description below. Note that legislation changes for paid work mean that applicants must have right to work and live in the UK.

N.B. As the Senior Programme Officer, Gender and Participatory Governance and Senior Programme Officer, Participatory Governance some similar specifications, applicants who wish to do so are permitted to apply to both roles using the same Curriculum Vitae and Cover Letter. Please indicate if this is your intention by selecting both check boxes in the application form.