Gulalai Ismail from Peshawar in Pakistan has been campaigning for equality and peace since she was a teenager. She and her sister Saba founded Aware Girls 12 years ago and have put their lives on the line to stand up for women’s rights and combat radicalisation.
Listen to a BBC World Service interview with Gulalai Ismail:
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You can use these resources to prepare your grant application.
The Commonwealth Foundation is one of the Commonwealth’s three intergovernmental agencies, standing alongside the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth of Learning. We are the Commonwealth’s agency for civil society; a unique, stand-alone organisation established by, funded by, and reporting to governments.
Our work spans the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of 56 countries bound together by common values, including respect for human rights, democracy, and good governance.
All Commonwealth countries are eligible to become members of the Commonwealth Foundation. Our total membership stands today at 51 countries. Associated states or overseas territories may apply for Associate Member status. Gibraltar is currently an Associate Member.
See above for a complete list of all 56 Commonwealth countries. Countries with an asterisk (*) next to them are not currently members of the Commonwealth Foundation. You can view our in-country projects by clicking on the map.
The Commonwealth Foundation is committed to promoting participatory governance (PG) in the Commonwealth by achieving more effective, responsive and accountable governance with civil society participation. The grants that we award play a key role in making that happen.
PG is about how the state, the market and civil society interact to effect change. These interactions involve the inclusion of civil society organisations in decision-making processes, enabling citizens to exercise voice and vote, and engage in policy formation. PG ‘engages people who are affected by a problem in the process of solving it.’
Will your project engage government? If you say yes to any of the questions below, our grants programme could be for you.
If you think your project will contribute to participatory governanace, you should consider applying for a Commonwealth Foundation grant.
More than six decades later, membership has grown to 53 countries. The Commonwealth Foundation was registered as a Charitable Trust and came into being under English law on 1 March 1966 and has been steadily evolving since. At the outset, Commonwealth leaders recognised the value that the efforts and endeavours of people acting outside the realm of government bring to the Commonwealth, primarily through the associations of professionals.
1970
Throughout the 1970s the concept of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) developed and Commonwealth leaders responded by expanding the mandate of the Foundation. It was reconstituted as an intergovernmental organisation (IGO) in 1982, with a remit to work with a wider range of civic organisations on specific issues including gender equality and culture.
1980
From 1982 the Foundation started to establish an international network of development orientated NGOs, beyond the professional associations. These NGOs were largely national in their focus and distinct from the relatively well-resourced international NGOs. The Foundation worked with these partners to advance a development agenda that was broadly consistent with Commonwealth priorities. The 1980s also saw the Foundation support several professional development centres or hubs across the Commonwealth and many of these still function effectively today.
1990
In the 1990s the Foundation used its grant making to address an emerging global development agenda, for example by supporting the participation of NGOs in major international development processes. In 1999 the Foundation presented a major piece of research on the relationship between participatory governance and good development outcomes to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Durban. This heralded a new era of facilitating dialogue between Civil Society and governments through Commonwealth processes.
2000
At the CHOGM in Port of Spain in 2009, Heads of Government committed to the reform of Commonwealth institutions. They established the Eminent Persons Group, which highlighted the importance of Civil Society Organisations to the future of the Commonwealth. In their final report they made several recommendations on ways in which the Foundation could support this constituency. When the report was received in Perth in 2011, Commonwealth Heads of Government committed:
“To promote the future of the Commonwealth through the strong and important voice of its people by … re-launching the Commonwealth Foundation in 2012, while retaining its fundamental intergovernmental nature and maintaining its accountability to member states, with a revised mandate and Memorandum of Understanding so that it can more effectively deliver the objectives of strengthening and mobilising Civil Society in support of Commonwealth principles and priorities.”
2012
The Commonwealth Foundation re-launched on 1 November 2012. Responding to this mandate, a new strategic plan marks the beginning of a third phase in the evolution of the Foundation. It breaks new ground for the organisation, signaling a determination to apply more focus, rigour and an outcomes orientation to its work.
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