Commonwealth People’s Forum 2024 Delegate-led sessions: call for proposals

The deadline for submitting a proposal to host a side event at the People’s Forum has closed. We will inform the selected organisations in the coming weeks.

The Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) is held every two years alongside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). It is the single largest opportunity for civil society—the people of the Commonwealth—to engage with Commonwealth leaders on the most pressing issues of our times.

Based on the CHOGM 2024 theme of ‘One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Common Wealth’, the People’s Forum will offer a platform for a wide range of civil society leaders, experts, activists and creative practitioners to inspire transformative action. It will address three focus areas: climate justice, health justice and freedom of expression, bringing to the fore the interests and experiences of women, young people and small and vulnerable states.

The final programme for the People’s Forum is expected to reflect insights gained through a year-long preparatory process including the People’s Voice event held in November 2023; a series of regional consultations held between February and July 2024; a dedicated event at the UN Conference on Small Island Developing States in May 2024, and the thousands of responses we received to our Path to Samoa online consultation with civil society.

We are inviting CPF 2024 delegates to design and run sessions as part of our wider programme. Delegate-led sessions will be held outside the formal programme with breakfast, lunchtime, and later afternoon slots available across both days. Sessions should relate to one or more of the CPF areas of focus, be grounded in the work of the delegate’s organisation and be highly engaging (visual materials, audience participation via Q&A, etc.). Organisers are encouraged to include a diverse range of perspectives. The involvement of Commonwealth Accredited Organisations is highly encouraged, as are partnerships with and between organisations.

The Foundation is currently finalising the details of venues to be made available for delegate-led sessions. We expect that available venues will seat between 20-40 people and be able to be set up in different formats.

If your organisation or group of organisations would like to run a delegate-led session, please submit an expression of interest via our online form of no more than 250 words outlining the objective, content and approach of your proposed session and addressing the specifications set out above.

Please enter your submission by midday Friday, 5 July in your time zone.

Any queries regarding the submission process should be sent to events@commonwealthfoundation.com with the following subject line: ATTENTION: CPF 2024 delegate-led session.

If your submission is selected, we will let you know by Monday 15 July and provide further guidance on preparing for your session. 

The Commonwealth Foundation looks forward to supporting our partner organisations that are running delegate-led sessions, including through advertising your event, and overseeing logistics. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any financial assistance to delegates.

Key dates:

Launch call for proposals: Wednesday 12 June
Close call for proposals: Friday 5 July
Results communicated: Monday 15 July
Commonwealth People’s Forum: Monday 21 October – Tuesday 22 October