Commonwealth Foundation Strategic Plan 2017-21

The Commonwealth Foundation is delighted to present a newly approved Strategic Plan. This new plan is the result of extensive evaluation and consultation, undertaken to ensure we will deliver in our mission to strengthen civic voices until 2021.

In response to the CHOGM mandate, the 2012-2017 Strategic Plan marked the beginning of a third phase in the evolution of the Foundation. Civil society contributions to responsive and accountable governance for effective development were the central concepts in the Strategy and informed a new Vision and Mission.

These two pillars of the Plan, along with a new set of Values and a strategic Logic Model , were developed with the participation of the Foundation’s staff and consultations with other stakeholders, including Member States, civil society organisations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

In December 2015, following a competitive bidding process, the Foundation commissioned an external evaluation of its progress under the 2012-17 strategy. Evidence was gathered over a five-month period and included more than 60 interviews and, separately, the capture of the views of 30 stakeholder institutions through an on-line survey. The evaluator also visited a grant project and an area of regional programme activity in the Caribbean. The results of that evaluation are available to view here.

Building on the emerging findings, conclusions and recommendations of the external evaluation, the Foundation conducted a series of strategy development workshops in August and September 2016 facilitated by the Foundation’s Results Based Management adviser. A synopsis of emerging directions for the strategy was presented and discussed in regional meetings with representatives of Member States (which were supplemented with bi-lateral meetings as requested) in October. This led to another workshop with staff and the final draft of the 2017-2021 strategy in November.