(Photo: Commonwealth Secretariat)
By Mustapha Ceesay
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2022 is taking place in Kigali, Rwanda.
The 26th CHOGM that began on Monday (20th June), would end on 25 June 2022 (Saturday).
The official opening of the meeting is scheduled to hold on Friday (24 June) which would be followed by the main high-level meetings of heads from Friday to Saturday, according to a statement on the Commonwealth website.
The main high-level meetings of head would be preceded by four fora such as the youth and women fora, ministerial meetings, side events and other activities.
Commonwealth leaders are expected to reaffirm their common values and agree actions and policies to improve the lives of all their citizens; and decisions taken at CHOGM guide the work programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the statement added.
The CHOGM was initially scheduled to take place in June 2020 but later postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after the meeting in London in 2018.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries including The Gambia, with a population of 2.5 billion people that includes both advanced economies and developing countries with 32 small states and many island nations.
The history of the Commonwealth can be traced to the British Empire, but other countries not part of the British Empire can join the organisation like Rwanda which joined the organistaion in 2009.