Report to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting: Durban, South Africa

Abstract

This report seeks to capture the significance of COL on the eve of the new millennium. We see COL as an apt and agile agent of the Commonwealth. Not only is its focus on the determining characteristics of the day knowledge and technology but its attributes as an organisation epitomise those of bodies designed for the information and technological age. Modern, innovative organisations reserve for themselves the roles of strategists and designers, drawing on the vast productive and distributive capacities existing elsewhere to achieve their goals in the most effective, efficient and economical manner possible. COL possesses the talent and the knowledge, both of the challenges confronting the Commonwealth and the capacities available to meet them, to function in just such a fashion. Moreover, through such a modus operandi COL builds precisely the kinds of alliances and allegiances that help ensure its continued responsiveness to changing Commonwealth needs.