MDI Gurgaon to host talk by Commonwealth Secretary-General

August 09, 2022 | 06:00-07:30 PM

Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon will host a talk by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Ms. Patricia Scotland, on its campus August 9. She will be speaking on the theme “Smart Governance for Smart Commonwealth – From Vision to Implementation”.

The Commonwealth is a political association of 56 member-states, the vast majority of which were under British colonial rule. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Commonwealth Secretariat, which focuses on intergovernmental aspects, and the Commonwealth Foundation, which focuses on non-governmental relations amongst member states.

Born in the Caribbean nation of Dominica Ms. Scotland is the first woman to hold the post of Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and the second person from the Caribbean.

She grew up in London after her family emigrated to the UK. She completed her LLB (Hons) from London University at the age of 20 and was called to the Bar at Middle Temple at the age of 21.

Her career has been marked by achieving a number of extraordinary firsts, not least of which was to be the first woman in the more than 700-year history of the office to serve as Her Majesty’s Attorney-General for England and Wales and for Northern Ireland.

While holding these and other senior ministerial office she was given responsibility, inter alia, for gender equality, domestic violence, forced marriage, and international child abduction, and from these positions promoted diversity and equality of opportunity, particularly for women and girls.

As the only woman to have been appointed Secretary-General of Commonwealth, she is placing special emphasis on mobilising the 56 nations of the Commonwealth to tackle climate change – including its disproportionate impact on women – and, through women’s enterprise, to build the resilience of smaller or more vulnerable countries. Eliminating domestic violence and violence against women and girls are other areas of focus.