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Samoa, 2024 Prepared by Merv Lindsay and reviewed Pratarp Singh For CEC From the 16th October to 26th October 2024 Pratarp Singh and Merv Lindsay attended CHOGM 24 in Samoa. It’s very difficult to summarise such an expansive range of experiences, meetings and people we met into a short report. However I’ll do my best! CHOGM has 4 main components these are:
Within each of these groups there are numerous components. For example there were four forums. These were:
We also attended the side event, the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI) workshop, called ‘Strengthening Urbane Resilience for All’, which was one of a huge number of side events. Of course we also attended some of the related social functions (including an informal dinner to meet some of the other association delegates, and we took the opportunity to sit in on the Commonwealth foreign ministers meeting, just to see how it worked (or didn’t work). On the last day at lunchtime there was also a reception for association representatives, hosted by the Commonwealth secretary general, that was a great opportunity to meet representatives I hadn’t met and debriefed with others I had met. We were working out what was what on the run and it definitely would have helped to have attended Arif Zaman’s ‘Arif’s session for CHOGM first timers’. It’s worth commenting here that despite the name, some very important heads of government did not attend. Trudeau (Canada) snd Modi (India) weren’t there and one would need to wonder why it clashed with BRIC? I was told Uganda’s leader also chose BRIC over CHOGM so there may have befn others. Outside CHOGM we took the opportunity to meet 3 members of the Samoa Engineers Association (I don’t know the correct name). This included Sebastian Mariner who is current chair of the South Pacific Engineers Association (SPEA). The other 2 Samoa engineers were Perelini Perelini (a bit of an elder statesman of the Samoan engineering community and still quite influential) and Tom Tinai. I’ll report separately about that meeting. Also outside CHOGM, on the Sunday before, Pratarp arranged for us to visit a NGO aid project and we had dinner with some of the people running it. It was a project to turn baby nappies into soil. It’s a tiny project but fascinating not just for what this project is achieving, but to understanding the funding model and implementation structure sitting behind it and these type of projects generally. So those were the official meetings inside and outside CHOGM. However without a doubt the greater benefit was the numerous one on one discussions we had with various other participants from an incredibly diverse range of backgrounds. So many of these discussions challenged our thinking on a wide range of issues. In particular we met many of the representatives of commonwealth associations and most if not all those representing associations connected to the CSCI. Specifics Within the people forum (which ran for 2 days) there was a wide range of topics discussed. These included:
It’s worth adding a shift in wording. The word ‘justice’ was almost the word of the week. So it was ‘climate justice’, ‘health justice’ ‘freedom of expression justice’ etc. not sure the full implications of this shift in language. The business forum was obviously business focused but in many ways was even more diverse than the people’s forum with numerous parallel streams. Some of the best discussions that I attended were about financing emerging businesses in emerging economies, supporting women in business and the opportunities and impediments to accessing finance in emerging economies. It was difficult choosing the best stream to sit in on. The Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI) This was a side event on Wednesday. It was an excellent insight into this initiative but there is no doubt that it was not allocated anywhere near enough time. It could have had a full day! Many people including us didn’t get the chance to contribute or challenge the initiative. For example right at the end a speaker raised the impact of changing communications infrastructure and the opportunities this presents and how this will impact the objectives. This for me was a light bulb moment. He was from a company that delivers satellite communications (not spaceX but a competitor) I was left wondering what more could have been teased out with more time. And I was left wondering where to from now. What is the next steps to achieving outcomes? We need to stay on top of this project and become more engaged. One of the benefits was now knowing many of the players who also need to be followed up. Some of the key people include: Jeremy Cross - Kings Foundation Lucy Slack Commonwealth local government forum Kelley Moore Commonwealth Association of Planners People I couldn’t begin to list the people we met but every conversation and every meeting was insightful. The challenges and different perspectives from a very local level to the differences from country to country. I’ll give a few examples: 1. Renewables in smaller countries: We were given great insights into the economic and engineering challenges in Samoa with their transition to renewables. Their challenges are typical though every country will have its differences. Some of Samoa’s challenges included being sold inferior solar products that needed to be renewed far sooner than expected (impacting power costs), cyclone damage to both solar and wind, maintaining stable voltages and frequency which has forced the indefinite need to maintain a large diesel generation component, and keeping power affordable with the level of redundancy needed for renewables. 2. Chinese influence - it’s seen as both a positive and a negative and definitely a complex issue. If nothing else the Chinese have generated competition for influence. 3. Unintended consequences was an often used expression. As things change in countries for whatever reason, the social status quo is challenged sometimes with unfortunate consequences. I could write a lot more about this but I’m sure others would understand this topic far better than I. It’s all too often too easy to impose simplistic solutions onto a country or region without insight into the cultural and economic nuances that can lead you to these sometimes very serious and sometimes even irreversible unintended consequences. There were many other issues discussed and people we met. All interesting and all challenging our thinking. However I think we both came away with a sense that will changes result? and how can change for the better become an outcome? My sense is that it needs to be generated by one step at a time from each and every participant taking the awareness of the challenges and turning them into actions that are within our individual range of influences. No doubt at government levels many will have their aims and objectives but CHOGM is far more than the Heads of Governments. The thousands of other people have a role. Thats us.
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8/11/2024 0 Comments MENTORS MASTERCLASS Series For Employers and Institutions in the Engineering and Construction Sector (Built Environment)
Over 4 sessions, explore foundational and advanced topics in mentoring—from mastering behavioural dynamics and overcoming human factors to developing sustainable, competency-driven mentorship. Plus, gain access to the KMG Mentoring App for 3 additional months, allowing interactive learning and on-the-go support from expert facilitators. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your mentorship journey, build lasting skills, and contribute to a stronger, more resilient engineering future!
Why Join the Mentors Masterclass? The Mentors Masterclass is more than just training—it’s a transformative journey designed to elevate mentorship standards in the engineering and construction sectors. With a rapidly ageing expert workforce in the global engineering and construction sector, the critical engineering skills deficit is now widely acknowledge as posing a serious risk to all infrastructural, climate and sustainability projections worldwide. In fact, some indicators are showing that 40% of the global GDP could be at risk due to the engineering skills crisis and that much of the potential $2.2Tn investment currently on the planning tables for infrastructural projects in Africa will never come to fruition through a lack of registered and experienced local professional engineering capacity. Africa alone is estimated to need 2.5 million new registered professionals by 2040 and the UK is projecting a shortfall of 1 million engineers by 2030. There has never been a more important time to implement structured graduate and apprenticeship mentoring across the local and international engineering and construction sectors (Built Environments) as the hundreds of thousands of collectives hours of human experience and lessons learned in the project design offices and construction sites of the world, need to be transferred as effectively and efficiently as possible from a knowledge-rich but rapidly ageing baby boomer generation, to the next generation in order to save the many billions of dollars that will be wasted through repetitive and predictable human factors. In fact, research indicates that the annual costs of “Human Error” alone when measured as the costs of disputes, claims and extensions of time is now approaching $0.5Tn per year, which does not include the actual costs of the rework or repairs required in terms of manhours, machinery and material costs. It is also evident that many professional bodies and registration boards, and especially those in developing countries, are consistently reporting that either a lack of mentoring, or just a poor quality of mentoring practices, is causing an increase in the number of ill-prepared professional registration applications, which in turn is clogging over-whelmed institutional application windows. This lack of access to quality mentorship is driving frustrated graduates to increasingly rely on the use of AI-enhanced professional registration applications, which is an alarming red flag situation many registration boards are facing. Solution: In recognising that traditional or generic mentoring cannot cater for the unique nuances and highly stressed environment of the very complex engineering and construction sector, the CEC and KMG have partnered to offer a MENTORS MASTERCLASS series which will equip Mentors with a set of skills, knowledge and behaviours that will transform their mentoring journeys and quality of knowledge sharing into sustainable competencies that will deliver increasing returns on investment year-on-year. Brief insights into content covered over 4 x 3 hour webinars:
The KMG mobile App will be setup and configured to stimulate enhanced experiential learning through group sharing and interaction with the facilitator, before, during and after and for an additional 3 months to ensure the learning is embedded. Company and Institutional courses also available and can be configured as 2 full day online, or 4 half day online sessions About the Facilitator: Philip Marsh Pr. Eng; CEng; is the Founder and CEO of Knowledge Mentoring (Global) in the UK and Mentoring 4 Success in South Africa (Philip Marsh LinkedIn Profile) will be delivering 4 stimulating 3-hour webinars on how to develop high impact mentoring skills and sustainable mentoring programmes for Managers, Mentors, Coaches, Supervisors, Referees and HR or L&D Teams. Philip spent 4 decades in the South African and UK Built Environments, working on projects like Ellis Park Rugby Stadium, ULCO Cement Factor, Lethabo Power Station, before taking up a consulting position at Alan Baxter and Associated in London and then moving to Richard Lees in the Midlands, where he led a team of 65 engineers working on Canary Wharf in London. Philip then partnered with Gang Nail in the UK and started International Truss Systems in 1991 in South Africa. In 1997, Philip founded the KM Institute group and has given 15 years of pro-bono services to the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) Education Training Panel. In 2015, Philip was given a Global Knowledge Management Leadership award in Mumbai, India, for his concept of “Knowledge Swarms and Experiential Hives” which put forward a model for empowering large groups of graduates in developing countries with world class mentoring support. Through an invitation from the UK Gov. Global Entrepreneur Programme, Philip relocated back to the UK and launched KMG in 2019 to scale a mobile App-enabled candidacy mentoring platform & professional development programme which accelerates the journey to professional competency and registration readiness for young engineers and apprentices. Philip is currently leading multiple large scale engineering graduate mentoring initiatives in Africa, such as the “Women in the Built Environment” (WITEB) initiative, “Women in Water and Sanitation” (WIWAS) Graduate Mentoring Programme and the MASELULEKANE Candidacy Mentoring and Professional Development Programme – all in strategic partnerships with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as well as SAICE. Contact Philip at [email protected] to book and find out more information. The Global Engineering Conference (GECO) 2024, hosted by the Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER) in collaboration with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the Federation of African Engineering Organizations (FAEO), was a landmark event from October 15-17 at the Kigali Convention Centre. Bringing together over 700 delegates, 25 exhibitors, and six sponsors, including a key Platinum Sponsor “DAR”, the conference highlighted Africa’s critical role in advancing sustainable development goals through engineering innovation.
Themed "Engineering Innovations for a Sustainable Future," GECO 2024 was more than a conference; it was a dynamic forum where engineers, policymakers, and private-sector leaders gathered to address the world's most pressing challenges. From the start, Dr. Jimmy Gasore, Rwanda's Minister for Infrastructure, set the tone by emphasizing the role of engineering in driving progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As keynote speakers and panelists explored topics like clean water, renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate resilience, the conference underscored engineering’s essential role in achieving a sustainable future. Resolutions and Key Outcomes One of the core achievements of GECO 2024 was the establishment of actionable resolutions for six primary SDGs, each highlighting specific challenges, objectives, and pathways forward:
GECO’s commitment to these resolutions aligns closely with the mission to drive engineering as a key force for sustainable development, one that promotes capacity building, ethical practices, and innovative solutions. The engagement of sponsors and exhibitor showcased the strength of public and private sector collaboration in supporting these ambitious goals. Infrastructure Insights: The Study Tour The conference concluded with a study tour on October 18, spotlighting Rwanda’s infrastructure achievements, including Bugesera International Airport (an exemplar of modern aviation infrastructure), Nyabarongo II Multipurpose Dam (a milestone in renewable energy), the newly renovated Amahoro Stadium, and the Bridges to Prosperity suspension bridge, illustrating the role of engineering in connecting communities. These site visits provided firsthand insights into how infrastructure projects are transforming lives and promoting sustainable development in Rwanda. GECO 2024 was more than just a conference; it was a springboard for solutions and partnerships that will propel the engineering profession toward achieving sustainability goals, reinforcing the power of engineering to build a resilient, inclusive future. |
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