WTF is CHOGM?

For someone who has a hard time remembering acronyms, I really work in the wrong job. UNGA, OECD, ODI, there are too many to keep track of. And to make matters worse, I really don’t do text speak--it makes my head spin. Why don’t we use full words anymore? Instead of saying FOMO, we say "fear of missing out." Instead of saying LOL we say "laugh out loud." Instead of saying WTF we say ‘what the, erm, flip’ (let’s leave it there, hey).

But amongst the constant barrage of “time-saving” acronyms, perhaps the most important one you’ll hear this month is CHOGM. Despite it sounding like some sort of delicious chocolate bar, CHOGM actually stands for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 countries that formed in 1943 after the decolonisation of the old British Empire. Every four years, the leaders of these countries meet at CHOGM to discuss critical issues such as global health, trade and defence.

This year's CHOGM takes place in the beautiful country of Malta and will bring leaders together to discuss the theme of "Adding Global Value."

What does "Adding Global Value" mean? Well, I’ll let the Maltese Government explain.

“Adding Global Value is about encouraging Commonwealth governments and civil society to think about what unites the Commonwealth and what it can achieve together. Malta is asking fellow Commonwealth Members to consider which important issues have been missed by other global institutions, and to use the Commonwealth to provide leadership in those areas. This involves taking advantage of the inherent strengths of the Commonwealth and developing strategies that will make a substantive and demonstrable difference to the lives of people around the world.”- The Official Maltese CHOGM website.

Earlier this year the Prime Minister of Malta took to the stage at the Global Citizen Festival and pledged that he will use CHOGM to make the eradication of polio a priority. This is an important promise that can make a difference, not just to those who live in countries where the wild poliovirus still exists, but to every single person on the planet.

Polio has been around for as long as we have, but for the best part of 30 years we’ve tried our best to wipe it out--so much so that it’s 99.9% gone. And with the Maltese Prime Minister’s commitment to use CHOGM to prioritise polio eradication, Commonwealth leaders can make significant progress and recommit to wiping out this disease once and for all.

In short, CHOGM FTW (I’m told this means "for the win").

You can go to TAKE ACTION NOW to tweet one of these leaders, the Australian Prime Minister, to ask him to attend the polio-eradication event at CHOGM. Australia has played a major role in getting us this far, and with their continued support, polio CAN be eradicated by 2019.

TopicsHealth polio CHOGM