COMMACT began its life at a conference (which came to be known as the first Working for Common Wealth conference (1WCW)) held in Goa, India, in 1988. While, since then, one of its major fields of activity and interest has been in those forms of people-centred development known as local economic development, community economic development and social enterprise, from the very outset, it has attracted practitioners from other development fields including fair trade, human settlements, health, education, social welfare, human resource and community-based development among disadvantaged people, young people, women, and unemployed people. COMMACT was formally inaugurated at the 2WCW conference held in New Zealand in 1990. From then until 2005 it had a legal existence (registered as a society) and headquarters in Malaysia. As a result of decisions made at the 6WCW in India in 2005, the secretariat has been moved to Australia, where COMMACT also now has its legal existence as a non-profit organisation. Achievements Among COMMACT’s many achievements over the years since its inception have been: The establishment of active working links between individuals, communities and organisations in the North and the South, some of them funded through COMMACT’s Technical Assistance and Exchange Programme (TAEP); Numerous publications on various aspects of PCD, including 7 titles in the PCD series; 11 titles in the Pathways to Enterprise series; the 1996 Yearbook (165pp); and the reports of the successive ‘Working for Common Wealth’ (WCW) conferences; Six international - WCW conferences, held in India (twice), New Zealand, Malaysia, Northern Ireland and South Africa; The establishment of ‘Chapter’ organisations linking members at national/regional level, including in the UK, India, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Malaysia, and organising a variety of activities; Technical assistance linkages between COMMACT individual and organisational members in the North and the South through the TAEP have included: The Amahlathi Social Economy Task Force, consisting of COMMACT members from New Zealand, India, UK, Malawi and South Africa worked with the Stutterheim Development Foundation for 10 days in 2002 to explore the potential of community enterprise to create employment in a South African context. COMMACT Aotearoa and COMMACT South Africa assisted Sidney Mabaso and Richard Khambule to take part in the 2000 Youth Enterprise Action Hui in Christchurch and helped Sihle Mkhize with arrangements for a study tour in NZ. Kottayam Social Service Society and the HiLDA Trust (India) to undertake joint training and mutual visits; Trade Africa (UK) enable a partner from Kenya to visit Scotland and talk about the community action pack developed by COMMACT UK members; Dave Turner of COMMACT Australia organised an exchange of young people between Stutterheim and South Australia. COMMACT nominees who were selected to participate in the Commonwealth Foundation Fellowship Programme: Joyce Mapoma (Zambia)(1994); Joey Peltier (Dominica) (1997). COMMACT members who were awarded study bursaries funded by the Commonwealth Relations Trust: Devasmita Sridhar (India) (1993); Jackson Atria (Uganda) (1994); Mohamed Ayub Amirdad (Malaysia) (1995); Lukose Jacob (India) (1996) COMMACT had an information stand and played an active part in the Commonwealth People’s Centre proceedings at the1999 Durban CHOGM and in Brisbane in 2001. The South African chapter was formed at the Durban Commonwealth People’s Centre in 1999. Publications on various aspects of PCD (go to Resource Bank to find most of these) Pathways to Enterprise Series (These titles were based on research undertaken by COMMACT for the Commonwealth Secretariat) PE1 “The Entrepreneurial Skills Development Programme: The Gambia Technical Training Institute” By Paul Moran ISBN: 983-800-000-0 1991 PE2 “The YMCA Youth Enterprise Centres in Canada” By David Pell ISBN: 983-800-001-9 1991 PE3 “Promoting Enterprise Development in Albany, Western Australia” By Simon White ISBN: 983-800-002-7 1991 PE4 “The Entrepreneurial Extension Centre, College of Arts, Science and Technology, Jamaica” By Gloria Hamilton and Sandra Glasgow ISBN: 983-800-003-5 1991 PE5 “Supporting Enterprise at Firmstart Medway, in the United Kingdom” By Colin Ball ISBN: 983-800-004-3 1991 PE6 “Promoting Enterprise in Polytechnics: the Work of the Technical Teachers Training Institute, Chadigarh, India” By Hina Shah ISBN: 983-800-005-1 1991 PE7 “The Work of the Malaysian Entrepreneurial Development Centre” By Jamaluddin Che Sab, Haji Ismail Haji Abdul Wahab and Nawawi Haji Mohd. Jan ISBN: 983-800-006-X 1993 PE8 “The Small-Scale Industries and Graduate Employment Programme of the National Directorate of Employment, Nigeria” By Anthony Edet ISBN: 983-800-007-8 1991 PE9 “Bikalpa (the alternative): Responding to Graduate Unemployment in Bangladesh” By Selim Jahan ISBN: 983-800-008-6 1991 PE10 “The National Youth Cooperative of Sri Lanka” By Mark Havers ISBN: 983-800-009-4 1991 PE11 “Supporting Enterprise in Scotland: the Work of West Lothian Enterprise Ltd” By Colin Ball ISBN: 983-800-010-8 1991 PE15 “Enterprise Support Services in the United Kingdom: An Overview” By Colin Ball ISBN: 983-800-014-0 1992 Approaches to People-Centred Development Series PCD1 “Jeevan Nirwaha Niketan: Working with Poor and Oppressed in India” By Colin Ball and Noel D’Silva ISBN 983-800-015-9 1992 PCD2 “Social Solidarity Co-operatives in Italy: A Case Study of People-Centred Social and Economic Development” By Robert MacDonald ISBN: 983-800-020-5 1993 PCD3 “An Enterprising Stakeholder in the Community” By Dave Turner ISBN: 983-800-022-1 1993 PCD4 “Te Whanau O Waipareira: Maori Action and Development in an Urban Society” By Janine McVeagh ISBN: 983-800-023 1996 PCD5 “Traditional and Informal Credit Systems in Zambia” By Joyce Mapoma ISBN: 983-800-024-8 1996 PCD6 “The Unfulfilled Promise…. Impact of Dams on People-Centred Development” By Sarvik Parivartan ISBN: 983-800-026-4 1999 PCD7 “An Udder Tale: the story of AMUL, the world’s leading and inspiring case example of people-centred development” By Joseph Scaria Jr. ISBN: 983-800-028-0 2003 Working and Discussion Paper Series WDP1 “Sustainable Development: an Overview” By the Sustainable Development Working Group (Convenor: Paul Wildman) ISBN: 983-800-016-7 WDP2 “Meeting the Technical Assistance Needs of Development Organisations: a discussion paper” ISBN 983-800-017-5 WDP4 “Empowerment 2000: A Review Mechanism for Empowerment” By Dave Turner ISBN: 983-800-027-2 1999 Working for Common Wealth Series WCW1 “The International Commonwealth Conference on Local Economic Development, 1988” By Colin Ball ISBN: 983-800- 018-3 1991 WCW2 “Second Working for Common Wealth Conference, 1990” By Kinsie Hope ISBN: 983-800-019-1 1991 WCW3 “The Report of the Third Working for Common Wealth Conference, 1992, incorporating the COMMACT Biennial Report 1990/92” ISBN 983-800-021-3 1992 WCW4 “Providing the Power for Change – 4th Working for Common Wealth Conference, 1996” Published by COMMACT UK) 1998 WCW5 “Local Action Global Context: Working for the New Millennium” – report of the Fifth COMMACT Working for Common Wealth conference, 1999 ISBN 983-800-029-9 2004 WCW6 “Re-Engineering COMMACT” – report of the COMMACT Sixth “Working For Common Wealth” Conference (6WCW), Mumbai, India, 16-19 October 2005 Other publications “Journal and Yearbook of the Commonwealth Association for Local Action and Economic Development” ISSN 1394-6226 1996 (166pp) "Communities of Enterprise": The experience of community businesses in New Zealand published by COMMACT Aotearoa in 2000. C. International - WCW conferences: 1st Ronil Hotel, 21 – 28 September 1988 Goa, India 2nd Rehua Marae, 17 – 23 July 1990 Christchurch, New Zealand. 3rd Primula Beach Hotel, 21 – 25 April 1992 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia 4th Broomhill Hotel, 23 – 27 September 1996 Derry, Northern Ireland, UK 5th SADS Theatre, 19 – 23 April 1999 Stutterheim, Eastern Cape, South Africa. 6th Executive Enclave Hotel Mumbai, India 16-19 October 2005 While these are all achievements of which to be proud, particularly when they have been made by an organisation possessing few resources other than the energies of its main activists, by 2005 there grew a recognition among many members that COMMACT needed to move forward, and a desire to bring that about. The process of turning this recognition and desire into action began In September 2004 at a gathering (conference would be too formal a title for it) in Liverpool UK organised by COMMACT UK and in particular by John Pearce and attended by over 50 COMMACT members and associates. While they included members from India, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, the gathering did not pretend to be in any way fully representative and was conscious of the fact that it could not and should not be a body which made decisions, particularly because resource limitations meant that a number of members who have played important roles in COMMACT over the years could not attend, including most prominently the Hon. President, Noel D’Silva and the Executive Director, Abdullah Baginda. At the discussion a number of ideas and proposals about the way forward emerged. These ideas and proposals, which centred on the idea of developing the network into a “Doing, Sharing, Meeting” one. The next step was the 6WCW conference held in 2005. Members decided that the confercne should be given over almost entirely to the theme of “Re-Engineering COMMACT”. The report of the conference can be found in the Resource Bank. |
