Welcome to the website of the Independent Forum of Commonwealth Organisations (IFCO). The website is undergoing review and revision with a view to a relaunch later in 2025 linked to the major review of IFCO governance and structures.
IFCO promotes the voice of civil society within the Commonwealth as a strategic partner with Member States and the Commonwealth inter-governmental institutions. IFCO facilitates a collective voice of Commonwealth Accredited Organisations and their networks.
Following initial, informal activities from 2016, the forum adopted a more formal governance framework in 2019. IFCO has coordinated collective submissions to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings since 2018.
IFCO is currently (2025) engaged in a major governance review aiming to create a framework for elections and a new Steering Group with elected officers by April 2026. This is being taken forward by Interim Officers and the Steering Group (see below).
Steering Group (2025)
David N Jones (Interim Chair, Commonwealth Organisation for Social Work),
Bishakha Mukerjee (Interim Deputy Chair, the Commonwealth Association),
Sneh Aurora (Interim Secretary, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative),
Arif Zaman (Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network),
Clive Harridge (Commonwealth Association of Planners),
Fariba Soetan (Association of Commonwealth Universities),
Helen Jones (Council for Education in the Commonwealth),
Jane Samuels (Commonwealth Human Ecology Council),
Yinglen Butt (Commonwealth Nurses and Midwives Federation),
Judith Diment (Rotary International),
Richard Rieser (Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum),
Stelios Foteinopoulos (Commonwealth Equality Network),
Victoria Rutter (Commonwealth Pharmacists Association),
Owen Tudor (Commonwealth Trade Union Group),
Nicholas Watts (Commonwealth Association of Museums).
The primary aims of IFCO remain:
1. To serve the Commonwealth and its peoples, to promote Commonwealth values as expressed by the Commonwealth Charter.
2. To make the experience, knowledge and skills of Accredited Organisations more accessible to governments and Commonwealth Inter-governmental Organisations for use in promoting Commonwealth development and wellbeing, including by means of recognising/establishing thematic clusters of Commonwealth Organisations.
3. To promote a better appreciation of the role and value of civil society contributions and voices in furthering Commonwealth objectives.
4. To provide a forum where organisations can exchange experience and information, co-ordinate views and prepare proposals and submissions for consideration by competent authorities.
5. To serve as a sounding board for ideas and proposals articulated by its partners.
6. To encourage organisations to engage in critical self-examination and analysis with a view to improving performance and maintaining the highest standards of integrity, accountability and transparency.
4 October 2025
Member Countries of the Commonwealth
Archived Material
Mapping CO Relevance to the Plan
London CHOGM, 2018 (see IFCO Intranet Page)
Role and Significance of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- “The 70th Birthday of the Institute,” Sue Onslow, writing in the Talking Humanities Blog, April 25, 2019.
- The Role and Significance of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Four former Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth write to the University of London in opposition to a proposal to close the Institute, 24 October 2020.
- Interviews with Four former Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth.
Talking Humanities Blog, School of Advanced Study, University of London
- “The Commonwealth Isn’t Tinkerbell,” (May 15, 2018) (with access to a YouTube video of a British Library debate about the Commonwealth and a list of other blog posts marking the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London).
Commonwealth Perspectives
- “Commonwealth Organizations: Third Pillar of the Commonwealth?” 107 The Round Table 97 (2018).
- “Taking the Measure of the Commonwealth: A Review Essay,” 20 Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History (2019).