The re­port al­so stressed the need for greater har­mon­i­sa­tion and im­proved part­ner­ships be­tween civ­il so­ci­ety and gov­ern­ment, and the need to ad­dress ca­pac­i­ty is­sues, which I ful­ly en­dorse, and I al­so sup­port the pro­pos­al for strate­gic re­gion­al mon­i­tor­ing and im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Plan of Ac­tion. The time has come for us to ac­knowl­edge the grow­ing recog­ni­tion and im­por­tance of women's par­tic­i­pa­tion in lead­er­ship across the Com­mon­wealth.To­geth­er the peo­ple, so­ci­eties and or­gan­i­sa­tions of the Com­mon­wealth, the world's old­est po­lit­i­cal as­so­ci­a­tion of sov­er­eign states, with 54 in­de­pen­dent mem­ber states, can change the for­tunes of women for the ben­e­fit of all.