The 39th Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), was held at the Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, London, United Kingdom, from Wednesday 6th – Thursday 7th July 2022.
As Nigeria’s representative on the Board, Her Excellency, Dr. Hajo Sani, Ambassador Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO, attended the Board meeting for the first time as scheduled since her assumption of duty.
The Commonwealth of Learning “is the world’s only intergovernmental organisation solely focused on the promotion and development of distance education and open learning. Hosted by the Government of Canada, COL’s Headquarters is in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The Board meeting as usual combined the Performance and Audit Committees meetings while the main Board session considered, among others, the President’s Quarterly Report, financial and administrative matters, human resource matters, risk management, communication, governance and programme matters.
The Right Honourable Patricia Scotland QC, Commonwealth Secretary-General, declared open the main Board meeting on Thursday 7th July.
The following members of the Board were present at the meeting, both in-person and virtually:
- The Right Honourable Patricia Scotland QC, Commonwealth Secretary-General
- Professor Belinda Tynan (Representative of the Government of Autralia)
- Mr Arif Lalani, Director–General, International Organizations
Global Affairs Canada (Representing Canada) - Professor Sudhir K. Jain, Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University (Representing India)
- Dr Caroline Seelig, Chief Executive, Open Polytechnic, New Zealand (Representing New Zealand)
- Her Excellency Dr Hajo Sani, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO (Representing Nigeria)
- Professor Daniel Kgwadi, Vice Chancellor and Principal, Vaal University of Technology (Representing South Africa)
- Ms Jo Lomas, Commonwealth Envoy, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Representing United Kingdom)
- The Honourable Prof. Dr. Alpha T. Wurie, Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Republic of Sierra Leone (African Regional Representative)
- Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail, President, Academy of Sciences Malaysia, Malaysia (Asian Regional representative)
- Senator the Honourable Kay S. McConney, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Barbados (Caribbean Regional Representative)
- The Honourable Hu’akavameiliku of Ha’asini, Prime Minister, Kingdom of Tonga (Pacific Regional Representative)
- Dr Joanna Newman, Secretary General, Association of Commonwealth Universities
- Professor Asha Kanwar, President and CEO, Commonwealth of Learning (Ex-Officio)
Most particularly, Her Excellency Dr. Hajo Sani was nominated as Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors for a two-year period with immediate effect.
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