Tamara Cincik Reflects on Speaking At CHOGM 2022 in Rwanda.

I was invited to speak at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2022 hosted in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, by the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), as part of a panel discussing The Business of Sustainable Fashion, alongside panellists including Caroline Rush CBE, CEO of the British Fashion Council, and female leaders in the fashion industry from across the Commonwealth. CHOGM is hosted every two years, with a rotation of different Commonwealth countries hosting the event.

I have never been to either Rwanda, or a CHOGM event before, so I was not sure what to expect and came to the conference and country open-minded, and eager to listen and learn. CHOGM 2022 also coincided with Rwanda Fashion Week, which meant a flurry of invitations for both fashion and policy focused events, my kind of schedule!

Kigali is extremely safe. People told me this repeatedly before I arrived, and it is true. There are high levels of security, you are checked on entering a building, or when your car enters a car park; a consequence of building the country back after the genocide of 1994. What I saw, was a country where there is strong gender equality. I met the Trade Minister for Rwanda, Beata Habyarimana, who came to introduce herself to me after I spoke at the conference, and you are just as likely to see a soldier, security guard, government minister or business leader, who is a woman as a man in Rwanda, which is impressive in terms of gender parity. Incredibly moving for me personally, was meeting an intelligent, successful Rwandan woman, who now works for the UN in climate finance and gender empowerment, and who spent the first 20 years of her life in a refugee camp due to the Rwandan conflict of the 1990s.

The theme of CHOGM 2022 was 'Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming,' with 4 forums addressing different strategic pillars: Youth, Women, People’s and Business. I was asked to speak at the Business Forum on the main stage, alongside Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, Teta Isibo, Founder, Inzuki Designs, Rwand, Omowunmi Wemi-Akinsola, Founder, Fashtracker, Nigeria, Keneea Linton-George, Fashion Designer, Keenea Linton Designs, Jamaica and chaired by Fiona Muthoni, Presenter and Producer, CNBC Africa. From gender equality to youth empowerment, from job creation to climate action, from innovation to education, the $ 2.4 trillion fashion industry has the capacity to transform the lives of millions of people - particularly women and youth - around the world. This panel discussed the outlook of the fashion industry post-COVID-19 and for the UK in particular, Brexit, and solutions including the types of models and environment needed to get to a sustainable, empowering and inclusive fashion industry.

I spoke about the issues of waste across the supply chain: not only the consequences of the Global North offshoring our waste to the Global South - an issue Rwanda took a stand against in 2018, which led to a trade embargo with the Trump government of the USA - but also how we can eradicate waste with lean manufacturing efficiencies, such as Galaxius, a tech innovation which creates a totally transparent data system to highlight who made the clothes in their factories, how long they took and what pay the garment worker is therefore paid for their labour, which has raised standards, reduced waste and increased wages, as used by Fashion Enter in the UK.

I also spoke about the need to embed social justice with environmental issues, and consider the issues facing the Commonwealth with a more integrated policy framework. Why is it cheaper to trade with the UK and US, than for a Rwandan fashion business to trade with Nigeria, for instance. Localised trade within the Commonwealth would support the sector achieving net zero ambitions and increase opportunities for local, sustainable businesses to flourish. A shared ambition across the panel was the pressing demand for a solution to the textiles waste from the Global North to the Global South, alongside a recognition of the need for new measures of sustainable success, such as the wellbeing economy, with support for heritage, alongside R&D and an intersectional respect that the runaway failing systems of the current fashion industry business model, largely located in the Global North, not only need a paradigm shift to change their outputs and impact, they also need to not be copied verbatim by businesses in the Global South as they scale their businesses.

As well as speaking at CHOGM 2022, I also attended Fashion Night Out hosted at Atelier, an art and creative space in Kigali, which for the week had been transformed into literally the chicest concept store, in partnership with the British Council, with brands showcasing and selling their products. I bought a fantastic bag by Inzuki Designs, a brand created by my fellow panellist Teta Isibo.

I also attended events at Terra Carta House, where HRH Prince Charles hosted networking events and panels, all with a shared focus on sustainability in business and innovation. The space was incredible, with stunning views across Kigali. Terra Carta is the mandate for the Sustainable Markets Initiative, launched by Prince Charles. “The 'Terra Carta' offers the basis of a recovery plan that puts Nature, People and Planet at the heart of global value creation – one that will harness the precious, irreplaceable power of Nature combined with the transformative innovation and resources of the private sector.”

Caroline Rush and I also went on site visits, meeting local designers including Moses Turahirwa, from Moshions which has just shown in Florence at Pitti Uomo, and is leading in concepts around local supply chains, boosting the local economy, and building brand loyalty in their consumers with a number of circular interventions.

I came away from Rwanda and CHOGM 2022 energised, enthused to see so much of the work we do at Fashion Roundtable as part of the fashion industry’s ambitions to change. As I said on the panel; “change is never easy, but it is necessary.” i am glad so many thought leaders across the Commonwealth agree with me. Now the work begins.

You can watch the panel in full here.