About Us

CPTM is a not-for-profit membership organisation, established with a mandate from the Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1995, to help the 53 Commonwealth member nations become leading agents of change for economic advancement, through the sound management of technology and innovation via public/private sector partnerships.

Our membership is drawn from over fifty countries in the Commonwealth and beyond, and from all walks of life. In addition to nation states, it includes individual heads of state and government, ministers, civil servants, business leaders, academics, administrators, and artists – all sharing the same vision and commitment. This creates a powerful global network, where members communicate as ‘global citizens’, willing to share their experience without charge or constraints.

At our core is our Smart Partnership methodology and the unique values underpinning it. This means participants seeking to help each other on a ‘Win-Win’ and ‘Prosper thy Neighbour’ basis. We create a deliberately neutral platform by suspending normal protocols, and asking that interest groups, lobbies and local constituencies are left behind. Everyone is committed to developing a pragmatic solution to the issue in hand.

CPTM is apolitical and does not serve any lobby group, agenda or commercial interest. It tries to avoid becoming seen as a champion of any particular cause, no matter how worthy. As much as possible it involves individual people, including at the grass roots, seeking to get its members to engage in dialogue among themselves; based on sharing and learning from each other: “a cat may look at a king” – and vice versa.

Over the last three decades CPTM has convened 21 major Smart Partnership Dialogues in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. These events typically include Heads of Government and leaders from business, civil society, science and academia. Outcomes have included national and regional country visions, new national planning structures, international trading requirements, and even a peace mediation agreement in Zimbabwe.

In 2007 CPTM expanded the Smart Partnership Dialogues to thematic areas; Emerging Digital Landscape, Quality and Standards, Finance Inclusion & Best Practice within Central Banking.

In 2023 CPTM began a new, project-driven approach to effect change. The first initiative, the “Taskforce to Transform Small-Holder Agriculture in Africa”, is currently under development with several countries in southern and eastern Africa.

24 Heads of Government have become Fellows of CPTM, and a further 65 leaders from government, business and civil society have been honoured as Fellows and Companions within the Smart Partnership movement.