CEC November 2024 News Update

CEC News Update November 2024 Dear friends and members of the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council Welcome to news update for November 2024, where we have had a very busy couple of months. GECO We would like to pass on our huge congratulations to the team at the Institution of Engineers Rwanda for a very successful Global Engineering Conference, which took place in Kigali between 15-18 October, simultaneously hosting the World Federation of Engineering Organisations annual meetings. We were very disappointed not to be in a position to host our CEC General Assembly and networking session in person, but we will endeavour to hold something online before the end of the year. But nevertheless, many CEC members were present at the meeting, and many contributed as speakers. Congratulations to all involved. CHOGM The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, took place in Samoa in late October 2024, and we were extremely fortunate to be represented in Samoa by two CEC Board members, Pratarp Singh from Fiji, and Merv Lindsay from Australia. As an officially accredited Commonwealth organisation, CEC is in the fortunate position to be able to meet and influence Commonwealth leaders, and you will see in the article below the input we made on behalf of the engineering community. We pass on our thanks to Pratarp and Merv on behalf of CEC for their commitment in attending this meeting. A full report will be published in due course. We were also involved as partners to the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI) in a side event at CHOGM which attracted the attendance of some senior Commonwealth leaders, discussing the continuation of the Kigali Commitment on Sustainable Urbanisation, which was reinforced in the CHOGM communique again this time. Young Engineers Future Leaders We have welcomed another co-lead to this group of young engineers, Abdullah Al Baky from Bangladesh, and we are now calling for working group sub-leads to come forward and get involved. See details below. Membership For those who have not yet formally joined, we invite you all to become a CEC member which is free of charge. Full members are Professional Engineering Institutions or similar organisations across the Commonwealth, and there is also an Associate and an individual membership option available. Please do pass this newsletter on to anybody you feel would be interested in getting involved, and get in touch if you would like to know more about the CEC, or have news to include, or ideas for future collaborations. Next news update is due in the Spring of 2025. We also hope you like the new lapel pin shown in the image here. Dawn Bonfield MBE FREng; President, Commonwealth Engineers' Council (2023-2025) [email protected] Global Engineering Conference (GECO) 2024, Kigali The Global Engineering Conference 2024 , hosted by the Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER) in collaboration with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the Federation of African Engineering Organizations (FAEO), was a landmark event from October 15-17 at the Kigali Convention Centre. Bringing together over 700 delegates , 25 exhibitors , and six sponsors , including a key Platinum Sponsor “DAR”, the conference highlighted Africa’s critical role in advancing sustainable development goals through engineering innovation. Themed "Engineering Innovations for a Sustainable Future," GECO 2024 was more than a conference; it was a dynamic forum where engineers, policymakers, and private-sector leaders gathered to address the world's most pressing challenges. From the start, Dr. Jimmy Gasore , Rwanda's Minister for Infrastructure, set the tone by emphasizing the role of engineering in driving progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As keynote speakers and panelists explored topics like clean water, renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate resilience, the conference underscored engineering’s essential role in achieving a sustainable future. Continue reading here. Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting The following key messages were what the Commonwealth Engineers' Council took to CHOGM on behalf of our global engineering community, and these were issued in a Press Release. A lack of engineering capacity has been identified as a key barrier to increased economic growth, rapid urban development, and adaptation to climate change. Growing local engineering skills and capacity will be a key enabler which will allow countries to develop sustainably; create renewable and secure energy systems; and address climate and biodiversity crises. In-country Development projects must be key enablers rather than detractors of local skills and capacity. Policy, legislation, and funding is required to support engineering capacity building and Professional Registration systems. The Commonwealth at 75 In 2024 The Commonwealth reached its 75th birthday. The Commonwealth Engineers' Council - which itself is 76 years old in 2024 - is proud to be an accredited member of The Commonwealth, and we were included in the Commonwealth at 75 publication, which has now been released. Trudy Morgan and Dawn Bonfield attended the launch of the book at Westminster Abbey on behalf of the CEC in October. Mapping of Engineering Capacity in the Commonwealth One of the goals of CEC has been to map engineering capacity and professional registration across the Commonwealth, in order to see where the capacity gaps lie, and to raise the importance of engineering skills requirements for sustainable development at the highest levels. We moved closer to achieving this goal with the publication of a benchmarking desk based report carried out by Ms Jiarong He, a student at King's College London, who chose to focus on this topic for her research project. Based on the recommendations we will now work much more closely with identified partners to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, and hope to complete this piece of work over the next year. Please do look out for requests to join this project and get involved if you would like to be a partner. Young Engineers Future Leaders We are excited to welcome our third co-leader of the Young Engineers Future Leaders group, and that is Abdullah Al Baky from Bangladesh. The Terms of Reference for this group have now been finalised and they are calling for working group leaders to start working on the projects that have been identified. Please see further details, and apply to become a sub group leader or member, using this form. Mentoring Masterclasses CEC has partnered with Knowledge Mentoring Global to provide mentoring masterclasses to help your members and corporate partners play their part in building professional capacity in our industry by mentoring young engineering graduates towards professional registration. · Dates: 22 nd January 2025; 29 th Jan; 5 th Feb; 12 th Feb - 2025 Further details can be found here . Commonwealth Model Contract for the Extractives Industries Inputs have now been submitted on the model contract for infrastructure, extractives and energy industries that the Commonwealth Secretariat has developed in order to address the lack of uniformity in contracts that can lead to inefficiencies, imbalances, and loopholes that do not serve the best interests of the member countries, and we understand that the final document will be available in 2025. Thanks to Pratarp Singh and Christine Blackmore for their participation with this working group. Christine commented " The piece of work was interesting to undertake, and would afford a consistency in the provision of contracts. The contract is designed to protect the environment and Mining Companies to adhere and take responsibilities seriously, but it will be interesting to see how the Commonwealth will disseminate the contract and ensure mining companies know about it, and where it can be downloaded for use." News from Engineering New Zealand – te ao Rangahau , Dr Richard Templer FEngNZ, Chief Executive Governance Changes In November 2023 our members approved a series of changes to our rules, that made significant changes to how the organisation is governed. We have reduced the number of Board members, from 10-12 to nine, which includes disestablishing Vice President and Past President positions. Up to three members can be appointed to fill specific governance capabilities if these cannot be sourced from elected members, and these members may be compensated for their expertise. The President and Deputy President will now serve two-year terms (previously officers served one-year terms as Vice President, Deputy President, President and Past President). Our current President Prof Jan Evans-Freeman DistFEngNZ is the first to serve a two-year term. CPEng Rules improvements We are about to consult with our members and all Chartered Professional Engineers (CPEng) on significant changes to the CPEng rules. The changes will allow the creation of classes of CPEng e.g. structural or fire. If approved the first classes to be created will be those that align with legislation that requires CPEng engineers. New Registration Authority website and CPEng register In advance of the rules changes we have launched a new website: https://www.registrationauthority.org.nz/ The website explains Engineering New Zealand’s role as the Registration Authority for Engineers in New Zealand. The website includes an online Register of all of New Zealand’s CPEng qualified engineers. 2024 Dates for your Diaries: 4-8 November: World Urban Forum in Cairo and online organised by UN Habitat 11-22 November : COP29 , the UNFCCC Climate Change Conferencee in Azerbijan 10 March 2025 : Commonwealth Day 2025 with the theme delivering a common future: connecting, innovating and transforming . We hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please do get in touch if you would like to work more closely with CEC, or become a member. The Commonwealth Engineers’ Council mission

CEC News Update

November 2024

Dear friends and members of the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council

Welcome to news update for November 2024, where we have had a very busy couple of months.

GECO
We would like to pass on our huge congratulations to the team at the Institution of Engineers Rwanda for a very successful Global Engineering Conference, which took place in Kigali between 15-18 October, simultaneously hosting the World Federation of Engineering Organisations annual meetings. We were very disappointed not to be in a position to host our CEC General Assembly and networking session in person, but we will endeavour to hold something online before the end of the year. But nevertheless, many CEC members were present at the meeting, and many contributed as speakers. Congratulations to all involved.

CHOGM
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, took place in Samoa in late October 2024, and we were extremely fortunate to be represented in Samoa by two CEC Board members, Pratarp Singh from Fiji, and Merv Lindsay from Australia. As an officially accredited Commonwealth organisation, CEC is in the fortunate position to be able to meet and influence Commonwealth leaders, and you will see in the article below the input we made on behalf of the engineering community. We pass on our thanks to Pratarp and Merv on behalf of CEC for their commitment in attending this meeting. A full report will be published in due course.

We were also involved as partners to the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI) in a side event at CHOGM which attracted the attendance of some senior Commonwealth leaders, discussing the continuation of the Kigali Commitment on Sustainable Urbanisation, which was reinforced in the CHOGM communique again this time.

Young Engineers Future Leaders
We have welcomed another co-lead to this group of young engineers, Abdullah Al Baky from Bangladesh, and we are now calling for working group sub-leads to come forward and get involved. See details below.

Membership
For those who have not yet formally joined, we invite you all to become a CEC member which is free of charge. Full members are Professional Engineering Institutions or similar organisations across the Commonwealth, and there is also an Associate and an individual membership option available.

Please do pass this newsletter on to anybody you feel would be interested in getting involved, and get in touch if you would like to know more about the CEC, or have news to include, or ideas for future collaborations. Next news update is due in the Spring of 2025.

We also hope you like the new lapel pin shown in the image here.

Dawn Bonfield MBE FREng; President, Commonwealth Engineers' Council (2023-2025) [email protected]

Global Engineering Conference (GECO) 2024, Kigali
The Global Engineering Conference 2024, hosted by the Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER) in collaboration with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the Federation of African Engineering Organizations (FAEO), was a landmark event from October 15-17 at the Kigali Convention Centre. Bringing together over 700 delegates, 25 exhibitors, and six sponsors, including a key Platinum Sponsor “DAR”, the conference highlighted Africa’s critical role in advancing sustainable development goals through engineering innovation.
Themed "Engineering Innovations for a Sustainable Future," GECO 2024 was more than a conference; it was a dynamic forum where engineers, policymakers, and private-sector leaders gathered to address the world's most pressing challenges. From the start, Dr. Jimmy Gasore, Rwanda's Minister for Infrastructure, set the tone by emphasizing the role of engineering in driving progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As keynote speakers and panelists explored topics like clean water, renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate resilience, the conference underscored engineering’s essential role in achieving a sustainable future. Continue reading here.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
The following key messages were what the Commonwealth Engineers' Council took to CHOGM on behalf of our global engineering community, and these were issued in a Press Release.

A lack of engineering capacity has been identified as a key barrier to increased economic growth, rapid urban development, and adaptation to climate change.
Growing local engineering skills and capacity will be a key enabler which will allow countries to develop sustainably; create renewable and secure energy systems; and address climate and biodiversity crises.
In-country Development projects must be key enablers rather than detractors of local skills and capacity.
Policy, legislation, and funding is required to support engineering capacity building and Professional Registration systems.

The Commonwealth at 75
In 2024 The Commonwealth reached its 75th birthday. The Commonwealth Engineers' Council - which itself is 76 years old in 2024 - is proud to be an accredited member of The Commonwealth, and we were included in the Commonwealth at 75 publication, which has now been released.

Trudy Morgan and Dawn Bonfield attended the launch of the book at Westminster Abbey on behalf of the CEC in October.

Mapping of Engineering Capacity in the Commonwealth

One of the goals of CEC has been to map engineering capacity and professional registration across the Commonwealth, in order to see where the capacity gaps lie, and to raise the importance of engineering skills requirements for sustainable development at the highest levels. We moved closer to achieving this goal with the publication of a benchmarking desk based report carried out by Ms Jiarong He, a student at King's College London, who chose to focus on this topic for her research project. Based on the recommendations we will now work much more closely with identified partners to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, and hope to complete this piece of work over the next year. Please do look out for requests to join this project and get involved if you would like to be a partner.

Young Engineers Future Leaders

We are excited to welcome our third co-leader of the Young Engineers Future Leaders group, and that is Abdullah Al Baky from Bangladesh. The Terms of Reference for this group have now been finalised and they are calling for working group leaders to start working on the projects that have been identified. Please see further details, and apply to become a sub group leader or member, using this form.

Mentoring Masterclasses

CEC has partnered with Knowledge Mentoring Global to provide mentoring masterclasses to help your members and corporate partners play their part in building professional capacity in our industry by mentoring young engineering graduates towards professional registration.

· Dates: 22^nd January 2025; 29^th Jan; 5^th Feb; 12^th Feb - 2025

Further details can be found here.

Commonwealth Model Contract for the Extractives Industries

Inputs have now been submitted on the model contract for infrastructure, extractives and energy industries that the Commonwealth Secretariat has developed in order to address the lack of uniformity in contracts that can lead to inefficiencies, imbalances, and loopholes that do not serve the best interests of the member countries, and we understand that the final document will be available in 2025. Thanks to Pratarp Singh and Christine Blackmore for their participation with this working group.

Christine commented "The piece of work was interesting to undertake, and would afford a consistency in the provision of contracts. The contract is designed to protect the environment and Mining Companies to adhere and take responsibilities seriously, but it will be interesting to see how the Commonwealth will disseminate the contract and ensure mining companies know about it, and where it can be downloaded for use."

News from Engineering New Zealand – te ao Rangahau, Dr Richard Templer FEngNZ, Chief Executive

Governance Changes

In November 2023 our members approved a series of changes to our rules, that made significant changes to how the organisation is governed. We have reduced the number of Board members, from 10-12 to nine, which includes disestablishing Vice President and Past President positions. Up to three members can be appointed to fill specific governance capabilities if these cannot be sourced from elected members, and these members may be compensated for their expertise. The President and Deputy President will now serve two-year terms (previously officers served one-year terms as Vice President, Deputy President, President and Past President). Our current President Prof Jan Evans-Freeman DistFEngNZ is the first to serve a two-year term.

CPEng Rules improvements

We are about to consult with our members and all Chartered Professional Engineers (CPEng) on significant changes to the CPEng rules. The changes will allow the creation of classes of CPEng e.g. structural or fire. If approved the first classes to be created will be those that align with legislation that requires CPEng engineers.

New Registration Authority website and CPEng register

In advance of the rules changes we have launched a new website: https://www.registrationauthority.org.nz/ The website explains Engineering New Zealand’s role as the Registration Authority for Engineers in New Zealand. The website includes an online Register of all of New Zealand’s CPEng qualified engineers.

2024 Dates for your Diaries:

4-8 November: World Urban Forum in Cairo and online organised by UN Habitat
11-22 November: COP29, the UNFCCC Climate Change Conferencee in Azerbijan
10 March 2025: Commonwealth Day 2025 with the theme delivering a common future: connecting, innovating and transforming.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please do get in touch if you would like to work more closely with CEC, or become a member.

The Commonwealth Engineers’ Council mission is to promote and support the role of engineers and engineering in the Commonwealth as a key enabler of the critical infrastructure that underpins civilisation, the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the response to the global climate emergency.