[4][8][9] Sponsored by British charities Comic Relief and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, the programme recognised leadership skills by young persons aged between 19 and 29 years old who were citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Hape was appointed by the then-Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, to serve as a Member of the Commonwealth Observer Group for the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago general election.
[9] In 2016, Hape raised concerns about the rule of law in the Republic of Maldives after the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group noted that the country had been failing to uphold human rights and that democratic standards were deteriorating.
[13] In response to the arrest of the then-opposition leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, he argued that the government of the Maldives "reacted with a show of force rather than take steps to rectify these very serious issues with the rule of law and transparency".
[16] The dialogue aimed to build cultural and diplomatic ties between the two countries and built on the Asia New Zealand Foundation's existing Track II diplomacy programme.