Small Island Developing States

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Small Island Developing States - SIDS

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“The world’s small island developing states are front-line zones where, in concentrated form, many of the main problems of environment and development are unfolding” (Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, 1999).

BACKGROUND

Small Island Developing States or ‘SIDS’ are island nations that are characterized by, inter alia :

Relatively small populations
Limited resources
Geographic remoteness
Heightened vulnerability to natural disasters
Heightened vulnerability to the impacts of global climate change
Extreme economic vulnerability to/dependency on the global market

The unique challenges to development that SIDS face are such that UN Millennium Development Goal #8 specifically states the need to “address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing states”. The relationship between SIDS and the oceans is a defining one: for SIDS, the oceans represent both their greatest resource and their biggest liability. Sustainable exploitation and management of the living and non-living resources in large exclusive economic zones (EEZ’s) of SIDS are the key to their development, while rising sea-levels fueled by global climate change, marine pollution, and natural disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes threaten SIDS future.

Photo title: woman working in jamaica

Photo credit: fao

BARBADOS PLAN OF ACTION AND THE MAURITIUS INTERNATIONAL MEETING

In 1994, the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Development States was convened in Barbados to address the special challenges to development of SIDS. The result of the Conference was the ‘Barbados Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States’. Moreover, in January 2005, the International Meeting for the 10-year review of the Barbados Plan of Action was held in Mauritius. This meeting has resulted in the ‘Mauritius Strategy’ for the further implementation of the Barbados Plan of Action.

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