Meetings of the 65th Session
Five-year review of the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States - Mauritius Strategy +5 Review (24-25 September 2010)
The Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, adopted in Barbados in 1994, highlighted the special challenges and constraints that have resulted in major setbacks for the socio-economic development of those States. The Barbados Programme of Action translated Agenda 21 into specific actions and measures to enable small island developing States to achieve sustainable development.
In 2005, the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States was adopted. The Strategy sets forth actions and strategies in 19 priority areas, including the original themes of the Barbados Programme of Action.
In 2008, the General Assembly, by resolution 62/191, decided to review the five-year progress made in addressing the vulnerabilities of small island developing States through the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy at its sixty-fifth session. General Assembly resolutions 63/213 and 64/199 further clarified the expectations of Member States and the processes involved in the review.
The review should provide the international community with an opportunity to conduct a thorough assessment of the progress made, lessons learned and constraints encountered in the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation and to agree on what needs to be done to further address the vulnerabilities of small island developing States.
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What is a Small Island Developing State?
Small island developing States share many of the characteristics of other developing countries but they face unique challenges which are widely recognized. While the Committee for Development Policy has noted that there is no accepted definition of a small island developing State and, in practice, membership in that group is by self-selection, the term “small island developing States” often refers to the 38 United Nations Members States listed on the website of the Office of the High Representative of the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, namely:
- Antigua and Barbuda *
- Bahamas *
- Bahrain
- Barbados *
- Belize
- Cape Verde *
- Comoros *
- Cuba
- Dominica *
- Dominican Republic
- Fiji *
- Grenada *
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Jamaica *
- Kiribati *
- Maldives *
- Marshall Islands *
- Mauritius *
- Micronesia (Federated States of) *
- Nauru *
- Palau *
- Papua New Guinea *
- Saint Kitts and Nevis *
- Saint Lucia *
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *
- Samoa *
- Sao Tome and Principe *
- Seychelles *
- Singapore
- Solomon Islands *
- Suriname
- Timor-Leste *
- Tonga *
- Trinidad and Tobago *
- Tuvalu *
- Vanuatu *
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has defined a subgroup of 29 small island developing States (marked in the list above with an asterisk), used only for analytical purposes.
Source: Report of the Secretary-General [A/65/115]
What are the characteristics of a Small Island Developing State?
Small island developing States share very high levels of intrinsic vulnerabilities, especially to external shocks. The high levels of vulnerability of the natural, economic and social systems of small island developing States arise from the following characteristics:
- Small size
- Remoteness
- Vulnerability to external (demand and supply-side) shocks
- Narrow resource base
- Exposure to global environmental challenges
Small island developing States have, on average, higher incomes than the least developed and the landlocked developing countries.
By virtually any measure, small island developing States are among the world’s hot spots in terms of sustainable development.
There are concerns, however, that the recent development progress made by small island developing States might be jeopardized by the major ongoing shocks. Their vulnerability has increased due to climate change and was most recently demonstrated by the global financial crisis of 2007-2010, the food and fuel crises of 2007-2008 and the large-scale natural disasters, which occurred in 2009-2010. For example, the food crisis has had a severe impact on the poor in the small island developing States, most of which are net food importers.
Source: Report of the Secretary-General [A/65/115]
Programme
- 24 September
- Opening plenary meeting
- Multi-stakeholder round-table sessions
- 25 September
- Interactive dialogue on cross-regional perspectives
- Closing plenary meeting
Source: General Assembly Resolution 64/199
Meeting Coverage
- Meeting summary (24 September)
- Meeting summary (25 September)
- Ban pledges continued UN support for small island developing nations (24 September)
- Deputy UN chief urges increased global support for small island developing States (26 September)
- Deputy Secretary-General, at Closing of Review Meeting, Calls Challenges Facing Small Island Developing States ‘Global Issues that Affect Us All’ (25 September 2010)
- Press Conference on Small Island Developing States (24 September 2010)
- Small Island States Need Increased Financing for ‘Dramatic Changes’ Needed to Cope with Climate Change, Reach Development Goals, Says Secretary-General (24 September 2010)
- Secretary-General highlights special needs of small island developing states
- Climate change, global crises retarding small island nations’ development – UN (23 September)
- Small Island States Will Seek Fair Global Policies to Promote Growth, Resilience at General Assembly High-level Meeting, 24-25 September (21 September 2010)
Ressources
Key documents
- Barbados Programme of Action (1994) [A/CONF.167/9]
- Agenda 21 (2002)
- Mauritius Declaration and Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (2005) [A/CONF.207/11]
Other resources
- All documents on the Follow-up to and implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States
- Division for Sustainable Development, UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs
- Mauritius Strategy +5 Review