Ambassador Luteru,
Ambassador Zacarias,
Under-Secretary-General Fatima,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Panelists,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to join you at this 8th Global Multi-Stakeholder Small Island `Developing States Partnership Dialogue.
I warmly congratulate the Co-chairs of the Steering Committee, Ambassador Luteru and Ambassador Zacarias, for their visionary leadership and able guidance in the preparation of this Dialogue.
I also thank my colleague, Under-Secretary-General Fatima, for her collaboration, along with her team at the Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
Excellencies,
We are now halfway to the deadline set for realizing the promises and goals set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
An assessment of our progress to date is telling and alarming.
According to this year’s Sustainable Development Goals Report, only about 15 per cent of the assessable SDG targets are on track to be reached by 2030, close to half are moderately or severely off track and, over 30 per cent have either seen no movement or regressed below the 2015 baseline.
SIDS continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the fallout of the recent confluence of crises.
The destructive impacts of intense and extreme weather patterns on infrastructure adversely affects the livelihoods of many in SIDS, including communities living close to low-lying coastal zones.
High exposure to sea level rise and changing rainfall patterns are reducing the availability of the already limited freshwater resources of atolls SIDS.
And the destructive economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on many SIDS are now exacerbated by crippling cost-of-living crises.
Excellencies,
Now, more than ever, SIDS need policy and fiscal space to follow low-carbon, resilient and inclusive development pathways. They must build their capacities to reduce carbon emissions and conserve natural resources. They must take steps to transform food systems. And focus must be given to creating better job opportunities, and advancing their transition to a greener, more inclusive and just economy.
Achieving these ends within the existing international financial and debt architecture would prove difficult. This is why the United Nations Secretary-General has called for reforms in our global economic and financial systems to make them fairer and more discerning of the needs and vulnerabilities of developing countries.
This and other calls for global and national-level transformation cannot be sustained without genuine partnerships.
The SIDS Partnership Framework provides an innovative platform for stakeholders from different sectors to come together, to synergize their efforts and to form effective partnerships for SIDS to address their challenges.
Over the past years, we have witnessed many such partnerships for SIDS striving to achieve the SAMOA Pathway and the SDGs.
Today, we will recognize some of these initiatives at the second UN SIDS Partnerships Awards ceremony. I would like to congratulate the partnerships for their success in forwarding progress in the economic, social and environmental spheres.
We received many commendable applications for this year’s awards, and I wish to acknowledge the contributions of them all.
I hope, through continuing collective efforts, we will be able to encourage and stimulate many more partnerships working together to achieve sustainable development of SIDS.
I encourage all partnerships for SIDS to register in the SIDS Partnership Platform and to apply for the SIDS Partnerships Awards in the future.
Excellencies,
The fourth International Conference on SIDS will be convened in Antigua and Barbuda in May 2024, aiming to assess the ability of SIDS to overcome vulnerabilities and enhance their resilience to achieve the SDGs.
We are now preparing for three regional preparatory meetings, as well as an interregional one, to identify and develop inputs for the Conference.
The preparatory meetings offer opportunities to identify ways to strengthen the SIDS Partnership Framework under the next SIDS programme of action.
I look forward to the outcomes of these upcoming discussions.
Let me conclude by reassuring all SIDS stakeholders that UN DESA, working in close collaboration with OHRLLS, will continue supporting Member States in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SAMOA Pathway, and look forward to supporting your implementation of the next SIDS programme of action.
Thank you.