Small Island Developing States
Small Island Developing States
UN-OHRLLS plays a leading role in raising awareness of the special case of small island developing States at the national, regional and global levels.
Since UN-OHRLLS was established in 2001, it has been working through a dedicated Small Island Developing States Unit to mobilize and coordinate the United Nations system and other stakeholders towards supporting implementation, coherent follow-up and monitoring of the dedicated Programmes of Action (PoA) for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
With the adoption of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action, or SAMOA Pathway, for the decade 2014 - 2024, UN-OHRLLS has focused on supporting the SIDS to achieve its goals. This includes building synergies and coherence with other internationally agreed development goals, including the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
How does UN-OHRLLS work with the UN system and other stakeholders?
UN-OHRLLS plays a leading role in convening the UN system through the Inter-Agency Consultative Group for SIDS to ensure coherent and coordinated support to SIDS and collaborates with UN agencies and other partners on joint events, publications and thematic initiatives to support SIDS.
Increasing global awareness and debate on development issues of relevance to SIDS is a major area of focus for UN-OHRLLS. This includes work on enhancing international support to SIDS in implementing the Samoa Pathway and in adapting to and mitigating climate change.
The Office also supports the SIDS Steering Committee on Partnerships, established to monitor the implementation of the more than 300 partnerships announced at the Third International Conference on SIDS. In addition, UN-OHRLLS operates the SIDS Global Business Network, focusing the attention of the business community on partnerships with SIDS.
Aside from SIDS governments and their development partners, UN-OHRLLS also engages with civil society, media, academia, and foundations to raise awareness of and support the sustainable development aspirations of the SIDS. This work also includes supporting journalists from SIDS to build their capacity in reporting on development issues pertaining to SIDS.
How does UN-OHRLLS work directly with SIDS?
Through a system of SIDS National Focal Points established by UN-OHRLLS in 2018, the Office engages directly with representatives from SIDS to ensure coherence in the implementation of the SAMOA Pathway and the 2030 Agenda at the national, regional and global levels. National Focal Points meetings are convened annually.
At UN Headquarters, UN-OHRLLS works with the Permanent Missions of SIDS to facilitate group consultations and provide support in relation to SIDS’ engagement in intergovernmental processes. UN-OHRLLS also works in this context to collaborate on focused events around thematic development issues.
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Report: Building a new understanding of vulnerability for developing countries
A High-Level Panel was convened by the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2022 to develop a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI). It is intended that the MVI, using a data-driven approach to define what it means to be vulnerable, will support an evidence-based approach to development policy and decision making, especially in the context of increasingly scarce external financing resources.
The report of the panel – proposes an index built by comparing countries’ vulnerability to external shocks to their resilience to those shocks. Where vulnerability factors can increase the risk of shocks, resilience factors can reduce their impact.
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