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DEVELOPMENT: SIDS Would Like Some Implementation

Hilmi Toros

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 14 2005 (IPS) - A 110-nation UN conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) ended Friday with renewed commitment of support. Will it work this time?

Delegates pledged development assistance to help SIDS overcome their isolation and their vulnerability to raging winds and seas. They promised also to do more to halt shrinking export earnings.

Such offers have come before. The Mauritius meeting was called because of the failure to implement a plan of action adopted in Barbados in 1994 to lend a hand to 37 SIDS in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean.

This time UN officials see a more favourable atmosphere after the emotional aftershocks from the tsunami. For a start the tragedy is likely to lead to the establishment of a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean, and eventually globally. The system would also warn against hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke on the closing day of “renewed interest” in SIDS and a “spirit of generosity” among “new donors”. He expressed “total support” to French President Jacques Chirac’s proposal to use UN troops for humanitarian operations..

Annan also announced he will appoint a special envoy to coordinate relief and construction efforts in areas devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

Conference secretary-general Anwarul K. Chowdhury said the meeting yielded “a good strategy and good opportunity to move forward” in implementing the Barbados plan of action.. He particularly cited the active participation of civil society groups in substantive discussions.

No monetary pledges were sought or promised at the conference. The key word was “partnerships” – among nations (including South-South), within regions, and between SIDS and the business world and civil society.

A laboriously negotiated final document, after give-and-take that stretched over a year, set out a ‘strategy for the further implementation of the programme of action for the sustainable development of small island developing states’.

The document reflected a compromise between a developing world seeking additional financing for SIDS, and industrialised nations stressing national action. Annan had urged the conference to come with a realistic document that can be implemented.

In a rare agreement all major groups – the Group of 77 (developing countries), China, the European Union and the United States expressed satisfaction with the result.

The document calls on the international community to give “necessary support” to efforts by SIDS towards sustainable development. It calls for greater support particularly on issues such as climate change and sea level rises, and natural and environmental disasters. It lists particular areas where support could be offered, such as waste management, fresh water, energy, tourism, biodiversity, communication, and science and technology.

The document speaks of security as a “multi-dimensional concept” that takes into account concerns of the developing world in linking it to environmental degradation, natural disaster, food, water, drugs and arms trafficking.

At the same time SIDS are promised “technical and financial support” in fighting terrorism, an issue pushed by the United States. Other issues often espoused by the West are also recommended for SIDS: good governance, the rule of law, anti-corruption measures, and gender equality.

The conference adopted a Mauritius Declaration – a political statement asking that SIDS be treated as “a special case” for sustainable development and given “appropriate attention” in trade talks.

But sustainable development will not come easy, delegates said. “It all depends on resources that will be put into it – by donors,” deputy prime minister Toke Talagi of Niue (pop. 2000) told IPS.

Host Mauritius, often pointed out as a shining example of success on many fronts, is worried about its economic mainstays sugar and textiles. Its annual production of 600,000 tonnes of sugar now faces tougher competition in the global market. The second is under threat from Chinese exports.

And some SIDS barely keep their head above water. Three of Tuvalu’s nine islands have been submerged by what it calls King Tides.

Tuvalu in the south Pacific exports nothing and imports everything for its 12,000 inhabitants. It has a national budget of 20 million dollars, but its only income is from licensing fishing in its waters to other countries like Japan and Taiwan. It has two schools, and no university. It uses Australian currency.

But it brought a 17-strong delegation to the SIDS conference in a sign of the importance of the meeting to the country. For a day, it even blocked an agreement on climate change, standing alone in demanding stronger measures against the greenhouse effect that it claims could doom its islands, some merely two metres high.

“We are sovereign, and that counts a lot,” said Seve Paeniu from the Tuvalu delegation.

Some specific proposals and partnerships emerged at the conference. The Italian delegation announced a project to link two islands attempting to maintain biodiversity while developing tourism. People from Galapagos in the Pacific and Soqotra in the Arabian Sea will share their experiences at get-togethers funded by Italy.

A consortium of SIDS universities agreed increased cooperation and collaboration in following up on the Mauritius meeting. Universities in Malta, Mauritius, the South Pacific, Virgin Islands and the West Indies joined as founding members.