Taking Stock, Looking Forward. Credit UNESCO

By Ahmed Sareer
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia , Jun 23 2021 (IPS)

Earlier this month, Abdulla Shahid, the Maldives’ foreign minister, was elected President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which commences in September.

This is the sixth time a candidate from a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) has been elected to steer the work of the UN’s highest policy-making organ during its 76-year history:

Rudy Insanally of Guyana became the first president of the General Assembly elected from the UN-SIDS category in 1993; followed by Saint Lucia’s Julian Hunte in 2003; Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain in 2006; and the late John William Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda in 2013, while Peter Thomson of Fiji, took the helm during the GA’s 71st session in 2016.

https://www.un.org/ohrlls/content/list-sids

It may seem surprising that such small nations have so frequently been named to this high position—the aggregate population of all SIDS is only 65 million, less than one percent of the global population—but the UN’s 38 SIDS constitute one fifth of the international organization’s total voting membership.

This position gives SIDS outsized power as a voting bloc, which they have wielded to great effect, perhaps most significantly when it comes to climate change, which as we will see has benefited the entire global community.

Abdulla Shahid. Credit: United Nations

They are also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, like extreme weather, sea level rise, and biodiversity loss, making them natural allies in the fight to cut the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for the crisis.

In fact, in 1989, the Maldives hosted one of the first international conferences on sea level rise, a consequential event in the international climate change fight and the inspiration for the creation of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which has been credited to establish the the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and winning the inclusion of the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature goal in the Paris climate accord in 2015, the latter during the Maldives chairmanship of the group.

SIDS have also shown critical leadership in the creation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2014, SIDS helped lead the negotiations, ultimately creating what is known as the SAMOA Pathway, a blueprint to ensure priorities of SIDS were reflected in the final 17 SDGs.

Before that, John William Ashe skillfully set the stage for the SDGs by working with larger countries to create a process for the SDGs that truly had global buy in.

All along, SIDS main argument that the specific challenges they face need to be given special consideration, and today a number of the SDGs do just that, including sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism. Such recognition was further solidified in 2015 as part of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda adopted at the UN Conference on Financing for Development and again that year in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Catherine Haswell, the UN Resident Coordinator in the Maldives (left) meets a group of local women. May 2021. Credit: UN Maldives/Nasheeth Thoha

Unsurprisingly, another theme that has emerged in SIDS international diplomacy over the years is ocean conservation. In December 2017, under Peter Thomson’s leadership, the General Assembly decided to convene negotiations towards an international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, what is known as the high seas.

Thomson was also instrumental in developing the UN Ocean Conference that sets out to conserve and sustainably use ocean resources.

SIDS’ important endeavors during the General Assembly not only showcase the value of their contributions there, but of the GA itself, a place where all 193 UN countries, large and small, can elevate their concerns.

During the campaign for the post competing with Zalmai Rassoul, the candidate from Afghanistan, the Maldives’ Shahid launched “a presidency of hope”, noting that his priorities during the year-long presidency are to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and rebuild economies better and greener.

“The General Assembly can boost efforts towards greater climate action” and “renew momentum” on issues of energy, biological diversity, sustainable fisheries, desertification and the oceans – that are at the heart of SIDS’ concerns.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, while welcoming the new President-elect Shahid commended his “selection of hope as the central theme in his vision statement” and noted that, “coming from a small island developing state, Mr. Shahid will bring unique insights to the 76th session of the General Assembly, as we prepare for COP26 in Glasgow in November.”

Shahid’s election, as with the SIDS leaders before him, not only offers new hope for islands, but the whole international community. At this precarious moment in history, it is truer than ever that by promoting the interests of SIDS, what we are really doing is protecting the future of mankind.

Ahmed Sareer was the Ambassador/ Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations from 2012 to 2017 and chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States from 2015 to 2017. He is presently serving at the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) based in Jeddah.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

An aerial view of the Village of Kolhuvaariyaafushi, Mulaaku Atoll, the Maldives, after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By Ahmed Sareer
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 2016 (IPS)

Last month, over two thousand high-level participants from across the world met in Antalya, Turkey for the Midterm Review of the Istanbul Programme of Action, an action plan used to guide sustainable economic development efforts for Least Developed Countries for the 2011 to 2020 period. The main goal was to understand the lessons learnt by the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) over the past five years and apply the knowledge moving forward.

For my country, the Maldives, the past five years have been a chance to experience first-hand the realities of life after graduation from LDC status. In January 2011, the Maldives was officially removed from the list of LDCs, the culmination of decades of hard work and determined efforts of developing the country. The Fourth UN Conference on LDCs, held in May 2011, was the last for the Maldives as an LDC, but last month in Antalya, we went back because we believed it was important to share the lessons we had learnt since 2011.

While our graduation was naturally a moment of pride and cause for celebration for a country only 50 years old, it was accompanied by a sense of uncertainty about the challenges we would face following the withdrawal of the protections and special preferences afforded to LDCs.

Ultimately, we were able to forge ahead in spite of these difficulties and adapted to the new realities. We ensured that our economy, driven by a world-class tourism sector, and a robust fisheries industry, would continue to be competitive and dynamic. We focused on fostering a business-friendly climate, while making prudent investments for future growth.

However, we remain conscious of the degree to which the gains we have made are vulnerable to exogenous shocks. On 20 December 2004, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided to graduate the Maldives effective 1 January 2008. But just four days before the UNGA decision, a catastrophic tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean, claiming the lives of over 275,000 people in fourteen countries.

Several islands were rendered uninhabitable; nearly one in ten people were left homeless.

Farms were destroyed, the fresh water lens corrupted, with large-scale loss to infrastructure. The economic cost of the destruction was equivalent to close to 70 percent of GDP, a blow from which it took us over a decade to recover.

The Maldives is not alone in facing such vulnerabilities. For many countries, particularly Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as our own, an end to LDC status does not necessarily herald the disappearance of structural barriers to growth—such as limited access to markets, geographical isolation, environmental pressures, or difficulty achieving economies of scale.

By 1997, the Maldives had already exceeded two of the three thresholds that determine LDC status—GNI per capita, and the Human Capital Index, measured in terms of undernourishment, child mortality rates, secondary school enrolment rates, and adult literacy.

But we did not exceed the threshold for the third criterion, the Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI), which measures the structural vulnerability of countries to exogenous economic and environmental shocks – we did not meet this threshold to date. It is not necessary to meet all three thresholds to in order to graduate—meaning we were considered ready for graduation.

As the tragedy of 2004 taught us, persistent vulnerabilities have the potential to undermine, if not reverse, gains made towards development. Despite meeting the formal requirements, we were not yet ready. The lessons of our own experiences have meant that the Maldives has been consistent in calling for a smoother and more holistic approach to the graduation process.

Firstly, the criteria for graduation must account for the structural vulnerabilities of developing countries. The fact that economic vulnerability can be disregarded in determining whether a country is ready to graduate from LDC status represents a critical oversight.

Second, the Economic Vulnerability Index itself must also be redesigned to better account for vulnerability. At present, the index fails to account for key considerations such as geographic and environmental vulnerability, import dependency, and demographic pressures.

With greater attention being paid to the effects of climate change on developing countries, most notably in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), evaluating vulnerabilities more comprehensively is a task that has acquired even greater importance.

Lastly, the extension of support and assistance to countries must be determined on the basis of their individual capabilities and challenges, rather than their mere place on a list. We would be remiss to overlook the role that development assistance, including that provided by the UN, has played in helping the Maldives progress—as it has for many others—particularly in regards to our work in disaster preparedness and climate change mitigation.

The withdrawal of such assistance—including preferential trade access and concessionary financing—following our graduation from the ranks of the LDCs has meant increased fiscal challenges. This disregards the unique challenges faced by countries like the Maldives due to their specific structural constraints—constraints ignored under the present graduation regime.

While efforts have been made to smooth the graduation process for LDCs—in 2004, and most recently in 2012—the process remains deeply flawed and in need of comprehensive reform. To this end, the Maldives has called for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to extend the application of TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) for all LDCs, in addition to the exploration of a “small and vulnerable economy” category at the United Nations, which would recognize the particular needs of such countries.

Similarly, we must move towards devising measures of development that do more than just record national income, and instead provide a more meaningful assessment of national capability and capacity, for which GDP can often be a poor proxy.

No country wishes to be called “least developed”, much less remain in that classification indefinitely, but the factors driving underdevelopment must be meaningfully dealt with if we wish to attain genuinely sustainable development. It is for this reason that we believe that the desire by countries to eradicate poverty and achieve economic development must be met with commitment on part of the United Nations and other organizations to chart a realistic and holistic path towards that end.

Excerpt:

Sea level rise threatens Raolo island in the Solomon Islands. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS.

By Ahmed Sareer
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21 2016 (IPS)

The Paris Climate Change Treaty represents an historic step forward in the international effort to address the crisis. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) played a key role in its adoption and were instrumental in winning the inclusion of the 1.5-degree temperature goal.

Many islands are already experiencing severe climate impacts such as devastating storms, flooding and droughts. The damage caused by Cyclone Winston in Fiji earlier this year is an indication of just how powerful and destructive tropical cyclones are becoming with climate change.

What’s more, we have also see the other extreme. Right now, parts of Micronesia are in the worst drought they have experienced in years. My own country, the Maldives, is also increasingly susceptible to water shortages, which costs us tens of millions of dollars to manage.

Our vulnerability to climate impacts gives islands unparalleled moral authority in the climate debate. But we also show leadership through action. The first four countries to ratify the Paris agreement—Fiji, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Maldives—were all islands and AOSIS members.

It is critical that all countries ratify as quickly as possible so we can accelerate the move to a low-carbon global economy.

The harsh reality is, as important as the agreement and signing is, what matters most is the rapid implementation of its objectives. To avoid the worst impact of climate change, it is critical that we expedite the deployment of climate solutions in the short-term, before 2020.

Pre-2020 action has been an important issue for AOSIS going right back to the Durban mandate.  In the preamble of the Paris decision we also emphasized our concern with the significant gap between aggregate mitigation pledges to 2020 and pathways consistent with 1.5 or 2 degrees.

In the Paris Agreement we agreed to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Even though the Paris Agreement comes into effect in 2020, we are all already taking actions back home, but there is a significantly need to accelerate the pace of these efforts.

We welcome all of the pledges made to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and look forward to it playing an increasingly important role on climate finance going forward. A well-capitalized GCF is critical to removing some of the obstacles that prevent higher mitigation targets for many developing countries.

Just as important is ramping up adaptation efforts.  A Maldives project was one of first funded by the GCF to improve our water security. These kinds of projects are absolutely critical for us and many other vulnerable communities to build resiliency to climate change impacts that have become impossible to avoid.

Delivering means of implementation is an extremely important issue for small islands and all developing countries. It is difficult for small countries with limited resources capacity—financial and technological—to undertake all of the adaptation projects that we need to undertake and the mitigation initiatives that we would like to take. It is clear that multilateral support is very effective in driving climate action.

The Paris Agreement must be ratified by at least 55 countries accounting for at least an estimated 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions, to enter into force. Once entered into force, countries that have ratified the agreement cannot withdraw for at least three years

Meeting the 55 percent emissions threshold will require a number of big emitters to overcome barriers and ratify. But this is not impossible, and could occur before the originally expected 2020 start date. Early entry into force would build political momentum and boost investor confidence.

Ambassador Ahmed Sareer is Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations.

By Ahmed Sareer
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 2015 (IPS)

The 70th anniversary of the United Nations, which culminates at the high level segment of the General Assembly this week, has prompted numerous reflections on the organization’s many achievements: from its work to rebuild the world in the aftermath of war to scores of lifesaving health programs and peacekeeping efforts.

But for many of the U.N.’s smallest countries, the occasion provides an opportunity to recall how it gave us a voice – and an opportunity to help solve some of the biggest challenges of our time.

Indeed, my country’s story well represents this phenomenon.

Like so many others after World War Two, we were forced to reconcile a history of foreign domination with our desire for self-governance.

UN Secretary-General U Thant speaking at the Maldives flag raising ceremony 50 years ago. Present at the ceremony were the first Maldivian delegation, including Permanent Representative Mr. Ahmed Hilmy Didi and delegates, Mr. Abdul Sattar Moosa Didi and Mr. Ahmed Ismail.

The significance of a small and isolated Indian Ocean archipelago joining the international community’s primary decision-making forum was not lost on our first permanent representative to the body, Ahmed Hilmy Didi.

In his inaugural statement, he said: “We are proud to be the smallest Member of this body of nations. This has proved that whatever the size of a country or its population, a free State can make contribution to the cause of coexistence. A handful though we are, we dedicate ourselves to the principles of this world body and declare our faith in the support of the Charter of the United Nations.”

For Maldives, U.N. membership had special significance during a time increasingly dominated by a tug-of-war between competing superpowers because we were not a “traditional” colony, but a protectorate.

That meant the United Kingdom did not govern our internal policies; rather it dictated our foreign policy. Thus independence and U.N. membership, gave us legitimacy and the autonomy needed to navigate a globalizing world.

In fact, coming as it did, at a time of rapid decolonization, larger countries expressed scepticism over the ability of so-called microstates to engage fully at the world body.

This debate persisted, and I guess you could say it left us feeling like we had something to prove.

Indeed, we have always committed the resources required to build an effective foreign service. Our international relations approach focuses on collaborative problem solving, where we seek to understand our partners’ interests, explain our own, and develop solutions that satisfy the needs of all stakeholders together.

The value of such mutual understanding – and U.N. membership – came to the fore in 1987, when Maldives’ capital was struck by record flooding.

In response, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, our president at the time launched a study and discovered manmade global warming was likely causing sea level rise, which contributed to the tidal surge. He brought the issue to the attention of leaders at the next Commonwealth summit in Vancouver, the first time the issue was deliberated at such a high level.

The access afforded by U.N. membership then allowed Maldives to rally support from many other small island states for a global push to take action on global warming.

President Gayoom also met with the Commonwealth Secretary General and won support for the first Small Island State Conference on Sea Level Rise. Island state ministers and scientists from around the world attended the meeting and they issued the Male’ Declaration, one of the seminal documents in the international effort to address global warming.

Maldives would go on to be one of the most vocal advocates for a treaty to reduce the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. In fact, since January this year it is serving as chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a coalition of low-lying island and coastal nations from around the world.

We have taken a similar approach to other challenges, such as the mechanism we proposed to deal with security challenges faced by island states; the risk climate change poses to the enjoyment of human rights; and the inadequacy of the U.N.’s development measurements.

The incumbent President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s bold initiatives of economic diversification, youth empowerment, and democratic consolidation have helped build resilience in our fragile islands, which rely heavily on the marine sectors of fisheries and tourism.

But it is our global warming advocacy that has come full circle this year. Late November through December, the international community will gather in Paris for what is widely regarded as its last opportunity to sign a treaty capable of averting the worst impacts of the crisis.

Years of inaction have made many climate impacts unavoidable. But, if not for the leadership of small island states, made possible by their U.N. membership, any solution at all might well already be out of reach. That is worth remembering.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IPS – Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

A dhoni in the Maldives. Credit: Nevit Dilmen/cc by 3.0

By Ahmed Sareer
NEW YORK, Jan 10 2015 (IPS)

Since 1971, Maldives is one of only three countries that have graduated from the ranks of the world’s “least developed countries” (LDCs) – the other two being Botswana and Cape Verde.

The Maldives graduated on Jan. 1, 2011. The review of LDCs conducted in 1997 concluded that the Maldives was ready for immediate graduation.

Ambassador Sareer. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The Maldives government argued that the U.N. criteria for graduation should include a “smooth transition period” in order to bring into place adequate adjustments necessary for full transition into middle-income country status.

The U.N. Resolution adopted on Dec. 20, 2004 endorsed and adopted these arguments. Under that resolution, the Maldives was set to graduate from the list of LDCs on Jan. 1, 2008.

Just six days after adoption of the resolution, the Indian Ocean tsunami struck the Maldives.

The Maldives economy, which had grown at an average of eight percent per annum for two consecutive years, was devastated by the tsunami: 62 percent of the GDP was destroyed; over seven percent of the population was internally displaced; social and economic infrastructure damaged or destroyed in over one quarter of the inhabited islands; 12 inhabited islands were turned into complete rubble.

Following the disaster, and on the request of the Maldives, the General Assembly decided to defer the graduation until 2011, with a smooth transition period until 2014.Donors often assess a country’s need by its developmental status at the U.N., which traps countries such as the Maldives in a vicious cycle being now termed as the “Middle Income Paradox”.

Graduation from LDC does not help a country to overcome the development challenges it faces. Graduation does not make a country less vulnerable to the consequences of its geography.

It is no secret that small island states being assessed for graduation, do not meet the threshold for economic vulnerability.

Small island states often achieve their high development status because of high and consistent investment in human resources, and the social sector as well as government administration.

This leaves limited financial resources for the country to prepare for natural disasters or to carry out mitigation and adaptation measures.

Countries often have to rely on multilateral and bilateral donors for assistance for environmental projects: donors that often assess a country’s need by its developmental status at the U.N., which traps countries such as the Maldives in a vicious cycle being now termed as the “Middle Income Paradox”.

However, all this is conveniently ignored or overlooked.

Graduation from LDC status need not be feared, nor does it need to be an obstacle in a country’s development path. We only fear what we don’t know.

The Maldives’ experience showed that due to the infancy of the graduation programme, the relatively low number of countries that have graduated, and the lack of coordinated commitment from bilateral partners, the graduation process has been far from smooth.

The General Assembly Resolution, which the Maldives helped to coordinate, adopted in December 2012 provided a smooth transition for countries graduated from the LDC list.

The resolution has put into place greater oversight ability for the U.N. and articulated the need for a strengthened consultative mechanism for the coordination of bilateral aid.

The Maldives has tried to make the path for subsequent graduates smoother. Yet, it is a fact that the graduation process still relies on flawed criteria.

While no country wants to be termed the “Least” on any group, it cannot be denied that inherent vulnerabilities and geo-physical realities of some of the countries that often extend beyond their national jurisdiction, need help that are specific and targeted, in order to improve the resilience of those countries.

It is for that reason that the Maldives lobbied extensively with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to extend the application of TRIPS for all LDCs.

Following graduation, the Maldives also applied to join the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences but new regulations prevented Maldives from the scheme. This posed a significant loss to our fishing industry, which is the export sector in the economy.

The Maldives has been continually exploring the viability of a “small and vulnerable economy” category at the U.N., similar to that which exists in the World Trade Organisation.

Such a category will acknowledge the particular needs of countries arising from the smallness of their economies and inherent geographical realities.

Small island states have continually argued that special consideration needs to be given to SIDS that are slated for graduation. Yet, these voices of concern have fallen largely on deaf years.

But the needs of our people, the development we desire cannot wait to be recognised.

That is why the Maldives decided to take our development path into our own hands. This can be done by consistently employing good policies.

Development is the result of a combination of bold decisions and an ability to seize the opportunities. SIDS have shown to the world that we are not short of smart ideas. Rather than relying on others, we have to develop our own economies our way!

Edited by Kitty Stapp

Excerpt: