PRESS RELEASE: Pacific Nations Start Talks for International Meeting on Small Island Developing States

PACIFIC NATIONS START TALKS FOR INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON 
SMALL ISLAND DEVELOPING STATES

Apia, Samoa, 5 August 2003 - - The first multinational gathering leading up 
to next year’s International Meeting on Small Island Developing States is 
taking place in Apia, Samoa this week to review the progress achieved in 
ensuring the positive long-term development of small islands. 

Over 100 representatives from Pacific Island nations are attending the Apia 
meeting, taking place from 4 to 8 August. Specifically, they are discussing 
progress in implementing the Barbados Programme of Action adopted in 1994, 
which attempted to address the host of challenges that small island states 
face due to their small size and fragile ecosystems, as they work towards 
development that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Among the challenges facing island nations are rising sea levels, geographic 
isolation, environmental degradation, poor trading opportunities in a 
globalizing economy and limited resources – natural, human and institutional. 


The UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 – the Rio Earth 
Summit – agreed that small islands are “a special case both for environment 
and development” and called for a special conference to focus on these 
issues. The resulting Barbados Programme of Action has been used as a tool 
for guiding and promoting sustainable development in small island regions. 
Much progress has been achieved towards its implementation yet the process is 
not complete. There are major tasks ahead to ensure that sustainable 
development becomes a reality for all island communities. 

In order to reach an international consensus on the steps required, the UN 
will convene the International Meeting in Mauritius in August/September 2004 
to review the implementation of the Programme of Action. The preparatory 
process includes regional consultations such as this meeting in Apia. They 
will prepare regional reports that will describe the actions taken, successes 
reached and problems encountered, and will suggest possible solutions. Each 
regional report will then be presented to a larger gathering of all small 
island developing states in January 2004, from which a consolidated position 
will be produced. 

In Mauritius, the international community as a whole will discuss these 
recommendations, and it is hoped that a new era of cooperation for 
sustainable development in small islands will be ushered in, in line with the 
objectives of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 
2002) and the UN Millennium Development Goals.

“The road ahead is full of challenges”, said Manuel Dengo, Chief of the UN’s 
Water, Natural Resources and Small Island Developing States Branch - the 
Secretariat group in charge of the organization of the International Meeting 
in Mauritius. “The key aspect is for island nations themselves to demonstrate 
their resolve and commitment to sustainable development, and to carefully 
explain the policies and measures that they wish to utilize in their quest 
for achieving sustainable development”. 

This week’s meeting will be an important opportunity to discuss these issues 
within the Pacific Islands group, and to prepare a regional overview of the 
sustainable development needs and concerns of the Pacific.

The UN is supporting this endeavour through its SIDS Unit of the UN 
Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Inter-agency Task Force on 
the Mauritius International Meeting. Technical and financial support has also 
been received from the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific, the 
UN Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme and the Government of 
New Zealand.

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For more information contact:
Rolando Gomez, UN Department of Public Information (New York)+1-212-963-2744 
(ph); mediainfo@un.org; Coral Pasisi, South Pacific Regional Environmental 
Programme (Apia) +685-21-929 (ph); coralp@sprep.org.ws
Website - www.sidsnet.org