Alliance of Small Island States Inter-Regional Preparatory Meeting
for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
Singapore, 7 - 11 January 2002
Announcement
The international Community has now embarked on a 10-year review of the outcome of the Rio Summit and the progress of implementation of Agenda 21. The upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) will be held in Johannesburg/South Africa, 3-11 September 2002.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is convening an AOSIS preparatory meeting for the World Summit. The meeting will bring together sustainable development experts from all SIDS in order to produce substantive inputs and contributions from AOSIS to the WSSD. The workshop is aimed at drafting a formal submission to the WSSD preparatory process. It will contain detailed proposals for the next steps to be taken, including possible views on the future consideration of the Barbados Programme of Action issues by the United Nations.
This meeting will be hosted by the Government of Singapore, organized by the office of the AOSIS Chairman, and coordinated and assisted by the SIDS Unit of the Division for Sustainable Development at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
AOSIS members will have held preparatory meetings in the Caribbean (in Cuba 28-29 June 2001) and Pacific (in Samoa, 5-7 September 2001) regions beforehand. Other regions will have had the opportunity to meet in larger regional settings (Africa - Kenya, 28-31 August 2001; Latin America and Caribbean - Brazil, 23-24 October 2001; Asia - Cambodia, 27-29 November 2001). The meeting will also build upon these regional preparatory outcomes.
The five-day meeting will bring together approximately two representatives from each of the AOSIS Member States.
The goals of the meeting are:
• Assist with the international consensus building process on sustainable development;
• Produce a well-formulated contribution to the WSSD;
• Increase the level of understanding/awareness about the links between international processes and the sustainable development negotiations;
• Identify mechanisms to facilitate the exchange of information and experience between SIDS professionals;
• Discuss the GEF Capacity Development Initiative; and
•Develop proposals for supporting capacity development for SIDS.
The meeting will be developed around presentations commissioned from three SIDS regions (Caribbean, Pacific, African and Indian Ocean) that will produce insight into the prevailing situations and the challenges and opportunities to make the transition to sustainable development and SIDS.For more information:
Mr. Espen Ronneberg
United Nations in New York
e-mail: ronneberg@un.org
Ms. Desna Solofa
Permanent Mission of Samoa to the United Nations in New York
e-mail: desnams@bigplanet.comCopyright ©2000-2002 United Nations SIDS Unit