Enabling Island Cohesion and Social Well-Being
At a time when SIDS are confronted with global phenomena that include climate change and social challenges such as migration and high youth unemployment rates, UNESCO has been supporting the design of public policies in the Pacific and Caribbean. These policies are grounded in evidence-based analyses and shaped by participatory approaches.
- Full summary in Islands of the Future – Building resilience in a changing world (pdf)
Supporting better informed policies in the Caribbean
In 2012, UNESCO commissioned three studies to assess capacities in the Caribbean for effectively utilizing social data and analysis in the formulation and planning of sustainability policies.
The first study reported on the data gaps which hinder social analysis and was prepared by the CARIBSAVE Barbados Office. The second focused on the interaction between the social sciences and civil society when policy formulation and planning tackle the social dimensions of environmental change; this study was prepared by the Caribbean Natural Resource Institute in Trinidad and Tobago. The third study proposed a roadmap for creating a regional environmental change clearing house cum knowledge management hub in the Caribbean; it was prepared by Conrad Douglas Associates in Jamaica.
Networking researchers across the Pacific
In November 2012, UNESCO sponsored the creation of the Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN). The network was the outcome of a meeting in Fiji which brought together more than 30 senior researchers and representatives of intergovernmental technical agencies. UNESCO’s partners in this endeavour were the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation of the African, the Caribbean and Pacific Group of States/European Union, the University of the South Pacific, the University of Papua New Guinea, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Australian National University.
As a result, 11 Pacific universities signed an agreement in July 2013 on the establishment of PIURN, including:
- The University of the South Pacific
- Fiji National University
- National University of Samoa
- Pacific Adventist University
- Papua New Guinea University of Natural Resources and Environment
- University of Fiji
- Papua New Guinea University of Technology
- University of French Polynesia
- University of Goroka
- University of New Caledonia
- University of Papua New Guinea
Involving youth in defining the SIDS and post-2015 development agenda
© UNESCO/ T. Mousbe
In 2013, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNFPA launched an initiative for young people to voice their views on what the priorities should be for their region over the next decade. The My World, My SIDS campaign attracted over 200 applicants. Of these, 70 young people between the ages of 12 and 30 were selected from the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans to bring forward their perspectives through three regional and one inter-regional preparatory meetings for the International Conference on SIDS in 2014. The young ambassadors who gathered in Fiji, Jamaica and the Seychelles agreed on the priorities for their island homes: improving access and quality of education, taking action on climate change, and including young people as partners in sustainable development. Their voice has already been heard through their concrete proposals for the post-2015 development agenda and the 2014 review of the SIDS Programme of Action.
The process resulted in a concrete SIDS youth inter-regional network to be launched in the margins of the First SIDS preparatory Committee on 24 February 2014, in New York.
