Follow-up to and implementation
of the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme
of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States
UN Secretary-General Report to General Assembly
Contribution by UNESCO
Through letter dated 2 June, the
United Nations Division of Sustainable Development requested UNESCO to prepare a comprehensive account of
measures taken to date by the Organization in implementing UN General Assembly
resolution 60/194 ‘Follow-up to and implementation of the Mauritius Strategy
for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing States’. This resolution inter
alia calls upon all relevant stakeholders including UN agencies to take
timely action for the effective implementation of and follow-up to the Mauritius
Declaration and Mauritius Strategy, including the further development and
operationalization of concrete projects and programmes.
In responding to this request, the following account[1]
of UNESCO’s activities is presented in terms of the various chapters of the
Mauritius Strategy.
Chapter 1.
Climate change and sea-level rise
Chapter II. Natural and environmental disasters
Chapter
III. Management of wastes
Chapter
IV. Coastal and marine resources
Chapter
V. Freshwater resources
Chapter VIII. Tourism resources
Chapter
IX. Biodiversity resources
Chapter
X. Transport and communication
Chapter XI. Science and technology
Chapter XIV. Sustainable capacity
development and education for sustainable development
Chapter XVI. National and regional
enabling environments
Chapter
XVIII. Knowledge management and information for decision-making
Chapter
1. Climate change and sea-level rise
Within UNESCO and its Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the principal contribution to issues related to climate change and
rising sea levels is through such initiatives as the Global Ocean Observing
System (GOOS) and the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS).
Noteworthy
events have included the deployment in September 2005 of surface drifter #1250
of the Global Drifting Buoy Array, which marked the significant milestone of
completion of the first GOOS component to be fully implemented. The ocean in
situ observing system is over 56% implemented, with the WMO-IOC Joint Technical
Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology target of full
implementation in principle by 2012. There has been a successful integration of
ship-based observations under the new Ship Observations Team.
The ten-year
implementation plan for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS),
identifies 96 specific benefit-driven activities that address such needs as
capacity development in small island communities and the sustainability of
marine ecosystems (with IOC identified as either a lead or contributing
organization to 21 of these action items).
In June 2006,
UNESCO hosted an international workshop on ‘Understanding Sea-level Rise and
Variability’, organized by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In
November in Cape Town, an international
forum is expected to clarify the role of GOOS Regional Alliances in the
implementation of Coastal GOOS and to define a global mechanism for
coordinating the GOOS Regional Alliances.
Chapter
II. Natural and environmental disasters
UNESCO’s work on natural disasters, which dates back to the 1950s, includes scientific work on the assessment of natural hazards (including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and various hydrological risks) as well as the fostering of measures for disaster prevention and preparedness.
Objectives and approaches include advocacy of the need for a shift in emphasis from relief and emergency response to preventive measures and increased preparedness and education of potentially affected populations. Activities include the strengthening of scientific infrastructures, the design and setting up of reliable early warning systems and dissemination of mitigation measures, and information sharing and public awareness.
Recent and ongoing work includes contributing to the Hyogo Framework for Action (adopted in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005), responding to the Indian Ocean tsunami, continued support to tsunami preparedness in the Pacific, and the design of warning systems for tsunami and other coastal hazards for other regions and for the overall global system.
Considerable progress has been made in working towards an operational Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS). As of late June 2006, 26 out of a possible 28 national tsunami information centres, capable of receiving and distributing tsunami advisories around the clock, have been set up in Indian Ocean countries. The seismographic network has been improved, with 25 new stations being deployed and linked in real-time to analysis centres. Three deep-seabed sensors are in place to detect tsunami waves through tiny changes in water pressure. The Commission for the Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is contributing data from seismographic stations. Three meetings of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for IOTWS have been held, in Perth (August 2005), Hyderabad (December 2005) and Bali (July-August 2006). Five intersessional working groups are addressing the issues of Seismic measurements, Sea-level data, Risk assessment, Modelling and forecasting, and ‘Interoperability’.
Progress has also been made in the plans for other early-warning regional systems for tsunamis and other ocean-related hazards. For the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas, planning meetings have been held in Rome (November 2005) and Nice (May 2006). For the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions, meetings in Bridgetown (January 2006) and Cartagena de Indias (April 2006) have resulted in a 22-item Action Plan for the Caribbean Early Warning System, which is a multi-hazard warning system, especially focused on the impact of hurricanes and tsunamis. IOC is also currently assessing the needs to establish additional early warning and mitigation systems in regions relevant to SIDS, including the Central and Southeast Atlantic and the Southwest Pacific.
In planning these new regional systems, advantage has been taken of experience in the Pacific region, where IOC was centrally involved in the mid-1960s in the setting up of the International Tsunami Information Center in Hawai’i. Among recent activities was the organization in May 2006 of the first pan-Pacific tsunami exercise ‘Exercise Pacific Wave 06’. The aim was to help tsunami warning systems in the region to maintain a high level of readiness in the face of fast-onset and rapidly evolving natural disasters such as tsunamis.
Assessing progress and future plans for these various regional networks, and for moving towards a global early-warning system for tsunamis and other ocean-related hazards, was among the items discussed at the 39th session of the Executive Committee of the IOC in late June 2006. Also emphasized was the importance of promoting a multi-hazard approach to disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters). Outstanding challenges include the need to reinforce international coordination and to secure the ‘downstream flow’ of information from the warning centres to populations and communities at risk.
A case study from the Maldives was among those enriching a regional workshop on educational materials for disaster preparedness in the Asia-Pacific region, organized in June 2006 by UNESCO-Bangkok and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, within the context of Education for Sustainable Development. Nearing finalization are educational materials on natural disaster preparedness for primary school children in Tonga. In the Caribbean, cooperation continues between the UNESCO-Kingston Office and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) in respect to such materials as the ‘Disaster Information Kit for the Caribbean Media’.
Chapter
III. Management of wastes
UNESCO’s contribution comes mainly though work on water resources within the framework of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the UNESCO International Centre for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE) in Delft (Netherlands). A primary regional focus is in the Pacific region, through cooperative partnerships with a range of bilateral, regional and international bodies, including the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and WMO.
A training course for
wastewater management in the Pacific is being jointly developed by UNEP's
Global Programme for Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from
Land-based Sources of Pollution (GPA/UNEP) and UNESCO-IHE. The wastewater
training course is addressing one of the Guiding Principles of the Pacific
Wastewater Policy and Framework for Action and is being implemented by a
consortium of organizations, including
SOPAC, SPREP, UNESCO-IHE, GPA/UNEP and the University of the South Pacific..
Among available materials is a Training Manual for Improving Municipal
Wastewater Management in Coastal Cities and a CD-ROM on Wastewater Technologies
and Management for Pacific Islands.
Waste management also figures in on-the-ground projects associated with Small Islands Voice (SIV): for example, promoting ‘zero tolerance to littering’ is the focus of a schools exchange programme between the Maldives and the Seychelles; providing creative uses for recycled glass in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and helping organize centralized waste disposal sites in villages in Vanuatu.
Chapter
IV. Coastal and marine resources
Within UNESCO, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) provides a primary focus for improving scientific knowledge and understanding of oceanic and coastal processes. Through the organization and coordination of major scientific programmes and projects, support is provided to Member States in building-up capacities and in the design and implementation of policies for the ocean and coastal zones. Key activities include the development of an innovative programme on ocean sciences, with three principal interactive lines of work: oceans and climate, science for ocean ecosystems and marine environmental protection, and marine science for integrated coastal area management. Components of this ocean sciences programme include work on ocean carbon sequestration, benthic indicators, coral bleaching and monitoring, land-ocean-atmosphere biochemistry, harmful algal blooms, pelagic fish populations. For integrated coastal area management, a handbook of indicators has been elaborated based on field experience and testing. ‘Sustainable Management of the Shared Living Marine Resources of the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem and Adjacent Regions’ is among the Large Marine Ecosystem concept projects being implemented by IOC with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands was created by an informal coordinating group at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. With IOC as UNESCO focal point, the Global Forum is comprised of individuals from governments, IGOs, NGOs and the private sector, and aims to serve as a platform for cross-sectoral information sharing and dialogue on issues affecting oceans, coasts and islands, with the goal of attaining sustainable development in these areas.
In January 2006, UNESCO hosted the Forum’s Third Global Conference, devoted to ‘Moving the Global Oceans Agenda Forward’. Among twelve panel sessions, Panel 5 addressed ‘Implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for Small Island Developing States’. Chaired by the outgoing chair of the Alliance for Small Island States (AOSIS), discussants included panellists from Cook Islands, São Tomé and Principe, and Seychelles , together with the vice-chair of AOSIS and representatives of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, UNEP Caribbean Programme, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme and Atlantic-SIDS. Other sessions during the Global Forum included those on ‘Island life – Island Biodiversity, Livelihoods and International Agreements’, ‘SIDS, with emphasis on Ocean and Coastal Management’ and ‘Next Steps in SIDS’.
Chapter
V. Freshwater resources
UNESCO’s contribution
to the development of integrated approaches for sound water management in SIDS
is primarily through the International Hydrological Programme (IHP), with
particular emphasis on field operations, including training activities of
various kinds. This includes work supported through the UNESCO priority theme
of ‘water and associated ecosystems’, a joint initiative of IHP and the Man and
the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.
In the Pacific, in
close partnership with regional bodies and donor agencies, activities are
focused on engaging local and indigenous communities in water resources
management and monitoring partnerships and on contributing to a three-year
regional training programme for water resource managers. This work forms part
of the IHP’s Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) initiative,
and more particularly to a Catchments and Communities project in the Pacific,
including the Talise Basin in Vanuatu.
A key activity for 2005
was the organization through a broad regional partnership of the Pacific HELP
Symposium, hosted jointly by UNESCO Apia Office and
Landcare Research, Ltd., and held in November 2005 in Nelson, New Zealand. One
purpose of the Symposium – which included nine representatives of six Pacific
high volcanic island countries -- was to develop ways in which Pacific Island
agencies and communities can better manage land uses, bearing in mind their
impact on rivers and coasts. The more formalized
involvement of Pacific-SIDS in the IHP is also being promoted, by rotational
participation in the IHP Regional Steering Committee.
UNESCO is contributing
through a broad regional Type-II partnership funded by the Government of New
Zealand to the strengthening of national capacities in water resources
management and monitoring. The aim is to directly enhance the capacity of water
resource managers in both high island and atoll countries across the Pacific
through a three-year SOPAC/UNESCO/WMO training programme. Activities have
included the second course in the Hydrology Training Programme (Suva, Fiji Islands, April 2005), which focused on
training in surface and groundwater hydrology and an introduction to the use of
climate information and integrated water resources management. A third course
on surface water and groundwater in June 2006 brought together participants
from 13 Pacific Island countries.
Among field projects is
a joint UNESCO-SOPAC programme to provide groundwater monitoring capacity building
through an action-oriented research programme for the island of Aitutaki in the
Cook Islands, which faces rapid tourism infrastructure development with
resulting water shortages. Further information on these and other water-related
activities are given in the periodic newsletter of the Pacific Partnership
Initiative on Sustainable Water Management, prepared and diffused by SOPAC.
Water resources
assessment in the Caribbean is being approached through one of the regional
projects contributing to the worldwide initiative on
Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data (FRIEND). Flow
regimes in SIDS under climate change and climate variability is an important
focus of the Fifth FRIEND World Conference (Havana, Cuba, November-December 2006).
Other activities included a project on
three shared aquifers between the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the
island of Hispaniola (including work with the OAS and University of Quisqueya
in Port-au-Prince on the aquifers of the Artibonito River), a
Map of Arid and Semi-Arid Zones in the Caribbean, preparation of
guidelines for teachers on extra-curriculum activities related to the
environmentally sound and safe use of water resources in Caribbean island states, support to the Fifth Inter-American Dialogue
on Water Management (Montego Bay, Jamaica, October 2005), and a workshop on
Mainstreaming Gender in Water Resources Management (Jamaica, April 2007).
Elsewhere, among UNESCO’s ongoing flagship projects is that known as SIMDAS -- Sustainable Integrated Management Development of Arid and Semi-Arid regions of Southern Africa. Taking part are all 14 Member States of SADC (Southern African Development Community), including Mauritius and Seychelles. Project components include that on Headstreams, which provides support to postgraduate studentships in SADC countries, mainly in hydrology.
Chapter
VI. Land resources
With FAO the principal agency within the UN system for this chapter of the Mauritius Strategy,
UNESCO’s main contribution to work on land resources is through its various scientific programmes and projects and through capacity building activities at different levels. Housing natural and social sciences under one roof, the Organization promotes multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the wise use of natural resources and to the improved understanding of human-environment relations. Among the cross cutting themes relevant to land resources management is that of local and indigenous knowledge systems. Promoting integrated ecosystem approaches to the conservation and sustainable management of land, water and biodiversity is a major goal of the programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB) and its World Network of Biosphere Resreves (see Chapter IX, Biodiversity resources) .
One of the main activities within the CSI-piloted cross-cutting project, Small Islands Voice, relates to community visioning, whereby communities, aided by their governments, plan and implement their development visions for the future. In Palau, community visioning is closely related to land use planning, and in July 2006 an inter-regional session on progress in community visioning was organized at the Islands of the World IX conference in Maui, Hawaii.
Chapter
VII. Energy resources
The main focus for UNESCO work on renewable energy is provided by the Organization’s programmes in the basic and engineering sciences, and more particularly in its involvement in the scientific underpinnings of efforts for harnessing clean energy sources. This work was boosted in the 1990s by the World Solar Summit process (1993-1995). As part of this process, a series of learning materials in engineering sciences was prepared in cooperation with the International Technology University, including modules on new and renewable energy.
Furthering renewable energy technologies as a tool for sustainable development has subsequently provided the focus of UNESCO’s contribution to the United Nations World Solar Programme (1996-2005). Capacity building aspects include the Global Renewable Energy and Training Programme (GREET). Other component activities include support to the development of ‘solar villages’ and other high priority national projects on renewable energies. Examples in Barbados include the installation of solar photovoltaic systems for making ice at fishing villages, for lighting at governmental headquarters and at Harrison’s Cave (the island’s most popular tourist attraction), and for computer laboratories at local high schools.
At the regional level, support is provided to the
promotion of sustainable energy in Pacific island countries, which focuses on
training and research in engineering science and technology, in particular
renewable energy applications and appropriate community technology. Joint
UNESCO-UNDP activities involve cooperation with a range of national bodies and
regional organizations, including the South Pacific Applied Geoscience
Commission (SOPAC) and the University of the South Pacific (USP). Recent and
ongoing activities include support to a national energy policy and strategic
action plan for Tokelau, a feasibility study on power options for 24-hour power
for Apolima Island (Samoa), technical assistance to grid-connected wind power
on Niue and the increased use of renewable energies in the Cook Islands.
Experience in the Pacific has also been central in
the elaboration and testing of a UNESCO toolkit of learning and teaching
materials on solar photovoltaics, comprising a technical training manual and a
companion volume for teachers. Related training and information materials
include a multi-authored technical guide on geothermal energy and geothermal
exploitation, with each contributing author addressing a specific area relating
to the uses of geothermal energy, effects on communities, and economic and
regulatory aspects. Among the materials for non-technical audiences is a set of
videos with accompanying booklet on the history and prospects of renewable energy
in the Pacific Islands.
Among the international NGOs which work closely with UNESCO, the International Scientific Council for Island Development (INSULA) has a strong programme on renewable energy, in Europe and the eastern Atlantic in particular. This work includes the organization of international conferences and the diffusion of conference publications and other information materials, such as those related to an Island Solar Summit (Tenerife) and a Euro-Caribbean conference on sustainable energies (St Lucia). Several issues of INSULA’s International Journal of Island Affairs have been focused on renewable energy, such as that on policies and strategies for desalination and renewable energies. Other INSULA-sponsored activities include technical support to renewable energy projects at the field level, such as a European Union supported project on promoting energy self-sufficiency for El Hierro in the Canary Islands (designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2002).
The Small Islands Voice global internet forum, which focuses on the general public in small islands with more than 45,000 addresses, ran a discussion on renewable energy in the second half of 2005. The public’s interest and responses to alternative sources of energy was considerable.
Chapter
VIII. Tourism resources
Promoting improved tourism practices is a concern at many World Heritage sites as well as biosphere reserves (see Chapter IX, Biodiversity resources, below). Recent work on the effects of tourism development projects on the inscribed values of individual sites include a project on the impact of tourism on the wildlife of the Galápagos Islands, and the preparation of a practical manual on managing tourism at World Heritage sites. In 2005-2006, tourism has featured in a number of national strategy workshops and various regional activities within the World Heritage Programme for SIDS, for example the prospects for ecotourism in Pacific island countries and training in tourism management for Caribbean heritage professionals.
A number of individual World Heritage sites and biosphere reserves are using the International Guidelines on Sustainable Tourism -- prepared under the aegis of UNEP and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) -- to promote sustainable tourism projects at the field level. The Tour Operators’ Initiative for Sustainable Tourism Development (a joint initiative of UNEP, UNESCO, WTO and tour operators) aims to create synergy between tour operators who share a common goal to develop and implement tools and practices that improve the environmental, social and cultural sustainability of tourism.
Tourism is a recurrent concern
in assessments of indicators – environmental, socio-economic and governance –
for integrated coastal management, as part of the IOC programme on Integrated
Coastal Area Management. Tourism features prominently in several sources of
ocean information. Thus ‘tourism’ is addressed in over 7,000 documents
accessible through the OceanPortal directory of ocean data and information
related web-sites, which contains more than 4,000 URLs.
The regional Caribbean project YouthPATH (Youth Poverty Alleviation
through Tourism and Heritage, see also Chapter
XVI , National and regional enabling environments) uses heritage tourism
to empower young people to achieve economic advancement and self-esteem. The
objective is to train young people in poor rural communities in the development
and documentation of cultural and heritage sites. Sites in six Caribbean island
countries are currently taking part. The intention is that these sites will
become centres of national and international tourism, and thus generate income,
reduce poverty and contribute to community development. Sites include villages
settled by freed Africans rescued from ships engaged in illegal slave trading,
an area demonstrating the history of estate life, and the nesting grounds of
endangered leatherback turtles.
Tourism in small-island situations has featured in the web-based forum on wise coastal practices, with contributors addressing such issues as the ‘self-destruct theory of tourism’, the social effects of tourism, viewing tourism as a cultural experience, conservation and tourism, and mass market versus up-scale tourism. Exchanges of experience and opinion within the Small Islands Voice initiative (see Chapter X , Transport and communication, below) have addressed diverse aspects of tourism development in small-island settings, including qualitative differences between local and foreign investments in tourism infrastructures.
Chapter
IX. Biodiversity resources
UNESCO’s contribution to efforts for
promoting the conservation and sustainable use of island biodiversity have
included support to the participation of SIDS
in two complementary international initiatives for the conservation of
biological diversity (Convention for the Protection of the World’s Natural and
Cultural Heritage and the World Network of Biosphere Reserves) as well as
studies on marine living resources within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission (IOC). In these and other fields, collaborative activities are
carried out in partnership with the Convention on Biological Diversity and a
range of international conventions, agreements and organizations.
World
Heritage Convention. At its twenty ninth session
in July 2005, the World Heritage Committee approved the World Heritage
Programme for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the World Heritage
Marine Programme, with corresponding budgets financed through the World
Heritage Fund.
For the Caribbean, in February 2004, a conference was held in St Lucia on the development of a Caribbean Action Plan in World Heritage. This conference was both the culmination of a series of World Heritage expert meetings and training activities undertaken in the region from 1995 onwards, and the transition to a more comprehensive Caribbean Action Plan for the next ten years. Among the key components is the Caribbean Capacity Building Programme, aimed at increasing the capacity and expertise of Caribbean States Parties to enable full protection and management of present World Heritage sites and to identify new potential sites and protected areas.
In the Pacific region, the Action Plan for the Implementation of the World Heritage-Pacific 2 Programme
(‘Pacific 2009’) provides the overall framework for development of field
activities. Component activities in 2005-2006 have included support to World
Heritage National Strategy Workshops held in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia
(November 2005), Koror, Palau (November 2005), Papua
New Guinea (March 2006) and Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands (March 2006).
In terms of capacity
building, a workshop of cultural and natural heritage professionals from Niue,
Samoa and Tonga (Apia, Samoa, April 2006) focused on the preparation of
Tentative Lists and World Heritage nominations. And educational activities at the level of young people
have included the diffusion and use of ‘Our Pacific Heritage: The Future in
Young Hands’, an educational resource kit for teachers, prepared in cooperation
with the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and designed to introduce
World Heritage education into classroom teaching.
A related initiative is the World Heritage Marine Programme, including three pilot projects each containing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and small islands: Central Pacific Islands and Atolls, Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape and Southern Caribbean Islands Group. Among activities in 2006, a Caribbean Regional Training Workshop on Marine World Heritage (St Lucia, February-March ) aimed at training personnel from national authorities and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in recognizing and protecting marine World Heritage values in the Caribbean. Further background is provided in a listing of World Heritage sites with significant marine components.
Other pipeline activities include capacity-building in heritage conservation (e.g. training workshops and study visits in different SIDS regions) and building knowledge of potential World Heritage through such activities as the mapping of biodiversity hotspots (e.g. in the Pacific).
Using Biosphere Reserves to Promote Biodiversity Conservation in SIDS. As part of the Programme of Man and the Biosphere (MAB), the World Network of Biosphere Reserves comprises (in mid-2006) 482 sites in 102 countries and territories, including Cuba, Dominica, Mauritius, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and US Virgin Islands. At best, biosphere reserves are sites of excellence to explore and demonstrate approaches to conservation and sustainable development on a regional scale, with associated research, monitoring, training and education and the involvement of local people as the driving force for conservation.
In June 2005, the first two biosphere reserves in Pacific
island countries were approved by the MAB Bureau: Utwe
(Federated States of Micronesia) and Ngaremeduu (Palau). The two sites are ground-breaking not only in being the first of
their kind in the sub-region, but in their being entirely locally conceived and
driven. In both sites, the emphasis is on
community-level approaches to conservation and sustainable development of
coastal-marine ecosystems as well as land areas. Support to the development of
both sites has been provided through the ASPACO initiative (Asia-Pacific
Co-operation for the Sustainable Use of Renewable Natural Resources in
Biosphere Reserves and Similar Managed Areas), while the Small Islands Voice
global internet discussion forum reportedly played an essential role in
initiating the process for the establishment of the Micronesia site.
In 2006, a proposal for a new site in the Federated States of Micronesia (Ant) will be examined at the next session of the International Co-ordinating Council for the MAB Programme in October. Furthermore, four new sites are under preparation in Dominica, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. Biosphere reserves as a tool for biodiversity conservation in Cape Verde were discussed at a national workshop held in Praia in late 2005, in association with the launch of the second national environmental action plan.
IOC and Marine Biodiversity. Within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), work on marine biota and marine biodiversity includes collaborative assessments of such communities and groups as coral reefs, benthic fauna and harmful marine algae. Among the products of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network -- cosponsored by UNEP, the World Bank, IUCN and the IOC-- is the biennial ‘Status of Coral Reefs of the World’ (most recent version published in 2005) and an assessment of the status of coral reefs in individual countries affected by the 26 December 2004 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis, including the Maldives and Seychelles.
Among other
IOC projects is that on ‘Biodiversity and distribution of megafaunal
assemblages in the abyssal nodule province of the eastern equatorial Pacific:
management of the impacts of deep seabed mining’ (overview of project findings
to be published in 2006 in the IOC Technical Notes series). The IOC is also
cooperating with various partners in a European project, launched in April
2005, on Hotspot Ecosystem Research on
the Margins of European Seas (HERMES). Also with the emerging Census of Marine
Life initiative and its Ocean Biogeographic Information System. And in August
2005, Mauritius hosted the second marine diversity training course organized
within the Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa. (ODINAFRICA).
Organizational Linkages and Partnerships. Biodiversity resources in small island situations figure prominently in the programmes and projects of a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other bodies with formal links with UNESCO. Examples include the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands , the international programme of biodiversity science Diversitas , and ETI (Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification) Bioinfomatics based at the University of Amsterdam. Another emerging network is the Global Island Partnership, which brings together a growing network of political leaders, international and regional organizations and donor agencies, with a view to supporting the implementation of the Island Biodiversity Programme of Work of the CBD.
Chapter
X. Transport and communication
Access to and use of new information and communication technologies and the development of community multimedia centres are two actions in the Mauritius Strategy that are already reflected in UNESCO’s programmes and projects. The main contribution of UNESCO to the implementation of Chapter X of the Mauritius Strategy comes through the work of its Communication and Information Sector, and its two intergovernmental programmes: the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) and the Information for All Programme (IFAP).
World Summit on the
Information Society. Modern information and communications technologies figure
prominently in continuing discussions associated with the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) and its two summit meetings in Geneva (December
2003) and Tunis (November 2005). UNESCO’s contribution is rooted in its mandate to promote the free
exchange of ideas and knowledge
Within that constitutional mandate, UNESCO’s principal concerns during the WSIS process (access to content, cultural diversity, freedom of expression, knowledge societies, investments in science and technology, ...) are all of special interest to small-island nations. In turn, UNESCO has been providing support to island countries and organizations in regions such as the Pacific, in raising the profile of their regions in respect to the summits in Geneva and Tunis. Among sources of information, ‘Towards Knowledge Societies’ provides an Action Directory of UNESCO activities related to the WSIS. And for the Tunis summit in November 2005, UNESCO’s contribution included the organization of three parallel events building on the concept of ‘knowledge societies’, including a high level round table on ‘Shaping the Future through Knowledge’.
In terms of the summit process itself, some of the small-island
states are active in using the WSIS to generate visibility for their cultural,
socio-economic and geographic specificity, which requires special ICT
solutions. Some SIDS have made
remarkable progress in applying ICTs to development needs. But there is a big
gap between the most and least advanced countries. Much remains to be done,
notably in terms of affordable and accessible connectivity and local content.
Media Development. Efforts to strengthen the capacities of communication institutions, and to improve the training of media professionals, include support to a women’s community radio initiative in Fiji. Providing background information to help reporters has included the release in September 2005 of a new edition of the ‘Disaster Information Kit for the Caribbean Media’ , revised through a partnership between the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) and UNESCO. Through the IPDC, 19 new projects are being implemented in SIDS, totalling US$497,000. They include projects on media law reform in Cape Verde, community radio production in Timor-Leste, improving the technical quality of ‘The Pacific Way’, and training for the digital newsroom at Radio St Lucia.
Community Multimedia Centres. Among other activities for encouraging community empowerment and addressing the digital divide, Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) combine community broadcasting with internet and related technologies. Pilot projects include a regional initiative in the Caribbean, where the aim is to transform existing community radio stations into CMCs, complete with added facilities such as PCs and a combination of fax, telephone, e-mail and internet services. Initial participants include radio stations in Barbados, Cuba, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, new CMCs are being established, e.g. in Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (in 2006). In Haiti, one IPDC-supported project seeks to improve the access to information of rural poor. In the Pacific, the People First Network Project (Pfnet) in the Solomon Islands is an ICT development project that supports peace building and poverty reduction through an improved access to information and increased communication capacity in rural areas. A CMC Handbook Guide is available on ‘How to Get Started and Keep Going’.
Local e-Governance. Among the applications
of ICTs is in local governance, where their use can improve local management
and administration, and also lead to greater participation and transparency in
local government. Among the needs is to improve the knowledge, skills and
capacities of people in governmental and non-governmental agencies and
organizations in the use of ICTs in
governance and government. It is within such a context that UNESCO’s work on
building capacities in e-governance is
unfurling, with initial training activities in Africa and the Caribbean.
A specialized course on local e-governance
in the Caribbean has been initiated by the University of the West Indies
Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC) and the UNESCO Office for the
English-speaking islands of the Caribbean in Kingston. The course is being
offered twice a year, with a first such course (mid-September to late-November
2005) comprised of four modules: Local electronic administration; Local
electronic government; Electronic democracy; Future directions.
And at the national level, UNESCO seeks to provide support to Member States in
the use of ICTs to enhance government services and promote transparent and
effective government. An example was the launching in February 2006 of the
official website of the Solomon Islands government.
Preserving Documentary Heritage. The memory of the peoples of the world is of vital importance in preserving cultural identities, in linking past and present and in shaping the future. The documentary heritage in libraries and archives constitutes a major part of that memory and reflects the diversity of peoples, languages and cultures. But that memory is fragile. UNESCO, therefore, takes actions to help in the preservation of documentary heritage. Recent (2005-2006) examples are the digitization of 300 documents in the Bibliothèque des Pères du St Esprit in Port-au-Prince (Haiti), the sound archives of Samoa’s history and heritage held by the Samoa Broadcasting Corporation and the archive at the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation.
In June 2005, inscriptions from Cuba (Fondo José Martí Pérez) and Trinidad and Tobago (C.L.R. James Collection) were among 29 documentary collections in 24 countries added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The next meeting of the Latin America-Caribbean Regional Committee for the Memory of the World Programme will be held in Barbados in October 2006.
Connecting Island Communities: Nurturing
Telecentre Initiatives. Encouraging collaboration between telecentre
initiatives is among the challenges being addressed in
the development of knowledge societies in the region. This was one of the
recommendations of a workshop held in Brisbane in December 2004. One follow-up action concerns the
launching in February 2006 of the Pacific Telecentre Online Community (PacTOC).
The aim is to give a voice to grassroots telecentre projects, so they can share
experience and expertise with each other and the world.
Islanders Voicing Their Concerns...Internet Discussion Forums. ICTs provide the means for organizing internet
discussion forums of various kinds. Among UNESCO’s cross-cutting projects, the
CSI-led Small Islands Voice (SIV) provides the general public in islands with
‘a space to speak’. Every two weeks, islanders and other people concerned with
island affairs share their experiences about issues spanning environment,
development, society, economy and culture. A small team of moderators edit
contributions before they are posted on the forum site, and in addition sent as
e-mail (thanks to the collaboration of Scotland On Line) to over 45,000
individuals connected with the forum. A wide range of issues have been addressed in discussion threads in
2005-2006, including Community planning in a post-tsunami world, Water supply
and conservation, Saving for the future, Alternatives to rising oil prices, Viability of tiny islands in the 21st
Century, Commercial whaling.
Youth are involved in a related forum, the SIV Youth Internet Forum, where students aged 10-18 from 50 schools in 14 islands in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific regions are discussing in an unmoderated forum issues such as ecotourism, gang violence, and revitalizing island cultures.
Chapter
XI. Science and technology
UNESCO has a
long-standing commitment to supporting SIDS in strengthening the science and
technology base of their economies and in building resilience in island
societies. With science and technology explicitly recognized in the Mauritius
Strategy as a cross-cutting issue for all sectors for sustainable development,
many technical fields are involved, ranging from renewable energy and natural
disaster mitigation to coastal area management and biodiversity conservation.
Activites too are wide ranging – from individual study grants and group training to the strengthening of institutions and the testing and diffusion of educational and learning materials. Examples of specific projects include: a science-media project in the Caribbean with the University of the West Indies; support to Cariscience initiative of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), including a meeting in Port of Spain in May 2006 on ‘Harnessing Science and Technology for Caribbean Development’; work on science communication in the Pacific, in partnership with the Centre for Public Awareness of Science of the Australian National University, including the launch in May 2005 of a Register of Pacific Scientists.
Learning materials include a technical training toolkit on solar photovoltaic systems, based on experience gained over several decades in introducing rural electrification in small, scattered communities in the Pacific. Small-islands feature in several chapters of the virtual Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Centres in Cape Verde, Comoros and Mauritius are among those participating in a worldwide programme on the use of microscience kits as a means for putting experimentation back into the school curriculum. A project in Papua New Guinea on field trials of solar powered water treatment for remote communities was among the prize winners in May 2005 of the Mondialogo Engineering Awards, a joint initiative of DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO.
Chapter
XIV. Sustainable capacity development and education for sustainable development
With education and capacity building forming the core of UNESCO’s work, there are multiple strands to the Organization’s substantive contribution to this part of the Mauritius Strategy. These strands include its priority concern with basic education and its lead role in the UN-wide, decade-long initiative of education for sustainable development. Also, work in such fields as promoting technical and vocational education, improving the quality of education, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by new information and communication technologies, and tailoring education and training to the special needs of particular groups within society. Crucial to these diverse contributions are the UNESCO Field Offices in the different SIDS regions, as well as specialized centres and institutes and several networks of cooperation (some well-established, others new).
Education for Sustainable Development. Early 2005 saw the formal launching of the UN Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development (DESD), with UNESCO (as lead agency) and a suite of
partners and collaborators working together to put into action the International Implementation Scheme for the
Decade. SIDS have a special role in the Decade, as reflected in one of the information briefs released as part of
the preparations for the DESD.
In terms of implementation, a process of preparing and implementing regional strategies for the
DESD is underway.
For the Asia-Pacific region, the UNESCO-Bangkok Office has facilitated the elaboration of a regional implementation strategy, which was launched at Nagoya (Japan) in June 2005. A situational analysis includes entries on 15 Pacific SIDS, and provides a snapshot view of the extent to which ESD has been integrated across various educational settings, including issues involved in moving from environmental education to ESD. A working paper ‘Asia-Pacific Regional Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development’ serves to help guide the implementation of ESD throughout the Asia-Pacific region. In terms of follow-up, a Pacific Consultative Meeting on Education for Sustainable Development (Apia, Samoa, March 2006) has provided an occasion for Pacific ESD practitioners and experts to develop a collaborative mechanism for the UNDESD in the Pacific islands region.
In the Caribbean, in October 2005, Kingston
(Jamaica) was the venue for a Regional Conference on ‘Education for Sustainable Development -- New Approaches for
the Future’ . The conference was organized by the UNESCO Office for the
English-speaking Caribbean islands in Kingston and the University of the West
Indies, in association with other agencies.
Objectives and challenges included the nurturing of partnerships among
formal and non-formal educators within the region, and the integration of
social, cultural and economic aspects into existing environmental education
activities and contexts. Among the follow-up activities was a two-day meeting
in June 2006 on ESD in the northern Caribbean, involving principals and
lecturers of teacher education institutions in Belize, Jamaica and the Turks
& Caicos Islands.
In the south-western Indian Ocean region, the Decade provided an overall umbrella for a regional symposium at the University of Mauritius in May 2006, organized by the Indian Ocean Commission and the project ARPEGE (‘Appui Régional pour la Promotion de l’Education et de la Gestion de l’Environnement’). This symposium was organized with an aim of sharing the practices, reflections and research in education relating to the environment for sustainable development, resulting in particular from the experiences of the ARPEGE project.
Among other launches involving SIDS, in September 2005, Bahrain
hosted the regional launch of the DESD for the Arab region. Participants from
individual SIDS in the AIMS[2]
region also figured among the participants at launches for the Mediterranean
region (Athens, Greece, November 2005) and Africa (Libreville, Gabon, March
2006).
And at the interregional level, in February 2006 in Paris,
researchers from Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius were among twenty-eight
participants at a joint UNU-UNESCO
workshop on ‘Setting the Stage for a
Strategic Research Agenda for the UNDESD’.
These various activities build on long-standing UNESCO interest and involvement in promoting environmental education and education for sustainable development – a synopsis of which is posted on the websection on ‘UNESCO implementing Mauritius Strategy’.
Specific tools are being developed for ESD. Through collaboration between the Natural Science and Education
sectors, approaches focusing on positive environmental action based on sound
science are being developed for youth and communities. One such initiative, Sandwatch, aims at encouraging
the effective response of young people to their coastal and marine environment. Sandwatch training activities
have included field workshops held in Jamaica and in Fiji in late 2005. A manual, ‘Introduction to Sandwatch: an educational
tool for sustainable development’, was released in September 2005 as CSI Papers
19, a dedicated Sandwatch website was launched by CSI in April 2006 and an
electronic newsletter started in June 2006. A related initiative, RiverCare,
focuses on rivers and is being tested in Dominica in the second half of 2006.
Priority to Basic Education: Education for All. Consistent with the substance of para 72 (b)
of the Mauritius Strategy, basic education is an absolute priority in UNESCO’s
programme. Each year, the EFA Global Monitoring Report assesses where the world
stands on its commitment to provide a basic education to all children, youth
and adults by 2015. Among the series of annual assessments of
progress at national, regional and international levels that for 2005 was
subtitled ‘The Quality Imperative’, that for 2006 ‘Literacy for Life’. Data
from individual SIDS (e.g. Comoros, Dominican Republic, Maldives, Mauritius,
Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles) are incorporated in composite
(multi-country) figures and tables addressing such issues as public education as a percentage of total
government expenditure and gender disparities at the end of primary education.
Extensive data on Education for All in SIDS are also accessible through a search tool on the Global Monitoring Report website. Within these overarching international frameworks and data-sources, strategies and plans have been developed for implementing EFA at national, subregional and regional levels.
For the Pacific region, UNESCO’s Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok spearheads programmes and coordinates responses towards the achievement of the goals of Education for All. Among more finely focused activities, a regional training workshop on education reporting for journalists and media educators was held at Nadi (Fiji) in August 2005. Another regional workshop on inclusive education (Apia, Samoa, November 2005) was organized on the theme of ‘Getting All Children Into School and Helping Them Learn’. This workshop was held in conjunction with a planning meeting of EFA Pacific Coordinators.
In the AIMS region, for the Maldives, a regional EFA workshop (Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 2006) provided a springboard for the country to launch and organize the Mid-Decade Assessment, taking place globally in 2006-2007. More generally, the UNESCO Offices in Bangkok and New Delhi have been supporting the Maldives’ post tsunami recovery efforts in education, including activities in such fields as inclusive education (in cooperation with UNICEF) and community learning centres. Elsewhere, fields of technical support include the training of trainers for the university in Comoros (through a Japanese funds-in-trust project) and distance education and evaluation of educational reform in Seychelles. In Timor-Leste, a project is underway for establishing three model Community Learning Centres, as part of work on capacity-building in non-formal education.
The UNESCO Office in Kingston acts as a
catalyst for resource mobilization for EFA in the Caribbean. Activities have included a
seminar on ‘Building EFA Capacities among Jamaican Media Practitioners’
(Kingston, Jamaica, December 2005), a regional EFA
media training workshop (St Lucia, February 2006) and a Caribbean policy
forum on early childhood (with the Caribbean Community, CARICOM). In working towards greater gender equality in EFA, research has
been carried out on drop-out from the educational system in Trinidad & Tobago and other countries in
the Caribbean region, in cooperation with the Centre for Gender and Development
Studies of the University of the West Indies, as a part of the larger CARICOM
project. In Haiti, support to national capacity building on EFA has been
provided through Japanese Funds-in-Trust and the World Bank.
In supporting
teachers and educational personnel, a UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust project
on Human Resource Development in
Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Administration and Material Distribution –
Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE), has
been re-launched, with an aim to enable five participating universities in the
Caribbean to better develop and deliver quality distance education programmes
using ICTs. Support is
being provided to national capacity building projects involving distance
education and ICTs in Cape Verde, Mauritius, Sao Tome & Principe and other
small-island nations. Higher education institutions in Cyprus and Malta are
among those taking part in the Avicenna virtual campus to promote ICT-assisted
open distance learning in the Mediterranean region.
Other Educational and Capacity-Building
Activities.
Among challenges receiving considerable and increased attention in many
SIDS is Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), in view of the
difficulties faced by many young people on leaving school in finding
employment. One recent initiative of UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning
(COL) is to promote entrepreneurship among those involved in the informal economy. Country-based projects to revitalize TVET
include those on the revision of Bahrain’s commercial education curriculum
and integrating skills development in
Education for All in Samoa. In the Pacific,
other recent and ongoing activities
include a training module on ‘Learning about Small Business’, a regional
forum on improving the quality of technical and vocational education and
training, and support to the Pacific Association of Technical and Vocational
Education and Training.
Within the Associated Schools Project Network
(ASPnet) activities in SIDS include the testing of such materials as a
multimedia teacher education programme ‘Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable
Future’ and a young person’s guide to the
World Heritage (jointly with the World Heritage Centre). The Transatlantic
Slave Trade Education Project is another network initiative.
At the higher education level , the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs
Programme serves as a prime means of
capacity-building through the transfer of knowledge and sharing in a spirit of
solidarity with and between developing countries. Among emerging activities is
that for providing support to the University Consortium of Small Island States – in particular through a cooperative programme between the University of West Indies (as
Secretariat to the Consortium) and UNESCO. Options for setting-up an Institute for Small
Island States at the University of the Bahamas is another proposal under
discussion.
UNESCO Institutes and Centres for Education provide an important means for
cooperating with SIDS in tackling education problems of
particular concern. One example was intensive group training on the
reform and governance of technical and vocational education and training,
organized in September 2005 in St Lucia
by the International Institute for Educational Planning
(IIEP). 'Managing university-enterprise relationships in the Caribbean region'
was the focus of a distance education course which took place from November
2005 to February 2006. In mid-November 2005, the University of the West Indies
in Mona (Jamaica) hosted a sub-regional meeting on higher education in the
Caribbean, organized by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education
in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC). Advisory missions to individual SIDS have
included that on evaluation of educational reform in Seychelles (February
2006). Projects of
the Montreal-based UNESCO Institute for Statistics include that for
building capacity for statistics collecting and reporting in the Pacific
region.
Chapter
XVI. National and regional enabling environments
‘National and regional enabling environments’ provides the main focus for the contribution of UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences (SHS) sector to the Mauritius Strategy. During the course of 2005, a discussion paper was prepared and refined, as a means of combining collective expertise and examining agendas for action with country-level partners. The proposal is to develop an integrated research model via two community-based action research initiatives in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
These action research programmes will not only promote and document factors that contribute to sustainable development and sustainable living in SIDS, but also inquire into, support and build (where necessary) processes and institutions that can supply highest quality information in a useful manner to relevant policy-making processes.
Coastal resource management is the initial thematic focus for the Caribbean, with women, youth and poverty the initial thematic focus in the Pacific. A 30-page draft strategy document on ‘ Sustainable Development and SIDS’ provided the starting point for discussions at a planning meeting in May 2006 in Port-of-Spain (Trinidad & Tobago) on UNESCO’s future work in the Social and Human Sciences in the Caribbean. The meeting took advantage of the presence in Port-of-Spain of many intellectuals and researchers attending the Annual Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association.
Another activity
contributing to ‘National and regional enabling environments’ is Small Islands
Voice (SIV).
The focus is on sustainable living and development
activities at the local level through ‘Communities in Action’, and sharing of
these experiences interregionally, with the SIV Global Internet Forum and SIV
Youth Internet Forum providing
islanders with a place to speak and act.
Relating particularly to para 74(h) of the
Mauritius Strategy is ‘Youth Visioning for Island Living’, an intersectoral,
inter-regional activity led jointly by the Coasts and Small Islands (CSI)
Platform and the Section for Youth and involving many other, non-UNESCO
partners. Following
the Mauritius meeting, youth in more than 40 SIDS and other island territories
are implementing follow-up activities. Projects
range from small-business training in Antigua and Barbuda to HIV/AIDS awareness
through sports in Cape Verde, and from helping disabled youth in Mauritius to
strengthening a youth organization in Fiji. Several other projects will start
during the course of 2006. As an ensemble, these projects relate to many parts
of the Mauritius Strategy, which includes several calls on the need to involve
youth in working for the sustainable development of SIDS (e.g. paras 14, 15,
72, in addition to para 74(h)). These calls are also reflected in the
Secretary-General’s October 2005 report to the General Assembly.
More generally within UNESCO’s youth activities, young
people from SIDS are taking an increasingly active role in the Youth Forums
associated with successive sessions of the General Conference, with 21 youth
from SIDS participating in the most recent forum in October 2005. UNESCO inputs
to the Pacific Youth Festival (Tahiti, July 2006) focused on education for
sustainable development, and on the mobilization of networks and enhancement of
ownership in the region.
The regional Caribbean project, YouthPATH, uses heritage tourism to empower young people to achieve economic advancement and self-esteem, and thereby contributes to several chapters in the Mauritius Strategy. The objective is to train young people to utilize innovative skills for sustainable employment in the area of heritage tourism, environmental conservation and preservation of heritage areas. Sites in six Caribbean island countries have been established, including villages settled by freed Africans rescued from ships engaged in illegal slave trading, historic sugar plantation buildings, and Amerindian villages with a nesting sea turtle beach.
Chapter
XVII. Health
UNESCO’s contribution mainly relates to the
HIV/AIDS pandemic and encouraging actions
to combat complacency, challenge stigmatization, overcome the tyranny of
silence, and promote more caring attitudes. In cooperation with UNAIDS co-sponsors,
Member States, civil society partners and the private sector, UNESCO’s
contribution to the fight against the pandemics concentrates on integrating
HIV/AIDS preventive education into the global development agenda and national
policies, adapting preventive education to the diversity of needs and contexts,
and encouraging responsible behaviour and reducing vulnerability.
In the Caribbean, the UNESCO Office in Kingston has focused on achieving consensus among Governments and other stakeholders, developing a blueprint for the region on how the educational sector should respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, establishing partnerships for action in this field, and building capacity in Member States. The HIV/AIDS Clearinghouse site provides access to Caribbean-related resources and facilitates sharing of information on key events in the region and internationally.
Among regular sources of information are quarterly reports to the United Nations HIV/AIDS groups in the Caribbean and other partners. Access is also provided to earlier activities such as the setting-up of the first UNESCO-Commonwealth Regional Chair in Education and AIDS at the University of the West Indies, the Graffiti Wall initiative at the University of Technology Jamaica, and cooperation with the Caribbean Publishers Network in the publication and diffusion of instructional materials in response to HIV/AIDS. In the framework of a Japanese Funds-in-Trust project, UNESCO is supporting HIV/AIDS Response Teams in the Ministry of Education of Jamaica. And in April 2005, a workshop was held in Trinidad and Tobago to design a new web-based discussion and learning portal on HIV/AIDS for Caribbean young people.
In the Asia-Pacific Region, the HIV/AIDS Coordination and School Health Unit in UNESCO-Bangkok provides technical and financial assistance to support country- and regional-level projects on HIV/AIDS and education, culture and social science. A related initiative connects stakeholders engaged in planning, developing, implementing and advocating for adolescent reproductive and sexual health programmes and policies in Asia and the Pacific. Support is being provided to a range of national projects addressing educational and communication dimensions of health issues. An example in the Maldives is a review of national experiences in planning and implementing communication and advocacy strategies for adolescent reproductive and sexual health.
As part of the Youth Visioning for Island
Living initiative, youth are
implementing health-related projects, particularly relating to HIV/AIDS awareness,
e..g. in Cape Verde, Fiji, Solomon Islands,
and St. Kitts and Nevis. Another project, in Mauritius, is contributing to the integration of
disabled youth into society.
Chapter
XVIII. Knowledge management and information for decision-making
The contribution of UNESCO to
Chapter XVIII relates to the generation of new knowledge in many technical and
non-technical fields as well as to the transmission and use of knowledge
through education and communication.
As such, other chapter headings provide access to many activities that also concern ‘Knowledge management and information for decision-making’. Included here are many of the entries relating to communication and ICTs, science and technology, education and capacity building, enabling environments, and so on. More specific examples include contributions to early warning systems (Chapter II), community multimedia centres and the participation of all in the emerging global information society (Chapter X) and distance education (Chapter XIV).
An idea of the range of activities and approaches that are involved is provided by a sampling of projects supported through UNESCO’s Participation Programme (see also Chapter XX – Implementation, below): Reinforcement of capacities of documentation centre in Comoros; Support to computerization at the national school of technical libraries in Cuba; Re-establishment of national system of mobile libraries under the Department of Culture in the Dominican Republic; Introduction to keyboarding (Grenada); Support to community knowledge centres in Malta; Setting-up of a documentation centre, library and video-tech for young people in Mauritius; Local area network connection among five private high schools in Palau; Feasibility study on internet connectivity and distance education in Tokelau; Strengthening data base capacity in educational planning units in Tonga.
Chapter
XIX. Culture
Worldwide, there is increasing recognition of the intrinsic importance of culture to all aspects of the sustainable living and development process, reflected for example in the debates of the World Commission on Culture and Development and its report ‘Our Creative Diversity’. In respect to Small Island Developing States, this widening recognition was reflected in the convening of a UNESCO-facilitated plenary panel on the ‘Role of Culture in the Sustainable Development of SIDS’ at the Mauritius International Meeting, and to the inclusion of ‘Culture’ in the updated Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of SIDS adopted in Mauritius.
From its side, since its founding some sixty years ago, UNESCO has strived to emphasize the cultural foundations of the human endeavour. In contributing to the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy, UNESCO draws on a set of standard-setting instruments in the cultural field, in promoting cultural pluralism and intercultural dialogue, the protection of the world’s tangible and intangible heritage, and the development of cultural enterprises.
International legal instruments that have been adopted by the Organization for protecting and promoting the world’s cultural heritage include Conventions on the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
In terms of actions in 2005 onwards, special emphasis is being given to encouraging the ratification by small-island nations of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. As part of this process, two of eight regional meetings in different regions of the world were held in February 2005 for Pacific States (Suva, Fiji) and Caribbean States (Roseau, Dominica). Four SIDS – Mauritius, Seychelles, Dominica and Cyprus – were among the 45 full-fledged States Parties which took part in the first session of the Convention’s General Assembly in Paris in late June 2006. Also noteworthy is that the first three Proclamations of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity included Masterpieces in five SIDS – Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Tonga and Vanuatu.
In the field of the tangible heritage, UNESCO’s actions focus on the identification, protection and preservation of the cultural and natural heritage considered to be of outstanding and universal value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Adopted by UNESCO in 1972, the Convention now has 167 States parties. The World Heritage List, which was created under this convention, today (in late June 2006) includes 812 sites -- 628 cultural, 160 natural and 24 mixed -- in 137 countries, including 23 sites in 11 SIDS New sites added to the World Heritage List in 2005 included Qal’at al-Bahrain Archaeological Site (Bahrain) and the Urban Centre of Cienfuegos (Cuba).
In terms of both cultural as well as natural sites, the World Heritage List contains relatively few sites in small island developing nations, and several measures are being taken to redress this imbalance, including the elaboration and development or regional initiatives such as the Caribbean Action Plan in World Heritage and the World Heritage Pacific Programme 2009.
In line with the recognized need to give further attention to the World Heritage in SIDS regions, at its 29th session in Durban (South Africa) in July 2005, the World Heritage Committee officially approved the SIDS Programme on World Heritage, including measures for the coordination of all matters pertaining to World Heritage conservation management and the initiation of projects thereto.
As flagged above under ‘Chapter IX. Biodiversity resources’, a series of World Heritage National Strategy Workshops have been held, in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (November 2005), Koror, Palau (November 2005), Papua New Guinea (March 2006), Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands (March 2006) and Trinidad and Tobago (August 2006).
At the regional level, a workshop in Port Vila (Vanuatu) in September 2005 examined serial and transboundary cultural heritage themes and sites in the Pacific. In terms of capacity building, a workshop of cultural and natural heritage professionals from Niue, Samoa and Tonga (Apia, Samoa, April 2006) focused on the preparation of Tentative Lists and World Heritage nominations. ‘Outstanding Universal Value, Authenticity and Integrity in a Caribbean context’ was the focus of a sub-regional conference in Barbados in May 2006. Preparatory assistance is being provided for the development of a potential transboundary site among Indian Ocean Islands linked to the Slave Route.
Cultural industries (cinema, music, publishing, etc.) are being
strengthened through the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, by promoting
respect for intellectual property rights and encouraging public-private
partnerships. Within the framework of the Global Alliance, poverty reduction
projects are being carried out in Fiji and Trinidad & Tobago (in
cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the
International Labour Organization), with related projects in Cuba, Haiti and
Jamaica.
In work on the remembrance
of the slave trade and its abolition, the travelling exhibition ‘Lest We
Forget: The Triumph over Slavery’ continued to be displayed in 2005, in Cape
Verde (January), Mauritius (January-February), Jamaica (March-April) and Barbados (August).
And among planned
activities at the inter-regional level is an expert workshop in Seychelles in
October 2006 on ‘Islands as Crossroads: Cultural Diversities in Small Islands’.
This activity is one result of the discussions during the plenary panel on
Culture at the Mauritius International Meeting in January 2005.
Assistance is also being provided to the development of cultural policies in SIDS, such as in an ongoing project in Comoros. Museum partnerships are being developed among SIDS in the Indian Ocean.
As part of the Youth Visioning for Island Living initiative, youth in Dominica are revitalizing their Creole culture and a cultural exchange between Seychelles and Dominica is scheduled for late 2006.
Chapter
XX. Implementation
UNESCO’s responses to many of the issues and challenges detailed
under Chapter XX of the Mauritius Strategy have been flagged in the preceding
paragraphs. Additional items follow.
Local and indigenous knowledge and small islands. In line with the call of para 84 (c) to protect intellectual property in SIDS (including traditional knowledge and folklore), and to recognize their value, are several activities within the intersectoral project on Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in a Global Society (LINKS). The LINKS project focuses on the interface between local and indigenous knowledge and the Millennium Development Goals of poverty eradication and environmental sustainability, stressing the importance of long-tested traditional knowledge systems that can enable communities to survive and sustain themselves in a changing world while maintaining environmental integrity.
Among activities relating to small islands are those on indigenous peoples and protected areas in the Surin islands of Thailand, on village-based marine resource management in Vanuatu and on an environmental encyclopedia of the Marovo Lagoon in the Solomon Islands. A CD-ROM on traditional ocean voyaging and navigation in the Pacific, launched in October 2005, serves as an educational tool illustrating the vitality of indigenous knowledge, know-how and identity, as well as giving local communities access to a selection of archival materials lodged in distant locations. In Vanuatu, a pilot scheme is underway for incorporating traditional knowledge in primary and secondary school curricula. Among projects launched in 2005-2006 is that on women’s knowledge of medicinal plants and traditional medicine in Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues and other Indian Ocean islands.
Access to and the provision of financial resources (paras 87-88). UNESCO’s Participation Programme provides direct assistance (including for emergencies) to initiatives undertaken by Member States and Associate Members, in line with priorities determined by the countries themselves. Though the levels of funds for individual projects may be modest in international terms, they may be especially important and useful in small countries. During the 2004-2005 biennium, over US$3.7 million was made available to more than 200 projects in SIDS. For 2006-2007, a first batch of approved Participation Programme requests includes 78 projects (totalling $1.4 million) in 27 individual SIDS and UNESCO Associate Members in oceanic regions.
As an ensemble, Participation Programme projects touch on many topics addressed in the SIDS Programme of Action. Examples from projects implemented in 2005 are digitizing radio transmission in Cape Verde, travelling heritage exhibit in Comoros, preservation of the oral heritage in the Cook Islands, establishment and operation of an Open University in Cyprus, capacity building for science teachers in Fiji, emergency assistance for Haitian educational infrastructures after flooding, foundation course for trade certification in Mauritius, Niue culture and language curriculum development, fostering responsible citizenship among children in St Kitts and Nevis, promoting life-long learning in St Vincent and the Grenadines, assessment of watershed aquifer systems in Trinidad and Tobago, development of cultural policy in Tuvalu.
Among approved projects in 2006 are those on developing the All Saints Community Learning Centre in Antigua and Barbuda, social conditions and health in Aruba, support to reform of secondary education in Bahrain, building-up a database and on-line resource of the flora of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, the digitalization of materials in the Fernando Ortiz library in the Institute of Literature and Linguistics in Cuba, the relations between social sciences and political decision-making in the Dominican Republic, support for on-line bachelor’s degrees in literacy studies in Grenada, an exhibition on Jamaican slave experience, purchase and procurement of equipment for water quality monitoring in Maldives, preserving and promoting traditional music in the Marshall Islands, phytosociological assessment of mangroves of Babeldaob Island in Palau, emergency assistance to Wau-Bululo flood victims in Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea, a joint schools science fair and industry exhibition in St Lucia, advanced training programme in educational planning and management in Seychelles, contributing to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in Tonga, upgrading the newsroom computer system of the Broadcasting and Television Corporation of Vanuatu.
Looking forward, it can be expected that many future proposals from small island countries within the Participation Programme will relate to actions in support of the Mauritius Strategy.
Capacity Development - Envisioning sustainable island living (para 90 (e)), Beyond the inter-regional internet discussions reported under Chapter X above, the intersectoral Small Islands Voice (SIV) initiative operated by CSI supports sustainable development activities at the local level through ‘Communities in Action’. Partnerships are encouraged and activities promoted in fields ranging from community visioning and planning in Palau and San Andrès, to waste management in Dominica, Fiji, Maldives and Seychelles. Small Islands Voice supports islands in their efforts to implement the Mauritius Strategy, as reflected in an inter-regional meeting held in July 2005 in Bequia (St Vincent and the Grenadines) to further plan relevant activities. And in late July 2006, at the Islands of the World IX Conference in Hawai’i, a UNESCO-supported session was held on ‘Community Visioning: A Strategy for Sustainable Island Living’. Representatives from Cook Islands, Hawai’i, Mauritius, Palau and San Andres Archipelago were among those taking part. Youth Visioning for Island Living is a related activity (see also ‘Youth Visioning for Island Living’ under Chapter XVI above).
This concept of ‘Sustainable
Island Living’ figures prominently is a number of joint activities between
UNESCO and civil society associations, with a view to bolstering the capacity
of civil society to contribute fully to sustainable development (para 90 (e)).
An example in the AIMS region is with a civil society initiative led by the
Mauritius-based non-governmental organization CEDREFI (Centre for
Documentation, Research and Training on the South West Indian Ocean).
Sustainable island living personalizes a process that enables everybody to
enjoy a decent living and a good quality of life in terms of satisfying their
needs (economic, social, ecological and cultural) and creates an enabling
environment for the future generation to fulfil its aspirations. In so doing, sustainable island living
addresses the control and distribution of resources and the decentralization of
decision-making. Furthermore, it is
based on core values such as a culture of partnership based on shared vision,
good governance, autonomy of the community, and participatory approaches. The intention is to build a solid foundation
on core issues and challenges. A
thorough analysis of stakeholders’ socio-cultural context, existing
vulnerabilities and potential for resilience is an essential step in the
process which ideally leads to an appropriate forum for multi-stakeholders
dialogue and decision-making.
Role of United Nations system (para 100). UNESCO’s contribution to the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy builds on its long-term involvement in programmes and projects specifically addressed to island environments, territories and societies and to the designation of the Coasts and Small Islands (CSI) Platform as Focal Point for SIDS/Mauritius Strategy Implementation. As part of its contribution to the Mauritius International Meeting of January 2005, a substantive review was made of the Organization’s recent, ongoing and planned activities relating to sustainable development in small islands, with special emphasis on SIDS. A digest of that review was prepared as a 48-page illustrated booklet for distribution in paper form at the Mauritius meeting in January 2005 and later in electronic format with many hotlinks.
Subsequently, in March 2005, an Intersectoral Information Meeting for Permanent Delegates and Observers provided an occasion within UNESCO to exchange views on the Mauritius International Meeting and its immediate follow-up. As indicated above, in July 2005, an interregional Small Islands Voice (cross-cutting project) planning meeting was held in St Vincent and the Grenadines in the framework of Mauritius Strategy implementation. In September 2005, a six-page booklet ‘Embarking on Mauritius Strategy Implementation’ was published by UNESCO, providing glimpses of the Organization’s initial activities in support of the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy. And in October 2005, the General Conference adopted a resolution on ‘Programme of action for the sustainable development of small island developing States (SIDS): further implementation’.
More recently, a special websection has been set-up, reflecting UNESCO-wide activities and events contributing to the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy (http://www.unesco.org/en/sids), with the information grouped according to the twenty chapters of the Mauritius Strategy. The websection also incorporates a chronological listing of planned, present and past UNESCO(-cosponsored) events and activities contributing to sustainable living and development in SIDS, with indications provided for each activity and event on the links with particular chapters of the Mauritius Strategy.
In sum, in terms of UNESCO follow-up to the Mauritius meeting outcomes, a two-pronged approach is being followed: firstly, mainstreaming the needs of SIDS in all the Organization’s activities; and secondly, stepping up the holistic, integrated approach to sustainable island living and development, through intersectoral action with an intergenerational perspective at the interregional level, via the proven platform approach. As such, this approach is consistent with the recommendations and directives of resolutions on SIDS adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in October 2003 and October 2005, as well as with para. 8 of General Assembly Resolution 60/194.