Knowledge management and information for decision-making: extract from the Mauritius Strategy - Chapter XVIII, paras 79-81

79. Small island developing States recognize that there are new opportunities afforded by the rapid new developments in ICT to overcome the limitations of isolation and remoteness and build their resilience. These new opportunities include such areas as e-commerce, improved early warning, tele-medicine and distancelearning.

80. Further action is required by small island developing States, with the necessary support of the international community, for:

(a) The identification and addressing of gaps in data and the characterization of information related to economic, social, environmental and cultural areas;

(b) Developing databases, vulnerability indexes, geographic information systems and other information systems;

(c) Establishing national and regional information and database centres, including the collection, quality control and use of metadata, analysis of data, accessibility and sharing of data and information;

(d) The expansion and extension of the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the Twenty-first Century initiative to address the concerns of small island developing States;

(e) Addressing issues relating to cyber-security in small island developing States;

(f) Establishing land use databases, inter alia, through training in and access to the use of geographic information systems and remote-sensing;

(g) Strengthening and establishing, where necessary, relevant research and postgraduate programmes at regional tertiary-level institutions in small island developing States.

81. Consideration should be given to the establishment of a task force to elaborate a resilience index, supported by the international community. This work would be significantly enhanced as a result of the successful implementation of the activities outlined above.