A special edition of the UNESCO Future Forum on “Small Island Developing States (SIDS), with special emphasis on the Caribbean - the challenges for international development cooperation in the 2010s” will be held in Port of Spain , Trinidad and Tobago on 8 July 2010. This day-long Forum will immediately follow the UNESCO Director-General’s Consultation with the National Commissions from Latin America and the Caribbean on the preparation for UNESCO’s Draft Programme and Budget for 2012-2013.
Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) face unprecedented challenges. In a globalized and interconnected world subject to economic and environmental crises, small islands are particularly at risk – whether from increasingly unpredictable and severe weather, the prospect of rising sea level, biodiversity losses, geographic isolation and economic vulnerability. However, small islands societies have a record of thriving in challenging times, inventing and refining new and innovative approaches to development, social mobilization and technological adaptation.
No agenda can deliver on such a wide range of interconnected challenges without a holistic and future-oriented approach UNESCO is well positioned to pursue through its multi-disciplinary expertise – in science, culture, climate change, education, biodiversity, knowledge management and information.
The small island developing States constitute a priority group of countries of UNESCO’s Medium-Term Strategy. In line with the 2005 Mauritius Declaration and the Mauritius Strategy, UNESCO developed an integrated approach to sustainable island living and development, emphasizing interregional linkages and cooperation. Action in support of SIDS aims mainly at the promotion and development of quality education focused particularly on addressing SIDS issues and needs, the adoption of evidence-based policies for sustainable development and their translation into effective on-the-ground practice, and the safeguarding of tangible and intangible heritage.
In September 2010, during the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly, a high-level review meeting will provide the international community with an opportunity to conduct a thorough assessment of the progress made, lessons learned and constraints encountered in the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy and agree on what needs to be done to further address the vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States.
Given the international development context and the current dynamics of UNESCO, a UNESCO Future Forum on the theme “Small Islands Developing States – Challenges for international Development Cooperation in the 2010s” is a timely opportunity to analyze the major trends affecting them, discuss common approaches and envision new strategic opportunities.
The forum will be: