PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
ECA study identifies unique opportunities for small island developing states
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) – The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said Thursday it was analysing strategies that would translate current vulnerabilities of small island developing states (SIDS) into concrete opportunities for structural and institutional transformation.
The study takes a comprehensive look at climate and development challenges, using some key human development and wealth profile indices, rather than focusing only on a trail of natural catastrophes that most SIDS are subjected to.
In a statement, the Commission said that its findings would be presented at the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, to be held 1-4 September, 2014, in Apia, Samoa.
The conference will focus the world’s attention on a group of countries that remain a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities.
Rather than point exclusively to the perennial vulnerability differential that most SIDS have to contend with, the study, which is undertaken by the ECA’s African Centre for Climate Change Policy (ACPC), looks at the unique opportunities that can be harnessed in key sectors such as ecotourism, agriculture and fisheries.
According to ACPC, this study marks a significant departure from the current SIDS literature in analysing the urgency for an “institutional renewal” – a process that will present policy and economic windows allowing SIDS to graduate out of a least developed countries status.
“It is one of the great paradoxes of the climate change narrative that the countries that suffer the most from natural disasters and extreme events are those that contributed the least to the problem,” said ECA Executive Secretary Carlos Lopes.
“It is reported that out of the 25 countries that are subjected to the harsh vagaries of climate change impacts, 13 are from the small island developing states.”
In his view, the distribution of climate change impacts is not even and small island developing countries are exposed to multiple vulnerabilities beyond their immediate challenge of insularity, remoteness and a geographical location that is often conducive to natural disasters.
SIDS in Africa tend to have distinctive geographic, social, demographic and economic characteristics which affect their development strategies and prospects in significant ways.
Vulnerabilities related to climate change can further result in loss of lives, and damage to property and infrastructure that can easily cripple their small economies.
In November 2012, the UN Secretary-General nominated Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as the Secretary-General for the Third International Conference on SIDS.
Among other issues, the conference will identify priorities for the sustainable development of SIDS to be considered in the elaboration of the post-2015 UN development agenda.
-0- PANA AR/VAO 25July2013
The study takes a comprehensive look at climate and development challenges, using some key human development and wealth profile indices, rather than focusing only on a trail of natural catastrophes that most SIDS are subjected to.
In a statement, the Commission said that its findings would be presented at the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, to be held 1-4 September, 2014, in Apia, Samoa.
The conference will focus the world’s attention on a group of countries that remain a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities.
Rather than point exclusively to the perennial vulnerability differential that most SIDS have to contend with, the study, which is undertaken by the ECA’s African Centre for Climate Change Policy (ACPC), looks at the unique opportunities that can be harnessed in key sectors such as ecotourism, agriculture and fisheries.
According to ACPC, this study marks a significant departure from the current SIDS literature in analysing the urgency for an “institutional renewal” – a process that will present policy and economic windows allowing SIDS to graduate out of a least developed countries status.
“It is one of the great paradoxes of the climate change narrative that the countries that suffer the most from natural disasters and extreme events are those that contributed the least to the problem,” said ECA Executive Secretary Carlos Lopes.
“It is reported that out of the 25 countries that are subjected to the harsh vagaries of climate change impacts, 13 are from the small island developing states.”
In his view, the distribution of climate change impacts is not even and small island developing countries are exposed to multiple vulnerabilities beyond their immediate challenge of insularity, remoteness and a geographical location that is often conducive to natural disasters.
SIDS in Africa tend to have distinctive geographic, social, demographic and economic characteristics which affect their development strategies and prospects in significant ways.
Vulnerabilities related to climate change can further result in loss of lives, and damage to property and infrastructure that can easily cripple their small economies.
In November 2012, the UN Secretary-General nominated Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as the Secretary-General for the Third International Conference on SIDS.
Among other issues, the conference will identify priorities for the sustainable development of SIDS to be considered in the elaboration of the post-2015 UN development agenda.
-0- PANA AR/VAO 25July2013
