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Small
Island Developing States (SIDS) face their own unique problems and
challenges to development. Bernabe Garcia discusses recent South-South
initiatives among the SIDS. He is the Senior Regional Officer for
Asia and the Pacific, with the Special Unit for Technical Cooperation
among Developing Countries (SU/TCDC).
The
Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island
Developing States, which was held in Bridgetown, Barbados from 25
April to 6 May 1994, focused international attention on the development
problems facing small island developing states. The Conference was
significant in that it argued for a global rationale for the need
to ensure the sustainable development of small island developing
states, citing, among other things, the improvement of the ability
of small island States to manage their marine resources as having
a direct relationship in helping to stem the decline in fish stocks
worldwide, now at crisis proportions, and the fact of their being
stewards to vast expanses of the world's oceans and the rich resources
underneath them. The tropical forests and coral reefs of small island
States are also home to innumerable biodiverse species not found
in other parts of the world. For the majority of small island states,
of which there are about 40 located in all regions of the world
- the Caribbean and Latin America, the Pacific Islands, Africa,
the Mediterranean/Atlantic and Arab States - their size, dependence
on one or two raw commodities for export and their remoteness expose
them to special economic and environmental vulnerabilities.
A
major achievement of the Conference and the preparatory consultative
meetings which preceded it was the adoption of a comprehensive global
Programme of Action containing 14 chapters dealing with substantive
sectoral and thematic areas of focus, with the 15th chapter outlining
arrangements for its implementation.
An
important emphasis in the implementation of the global Programme
of Action is the enhancement of technical cooperation among the
small island developing states themselves. The Global Conference
recognized the need for small island states to harness the capabilities
available at home and to exchange ideas, experiences, policies,
practices and, where possible, share training/demonstration facilities
among themselves, both intra-regionally and inter-regionally, as
a way of resolving their development problems. Differences in the
relative levels of development, as well as technical and financial
capacities, among SIDS make this modality of mutual cooperation
particularly suitable for their purposes. The Conference also put
the responsibility for the implementation of the Programme of Action
on the small island States themselves. In this regard, the Conference
intended the Programme of Action to be owned and managed by the
small island States under a system which builds sustainable collective
self-reliance.
The
Administrator of the UNDP designated the Special Unit for TCDC (SU/TCDC)
as the focal point responsible for coordinating the follow-up of
the implementation of the SIDS Programme of Action within UNDP.
UNDP's mandate to assist in the implementation of the Programme
of Action derives from three direct and distinct requests made by
the Barbados Global Conference, which were also endorsed last year
by the UN General Assembly in paragraphs 8, 9(a) and 9(b) of its
resolution 49/122. Briefly, these requests relate to providing support
for the development of a small island States technical assistance
programme (SIDS/TAP) and a SIDS information network (SIDSNet) to
support the implementation of the Programme of Action. At a broader
level, UNDP was requested to take the lead in organizing the organizations
of the United Nations development system to provide support to SIDS
in the area of capacity-building at all levels (national, regional
and inter-regional).
In
responding to this mandate, the SU/TCDC prepared a feasibility study
on SIDS/TAP in time for consideration by the General Assembly at
its 49th session last year, following two regional consultations
convened by the Unit in August 1994 in Fiji and Barbados, involving
representatives of small island developing States and relevant UN
and non-UN regional institutions, and in consultation with the Alliance
of Small Island States (AOSIS). The Unit has also begun work in
gathering information for preparing the directory of recognized
scholars and experts on SIDS, as requested by the Global Conference.
Furthermore, the feasibility study for SIDSNet was prepared by a
team of consultants and coordinated in collaboration with the BPPS/Sustainable
Development Network Programme (SDNP).
Following
the adoption of General Assembly resolution 49/122, the SU/TCDC
is now implementing the development of SIDS/TAP by undertaking assessment-cum-formulation
exercises in the various SIDS regions on the unmet technical cooperation
priorities falling under the 14 chapters of the Programme of Action.
The idea would be to identify where the technical cooperation gaps
are, particularly in capacity-building, taking into account on-going
programmes at the national, sub-regional and regional levels supported
by various development agencies and non-governmental organizations,
and to formulate activities addressing such gaps at these levels
by utilizing TCDC instruments. Further consultations are proceeding
with respect to SIDSNet through the sharing of the SIDSNet feasibility
study and related technical papers with the information specialists
of the small island developing States.
At
the national level, the Unit has mobilized, through the UNDP Regional
Bureaux and the UNDP country offices, the offices of the UNDP Resident
Representatives and UN Resident Coordinators in the small island
developing States to provide important advocacy, coordination and
funding support for the Programme of Action. Of particular relevance
would be the support provided to national Governments in helping
to formulate a national action programme reflecting national priorities
within the context of the SIDS Programme of Action.
The
mandate of SU/TCDC to support the SIDS Programme of Action affords
interesting challenges in applying the TCDC New Directions thinking
endorsed by the ninth session of the High-level Committee on the
Review of TCDC, which met in late May/early June 1995.
The
New Directions initiative has put important emphasis on the inter-regional
aspects of South-South cooperation, this being seen as a comparative
advantage of the Unit. The "pivotal country" approach involving
the identification of a lead developing country within a sub-regional
or regional context which, by virtue of having certain technical
or funding capacities, may be in a leadership position to assist
another country, or other countries, will also be utilized. New
forms of cooperation modalities are also offered in terms of triangular
funding and triangular technical cooperation arrangements. These
are forms of cooperation essentially involving a South-South/North
configuration in which development problems are identified and formulated
by developing countries, with funding or technical inputs, or both,
from developed countries. This modality of cooperation would have
real applications for implementing the 14 chapters of the SIDS Programme
of Action.
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