Honourable Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Host of SIDS4,
Honourable Prime Minister Naomi Mata¡¯afa, Prime Minister of Samoa and Chair of AOSIS
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
I wish to extend our heart-felt solidarity with the people in Caribbean and SIDS who are recovering from the aftermath of the devastation caused by hurricane Beryl. Our hearts are always with you.
Before I begin, I¡¯d like to once again express my deepest gratitude to Prime Minister Browne and the people of Antigua & Barbuda for their tireless efforts in delivering a well-executed Conference. It was indeed a pleasure to have worked with you and your excellent team.
I was invited today to bring you some key messages from SIDS4, in my capacity as Conference Secretary-General.
As Prime Ministers Browne and Mata¡¯afa have covered these well, I will focus my reflections on the role that UN system can play to support Member States in delivering on the promised and priorities of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A consistent message rang through the discussions in Antigua: This is a critical juncture for SIDS.
From the ongoing battle with climate change and sea-level rise, to challenges accessing development finance, to the persistent problem of unstainable debt levels, for many SIDS their pathways to a sustainable future are too often blocked by systemic or unpredictable hurdles.
This is why the ABAS calls for the recognition of vulnerabilities in decision making on concessional finance, for debt relief, and for new financing ¨C delivered at scale and directed to where it matters most.
In line with this, and upon the request of Member States, the Secretary-General convened a high-level meeting on mobilization of resources, during SIDS4, resulting in a Call to Action to realize the institutional transformations that give SIDS a seat at the table, and assign country vulnerability the weight it deserves.
Beyond these global asks, discussions at SIDS4 also emphasized the importance of building SIDS capacities to deliver on the ground. This is where the UN system must focus its short- and medium-term support to SIDS. This is where we can have the greatest impact today to help SIDS chart their course to tomorrow.
To do this well, we will need coherent approaches that leverage and multiply our strengths. And we will need to focus our efforts on the critical transitions and nexus points that will generate impact across the breadth of ABAS and the SDGs.
And we will need to ensure that our efforts are evidence-based, guiding SIDS towards the types of policies and programmes that will take them towards self-sustaining investments, high profit sectors and growth models that can actually deliver on resilient prosperity.
As a first step, DESA is working with OHRLLS to develop a monitoring and evaluation tool with targets and a set of core indicators to keep on task in delivering the ABAS. To minimize the reporting burden on SIDS this framework will draw heavily on existing indicators.
As an additional accountability measure, we will work with other UN-system partners to develop a UN-system implementation matrix, that assigns leadership in follow-up to specific area to various institutions, in accordance with their mandates.
Looking ahead, the Summit of the Future in September, and the upcoming conferences in 2025 on Ocean, Financing and Social Development, will also present opportunities for SIDS to rally the action needed to deliver on the calls of the ABAS.
In addition to its system-level support to the ABAS, DESA will continue to strengthen its individual offer to SIDS as a group of countries in a special situation.
As chair of ECESA Plus we will leverage this network to ensure that the UN system entities keeps the ABAS firmly in their vision.
DESA will continue to deliver for SIDS in the areas of governance, data and statistics, financing and partnerships, consistent with our global offer on the SDGs.
In working with the Resident Coordinators and the UNCTs we will make our strengths available at country level, in line with national priorities and agreed support frameworks.
SIDS have set out their vision in the ABAS and, as the UN system, we will ensure that vision guides our efforts to support you towards 2030 and for the next decade.
Thank you.