Background of SIDS

Small island developing States continue to face specific constraints, namely, as described in the report of the 22^nd Special session of the General Assembly: a narrow resource base, which does not allow small SIDS to benefit from economies of scale; small domestic markets and heavy dependence on a few external and remote markets; high costs for energy, infrastructure, transportation, communication and servicing; long distances from export markets and import resources; low and irregular international traffic volumes; little resilience to natural disasters; growing populations; high volatility of economic growth; limited opportunities for the private sector and a proportionately large reliance of their economies on their public sector; fragile natural environments.

The adoption of the Barbados Programme of Action in 1994 was a turning point in mobilizing and galvanizing international support aimed at mitigating consequences of these problems. The Barbados Programme of Action is designed to facilitate cooperation and assistance to the SIDS for achievement of environmental and developmental objectives in 14 priority areas: climate change, natural and environmental disasters, management of wastes, coastal and marine resources, freshwater resources, land resources, energy resources, tourism resources, biodiversity resources, national institutions and administrative capacity, regional institutions and technical cooperation, transport and communication, science and technology and human resource development. The Barbados Programme of Action provides the United Nations system organizations with a clear mandate to assist the small island developing States within their respective mandate. The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development that meets annually to follow up on Earth Summit agreement monitors implementation of the programme.

The 22^nd Special Session of the General Assembly, held in 1999, undertook a comprehensive assessment and appraisal of the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action and called for concerted efforts to support its implementation. It identified priority areas of action, namely, climate change and sea level rise, natural disaster, fresh water resources, coastal and marine resources, energy and tourism. The lack of adequate resources was identified as one of the major constraints to the full implementation of the Programme of Action.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in September 2002, accorded high priority to sustainable development of small island developing States. The Plan of Implementation of the Summit sets forth a number of concrete commitments and targets of action with a time frame for this group of countries. In particular, the summit agreed to undertake initiatives aimed at implementing the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Landbased Activities; to develop community-based initiatives on sustainable tourism; and to support the availability of adequate, affordable and environmentally sound energy services by 2004.