Mr. Wu Hongbo Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Secretary-General for the International Conference on Small Island Developing States
Press Remarks Noon Briefing
21 August 2014, New York
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be with you today.
We are less than two weeks away from the start of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States. And we are on track towards a very successful conference.
The United Nations system is strongly committed. 21 heads of agencies will attend.
Major Groups and other Stakeholders will also be represented in large numbers. 700 participants from Major Groups and other stakeholders – from almost 150 organisations – have registered for the Conference. This is significantly more than attended the previous two SIDS Conferences.
121 side and parallel events will be held in Apia.
As many of you know, a big success has already been achieved prior to the Conference. In fact, this is the first international conference many of us can remember that has reached agreement on its political outcome during the preparatory process … before reaching the Conference itself.
This shows there is broad agreement among UN Member states on the challenges that SIDS face … and on what needs to be done to address these challenges.
The outcome document that we expect will be adopted at the Conference – called the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway, or S.A.M.O.A Pathway in short – includes targeted actions for each priority area. This is very encouraging.
In Samoa, we will now be able to focus our energy on how to take forward the decisions in the outcome document, and on generating sustainable partnerships.
I wish to highlight that this is the first time that a UN international conference is having the so-called multi-stakeholder partnerships dialogues as part of the official programme. These will run in parallel with the plenary sessions. This reflects … not only the importance that the host country gives to partnerships … but also the understanding that sustainable development cannot be achieved by governments alone.
The pre-conference events taking place from 28 to 31 August, will be important steps in arriving at new partnerships.
The Youth Forum, the Major Groups and other Stakeholders Forum, the Renewable Energy Forum and the Private sector Forum – will all have genuine and durable partnerships as a main theme.
For details on the Conference and on these events, as well as the many side and parallel events taking place in the coming days, I invite you to see the calendar of activities on the SIDS Conference website ( www.sids2014.org)
Thank you.
