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Safeguarding progress on the SDGs and continuing efforts to promote ambitions of the SAMOA Pathway and key development challenges faced by SIDS is essential. The economic toll that this crisis and the response strategies are having on SIDS threatens this progress. Many activities, especially tourism a key contributor of GDP in SIDS, have come to a halt, and not all employers are able to keep their staff on payroll. Across SIDS, UNDP is supporting the creation innovative solutions to tackle these challenges that will persist beyond the outbreak. UNDP Barbados, through its Accelerator Lab, has developed technical tools to assist key actors in the private sector and non-governmental organizations inject recovery innovation into the local economy, retool small businesses, support transitions to digital servicing, generate jobs along the way and safely deliver food, and more, to Bajan homes. These new digital strategies accelerate the switch to e-commerce and to alternative ways to safely delivering goods during the distancing time, so that the cash keeps flowing. Read more about UNDP Barbados' efforts here.
#DigitalEconomy #SIDSOffer #TransformativeRecovery #AcceleratorLabs
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In Timor-Leste, almost 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, and face daily challenges related to geographic isolation. Access to state and non-state services remains problematic for this large portion of the population, but improved service delivery at municipal level serves as a major priority for state institutions as a way to tackle inequality, but a lack of systematized and reliable data hinders decision-making at the local level. The Ministry of State Administration, in partnership with UNDP, launched an ambitious data project aimed at tracking and monitoring development at varying levels to identify inequality gaps. This project serves as an excellent example of implementation and operationalization of the third pillar of UNDP's enhanced SIDS Offer, digital transformation, for development and COVID-19 recovery.
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The Vanuatu Coastal Adaptation Project (VCAP) will move forward on operationalizing Phase 2 after successful implementation and results from Phase 1, which supported community climate adaptation measures to reduce climate-related vulnerabilities in Vanuatu. The project is founded on the blending climate action and blue economy, keeping resilience building at the heart of the strategy for adaptation in Vanuatu, an excellent example of UNDP's SIDS Offer in action. VCAP Phase 2, focusing on biodiversity, environmental conservation and climate adaptation activities in Vanuatu in early 2021, is aligned to two key pillars UNDP's enhanced SIDS Offer to lever transformative change in coastal adaptation and strengthening the blue economy economic security.
Image Credit: Vanuatu Daily Post
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SIDS are not small countries. Rather, they are large ocean states overseeing 19.1% of the world's Exclusive Economic Zones and serving as stewards to protect and preserve rich marine biodiversity. The leadership of SIDS through AOSIS deserve credit for being the first to commit to full reliance on renewable energy in this Decade Of Action and to continue to champion #SDG14 efforts. Their unique development trajectories and direct interaction with the effects of a changing climate make them great influencers and leaders on key areas of sustainable development priorities. UNDP, through its enhanced SIDS Offer and Climate Promise, is supporting all the SIDS to reach ambitious and urgent goals for climate action. UNDP is currently working with 27 SIDS (11 Caribbean, 10 Pacific, 6 AIS) across all regions on developing NDC plans, emphasizing enhancements and transformations in SIDS' energy, agriculture, land use, and transport/infrastructure sectors. UNDP pledges support to the development of SIDS NDCs across different sectors, including: building political will and societal ownership of enhanced NDC at national and sub-national levels; reviewing and updating NDC targets, policies and measures to align with national development and sectoral targets; assessing costs and investment opportunities, incorporating new sectors and GHGs, and monitoring progress and strengthening transparency.
In St Vincent and the Grenadines, for example, UNDP is working with the SVG Government to increase SVG's ambition to contribute to the Paris Agreement goal of keeping temperature increase below 1.5, as well contributing to the energy security of SVG, and to revise the commitment date from 2025 - 2030 to align with national, regional and international priorities and make its 2020 NDC inclusive, gender-responsive, and will include new sectors such as energy, agriculture, and waste.
UNDP is supporting Vanuatu in taking significant steps towards implementing the Paris Agreement. Vanuatu’s NDC implementation roadmap has identified the immediate interventions to be taken up (such as coconut oil as fuel for electricity generation, solar & wind) as a priority including regulatory changes and a financial strategy leading to emission reductions and transformational change in the electricity supply sector over time. UNDP is also supporting Vanuatu through the Low Emission Capacity Building+ and through the NDC Partnership Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP).
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The sudden, deep and likely prolonged downturn in the travel and tourism sector has made countries that rely heavily on foreign tourism very concerned about their finances. SIDS are among the most vulnerable not only because they are highly dependent on tourism, but also because any shock of such magnitude is difficult to manage for small economies. On average, the tourism sector accounts for almost 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the SIDS, and well over 50% in some. It is expected that for many SIDS, the COVID-19 pandemic will directly result in record amounts of economic revenue losses without the alternative sources of foreign exchange revenues necessary to service external debt and pay for imports. But all hope is not lost - the IMF has just revamped the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) to offer short term debt reliefs to some of its members, and Comoros, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau, Haiti and the Solomon Islands have already requested and obtained debt relief. It is critical that SIDS have access to zero interest rate funding, and that innovative financing from donors and lenders takes the lead in SIDS recovery, such as debt for resilience swaps to free up funding to be used for response efforts. It is important to support all the SIDS in reviewing their development models toward a more inclusive green economy, emphasizing innovation in the tourism sector. As COVID-19 limits fiscal space, a post-pandemic transformation of national economies is vital for recovery. UNDP's SIDS Offer serves as the foundation for transformative models of sustainable development that beckon innovative thinking to tackle economic disruption that all SIDS are currently experiencing. We must challenge ourselves to think of how these new development models can be framed in the upcoming Decade of Action as a development issue that responds to climate change, seizes opportunities for digital transformation and prioritizes innovation to blue economy and livelihoods.
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COVID-19 is once more proving the vulnerability of the Caribbean (and other SIDS) to external shocks, crises and disasters. This Caribbean, arguably the most tourism-dependent in the globe, will see massive losses in this sector affecting millions of lives and livelihoods; along with businesses failing and the risk of economic depression, a risk for a greater number of Caribbean people falling into poverty. Given the scope and scale of the economic shock where entire countries in the region are in some form of total shutdown, the road to recovery will be long and hard. Leveraging innovative financing mechanisms may be the key, such as one-time debt for resilience swap, which provides a more holistic approach to building resilience and reducing our vulnerability against a wider range of potential threats than only climate change. In alignment with the call to action of the high level political declaration of midterm review of SAMOA pathway for improved access to concessional funding taking into account vulnerability index, all the SIDS with their strategic partners should work together to strengthen access to concessional financing for development and COVID-19 recovery. The creation of new development measures and funding mechanisms to respond to the most urgent financial needs of SIDS throughout the pandemic and beyond is an essential step.
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Small Island Developing States represent nearly 20% of the membership of the United Nations. The overarching principle of sovereign equality, as enshrined in Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, requires that the United Nations pay adequate attention to all countries, both large and smallDespite small population size, some SIDS, such as the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago are experiencing mortality rates as high as many hardest hit countries in Europe, which could increase as travel restrictions ease. The Health Security Index (HSI) indicates that SIDS economies have relatively poorer health capabilities, especially in response to epidemics. SIDS also experience high vulnerability to global economic shocks, as they are highly dependent on external flows and foreign trade. The COVID-19 pandemic is projected to inflict the worst recession since the Great Depression, sparing no country or region in the world. As expressed in the article above on the economic losses of tourism, Small island economies will likely experience a severe recession in 2020 largely because of falling tourism revenue, but exacerbated by the loss of remittances and capital flows and pressures of high, growing debt servicing costs and large trade deficits, as well as increasing food insecurity. UNDESA predicts that the GDP of SIDS economies will likely shrink by ~4.7% this year, compared to a 3% average global contraction. Such a contraction hits marginalized and poor communities the hardest, which worsens their vulnerability to adverse climate events. While access to concessional financing and stimulus packages will offer relief and assistance, efforts must go beyond that, ensuring that recovery is rooted in the principle of leaving no one behind. As such, international concerted efforts should focus on bolstering food security, strengthening access to critical medical supplies, limiting debt servicing costs, expand access to concessional financing, and establish comprehensive debt relief mechanisms and debt swaps to ensure long-term debt sustainability and foster investments for sustainable development and growth.
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This extraordinary global situation demands a global response. As an answer, UNDP and leading tech companies just launched a new global innovation challenge. We are calling on hardware and software developers, product designers, scientists, hackers, makers, and innovators to come together to work for those who will be hardest hit by this pandemic. UNDP is calling on global community and SIDS to support developing countries through the sharing and transfer of open source technology. This challenge has three priority actions:
- Design replicable, low-cost tools and resources to aid viral detection
- Flatten the curve in communities with preventive solutions
- Reduce the disease's impact on the economies of these vulnerable areas
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UNDP has been supporting SIDS on the ground to implement digital transformation strategies to accelerate their responses to COVID-19. Country teams including the Accelerator Labs continue to develop various digital innovative responses to COVID-19. UNDP compiles over 90 examples (and counting) of digital solutions to COVID-19 at the Country Level globally on a searchable, interactive platform. The platform aims to highlight the digitally enabled COVID-19 responses our colleagues and SIDS national counterparts are successfully performing all over the three SIDS regions, helping to improve knowledge sharing and use of innovative solutions within SIDS and translate the third pillar of the UNDP SIDS Offer into action. We invite all country offices and Accelerator Labs to submit their digital responses this form to enhance SIDS-SIDS Cooperation.
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A pandemic that spread in a matter of weeks across some of the world’s major advanced and emerging economies, bringing untold human suffering, is now hitting some of the world’s poorest and most fragile, including SIDS, and it could hit them hard. These vulnerable states and communities face limited capacity in their healthcare systems, threats of mass unemployment and economic disruption, and stress on food production systems, among other concerns. Women, people with disabilities, migrant communities and those at risk of falling (and falling deeper) into poverty are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19's impacts. Read Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator and Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary General's proposed actions for governments and business leaders here.
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A Guide to the Blue Economy Investment Landscape
The Friends of Ocean Action is an informal, multi-stakeholder coalition composed of over fifty of the world’s most committed and influential activists, business-leaders and thought-leaders, invited to help shape global action to save life in the ocean. This Handbook, developed by FOA, forms part of a ‘Financing Ocean Innovation’ action track that seeks to bridge gaps, and effectively foster conversation, between financial institutions and those who, in receipt of investment, may contribute productively to a sustainable blue economy: marine-based businesses, conservation professionals and programme managers. This Handbook aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the investment landscape in the blue economy, with the intent of providing a common baseline of understanding of sustainable blue economy financing for all stakeholders.
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UNDP is currently implementing the Global Sustainable Supply Chains for Marine Commodities Project (GMC Project). This progress report describes its unique approach to engaging different public and private sector actors along the seafood supply chain to drive sustainability into 9 distinct fisheries in Asia Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean. After two years of implementation, the GMC Project shares its model and compelling results to promote sustainable fisheries for the Blue Economy in coastal states, with potential to be replicated in SIDS. Thanks to the GMC project partner Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), international seafood buyers and retailers are taking an active role in supporting sustainability improvements in the project’s target fisheries. In addition, SFP is also helping the private sector in both producing and consuming countries make direct contributions to the integration of sustainability into seafood supply chains.
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As Large Ocean States, this opportunity for SIDS to explore the use of marine genetic resources innovative ocean activities are part of the pathways to sustainable, inclusive development. The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP) was established in 2018 as a unique initiative of 14 serving heads of government including Fiji, Jamaica and Palau, and is committed to catalyzing bold, pragmatic solutions for ocean health and wealth that support the SDGs and build a better future for SIDS. This blue paper explores the ocean genome, a genetic material present in all marine biodiversity, including both the physical genes and the information they encode. It determines the abundance and resilience of biological resources, including fisheries and aquaculture, which collectively form a pillar of global food security and human well-being. It is the foundation upon which all marine ecosystems, including their functionality and resilience, rest. SIDS can also explore expanding the range of commercial activities the ocean genome enables, as well as its sustainable use, including the primary anthropogenic threats to marine biodiversity. The paper concludes with opportunities for action that, if followed, would improve our understanding of the ocean genome and support both its conservation and sustainable and equitable use.
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The Placencia Ambition Forum, hosted by Belize, aimed to further AOSIS' message of keeping Climate Ambition at the center of SIDS' priorities in light the COVID-19 crisis, for COP26, and beyond. The three-day event brought together major actors and highlighted SIDS marked leadership in climate change negotiations and in safeguarding the goals of Paris Agreement through the creation of enhanced NDCs. This also serves as an opportunity for SIDS to respond to COVID-19 by build resilience, include indigenous voices and strengthen access to finance and credit.
The climate and health crises both reveal SIDS collective vulnerability to shocks; both demand unprecedented actions to flatten their respective curves. As hurricane season continue in SIDS, we must act swiftly and with agility to ensure that our COVID-19 response is a climate-smart response that leaves no one behind. UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner praised the strong partnership between UNDP and AOSIS, highlighting this work through the Climate Promise and SIDS Offer as means to meet the Placencia Ambition Forum's call for enhanced ambitions. Partners for recovery in SIDS must accelerate financial support so that a COVID-19 recovery is also a Green Recovery that responds to the needs of the most vulnerable. The forum came to the conclusion that debt relief in SIDS is urgent, and would cost just a fraction of the money used to bail out major industries and companies around the world. In order to respond to the needs of COVID-19 and climate change, we must enable SIDS to financially respond to their needs, and emphasize human rights and indigenous knowledge as key pillars of these efforts.
The Placencia Ambition Forum reaffirmed our collective need to respond to the crises both on our doorstep and looming overhead by accelerating ambition and committing bold and fervent climate action for NDCs, COP26 and for a sustainable future.
#Placencia #AOSIS #COP26 #ClimateAction #NDCs #SIDSLead
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The Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) and Hawaii Green Growth Local2030 Hub have launched a virtual platform to bring islands together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Shared Island Platform on COVID-19 Response connects island stakeholders to discuss pertinent challenges, ideas, solutions from each other, beginning with a series of webinars on the economic and social effects of the crisis. The second webinar will take place on 13 May 2020 on the topic of Island Food Security, and how islands are strengthening sustainable food production in light of COVID-19 (more information and registration found here). Additional webinar topics have been selected based on interest from partners and include effects on agriculture and food security, data and energy, as well as the and movement of residents and goods. #Local2030 #IslandInnovation #FoodSecurity #ClimateAction #SustainableLivelihoods
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