1. 1 UN Headquarters NY, 23-24 April, 2013

2. 2 1. The Importance of the SIDS-POA 2.The SIDS-POA Lessons of Experience After 20 Years - Global Contrasts and the Path to Sustainable Development - Caribbean SIDS Growth Performance - Living Conditions in Caribbean SIDS - Challenges and Actions relating to Caribbean SIDS Growth Performance - Impact of Natural Disaster on Caribbean SIDS Structure of Presentation

3. 3 - Challenges of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise for Caribbean SIDS -Estimated impact of Sea-Level Rise on Agriculture Crop Production 3.Towards A New Approach for SIDS Path to Sustainable Development –The Case for the Caribbean 4. “Investing in Resilience ” a strategic path to Sustainable Development and the UN 2015 Development Agenda Structure of Presentation (cont’d)

4.  The SIDS and the CARICOM integration movement relies heavily on the multilateral development system to facilitate their development aspirations  The BPOA expresses the SIDS unique characteristics that make them vulnerable to shocks over which they exercise limited control, placing them at a distinct disadvantage in comparison with larger countries in the global economy 4

5.  The BPOA and MSI provides the foundation to address SIDS challenges and are the SIDS reflections of Agenda 21 and the JPOI  Globalisation and the path towards sustainable development are the two key development challenges facing SIDS  However, the existing SIDS/POA requires reformulation to address the current and emerging risks and vulnerabilities faced by SIDS 5

6.  A major step to address these challenges should be stronger levels of sustained economic growth and employment through the creation of favourable enabling conditions at the national, regional, sub-regional and international levels 6

7. In 2004, Amb. Jagdish Koonjul, Chairman of AOSIS identified 5 main weaknesses in the implementation of the BPOA among Member States, namely: 1.Failures at the national level to adopt an “integrated and holistic approach” when devising sustainable development strategies 2. Weak institutional and other capacities 7

8. 3. Inadequate access to appropriate science and technology 4.The lack of resources, and 5.Poor trading ability Meanwhile, the increasing differentiation observed in the interpretation of the BPOA and MSI raise challenges for some policy makers since the MSI focuses on SIDS priority issues and partnerships and less as a complement to the BPOA 8

9. What is the status of SIDS in the implementation of the BPOA and MSI ?  There is a strong need for a comprehensive assessment of the situation on the SIDS-POA implementation status by the UNDESA/SIDS Unit before the 2014 SIDS Global Conference  From observations the situation highlighted by the AOSIS Chairman in 2004 above are most likely the existing case in many SIDS 9

10.  However, there are an increasing number of global risks and vulnerabilities that significantly impacts SIDS path to sustainable development, such as the financial, food and climate change crises and the emerging crisis on natural resource scarcities 10

11.  ECLAC (2012) assessment of the challenges facing the LAC region underscored two parallel tracks viz: market liberalization vs global summits in the 1990s, neither facilitated SIDS development  Special attention drawn to the downgrading of the Rio Declaration Principles particularly Principle 7 on common but differentiated responsibilities in global trade negotiations and the fragmentation and segmentation that has arisen where Principle 7 is now limited to non-binding environmental agreements 11

12.  Need for renewed focus on: human security and safety, environmental sustainability, economic stability and prosperity, and demographic change, among others  Central to a renewed focus on the human dimensions of SIDS sustainable development implicit in the BPOA and MSI should be the task of sustained economic growth 12

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17. 17 Figure 5 Public Debt and NI Ratios ( % NI) Figure 6 Poverty Rates In Selected SIDS ( %)

18. Debt Management Constraint Caribbean SIDS are generally confronted with specific management challenges regarding debt management. A number of official reports highlight a number of factors including ; decline in resource transfers and capital investments, large public sector deficits, natural disasters, limited tax base and the impact of the global economic crisis 18

19. Poverty Impacts Low growth and high economic volatility significantly impacts poverty in the Caribbean due to narrow economic base and the high level of openness of the economy 19

20. CHALLENGES {Risks+ Vulnerabilities} ACTIONS REQUIRED  Strong desire for SIDS to be guided on the required level of growth to be on sustainable development path  Quality statistics required Resource-Base Economies  Caribbean SIDS recent performances indicate the region is significantly behind LA countries;  Use of trade as a vehicle for development has been disappointing;  Modest gains in resource-base economies suggest that trade policies do not promote prosperity but have more to do with how resources are used than how they are generated; Tourism-Base Economies  Coastal –based tourism  Need for the development of international norms and standards to guide and inform the quality of growth in SIDS  Programme on statistics to facilitate result - based management, use of assessments, identification of interlinkages, supply-chains and National Income accounting required  Strengthening of tax systems  Improvement of budget institutions  Strengthening of fiscal institutions at all levels  Access to international liquidity in times of crisis Competitiveness  Improvement in the provision of infrastructure services  Assimilation and development of new technologies  Cooperation between private and public sector for competitiveness  Availability and quality of natural resources 20

21. Related ChallengesActions Required  Trade openness  Financial contagion  Heavily Indebted  Commodity price volatility  Slowdown in overseas remittances  Slowdown in ODA  Capital flow volatility  Limited fiscal space  Excessive credit growth and banking vulnerabilities Social Development  Reforms in education, health and housing  Development of human capital through the life cycle approach  Development of social capital  Promotion of development in local areas  Environment and social development Modernization of the State  Consolidation of the Democratic System  Strengthening of the Rule of Law  Strengthening of the relationship between State, Market and Society  Modernization of public administration  Environmental Governance 21

22. Related ChallengesActions Required  Limited access to finance  High dependence on natural resources  High susceptibility to environmental degradation  Natural Disasters  Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Environmental Development  Mainstreaming environment management in plans and policies  Improve application of EA and related techniques  Reorienting environment programmes from stress dedicated environment institutions and initiatives to building broad based multisectoral environment management capacity  Strengthen both regulatory and incentive- based instruments  Enhance longer term programmatic operations to facilitate “adaptive management approaches”  Facilitate ecosystems and landscape-based approaches to natural resource management 22

23. 23 Figure I - Number of People in SIDS affected by Natural Disasters

24. 24 Figure 2 - Economic Impact of Natural Disasters in Selected Across the Globe Caribbean Countries

25. 25 The Caribbean sub-region is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters and the economic costs are very high The ability to overcome the negative impacts are hampered by geography, population size and economic structure Limited scope for burden sharing over time and very limited flexibility and space

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28. 28 IPCC (2007) Sea-Level projections to rise by the end of this century, corresponding to those of temperature change range from 0.18-0.59m excluding changes in ice flows The major impact of sea-level rise is anticipated to occur post -2100 and the IPCC (2007) has indicated that many SIDS existence are threatened Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in 2012 Regional Implementation Plan projected the cost of inaction in the region to be about US$10.7 bn per year by 2025 and could double by 2050 The Centre also highlight that the net effect of cost s on this scale is equivalent to causing a perpetual recession in each of the CARICOM Member States NOTE:

29. 29 Member State/ Country Estimated impacts on agricultural land from a 1m rise in sea level ( per cent) Estimated impacts on crop and plantation land from a 1m rise in sea level ( per cent) Total value of crops produced in 2010* (millions of US$) Impact of sea- level rise in 2050 (millions of US$) Antigua and Barbuda 108.00 The Bahamas 3241.50.1 Barbados 0050.00 Belize 10134.00 Cuba -.624.3- Dominica 00-- The Dominican Republic --1 463.5-

30. 30 Source: ECLAC 2013 Climate Change Reports on the Caribbean Member State/ Country Estimated impacts on agricultural land from a 1m rise in sea level ( per cent) Estimated impacts on crop and plantation land from a 1m rise in sea level ( per cent) Total value of crops produced in 2010* (millions of US$) Impact of sea- level rise in 2050 (millions of US$) Grenada 002.80 Guyana 1040.20 Haiti 00-- Jamaica 221 558.03.9 Saint Kitts and Nevis 003.50 Saint Lucia 000.00 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0010.40

31.  Transitioning from a process of managing dependency to sustainable development  After 20 Years Caribbean SIDS require a focused programme on Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth  Main elements should include significant structure reform in the enabling conditions for re - balancing the development process for green growth in the Caribbean  Focusing on green growth offers the sub- region, the scope to calibrate new development opportunities { inclusive of Water, Energy, Health, Land, Agriculture, and Biodiversity}.  Also offer opportunities to reduce resource gaps, mitigation to natural disasters and climate change, strengthen case to improve productivity, job provision, resource efficiency and generate wealth  In the Caribbean this would require improved governance structures among policy actions  Need for a SIDS strategy focusing on “investment in resilience” 31

32. Proposed five principal elements of a Multilateral Investing in Resilience Framework : 1.operationalization of a “SIDS Green Economy ” facility 2.Institutionalise technical assistance facility to evaluate and assist SIDS with the scope of risk mitigation in all dimensions of SIDS sustainable development 3. Technical assistant facility to assist SIDS in the design and implementation of a SIDS – Climate Change MRV Framework 32

33. 33 4. Provision of a SIDS Integrated Aid for Trade Framework {inclusive of arrangements to address green growth and trade-related issues} 5. Technical assistance to facilitate the development of statistical data bases and economic growth accounting framework to assist SIDS policy decisions

34. 34  In addition there should a call on AOSIS to initiate multilateral negotiations on the use of natural resources. This initiative should focus on mechanisms to provide support to SIDS for improve transparency and stabilization of SIDS earnings from the sustainable use of natural resources  All of these elements should constitute a SIDS Sustainable Development Implementation Facility which would also offer guidance on the management of export and import dependencies, strengthen environmental resilience in infrastructural investment and climate adaptation especially in low-capacity producer states as important information to facitate inclusive and sustainable levels of economic growth in SIDS

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