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  1. HLPF
  2. High-Level Political Forum 2023
  3. 2023 Programme
  4. Small Island Developing States From Recovery To Resilience In The Face of Multiple Shocks

Small Island Developing States From recovery to resilience in the face of multiple shocks

(How can we help SIDS in sheltering the crises and financing an SDG-driven recovery? Have they been able to strengthen their resilience against shocks? How can the SDG Summit pave the ground for the 2024 Conference on SIDS?)

The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects in SIDS illustrate how vulnerability to shocks combined with low resilience can have severe and long-lasting detrimental effects on economic growth and sustainable development. While it is the responsibility of national policies to mitigate the consequences of exogenous shocks, and so make the country more resilient, history has shown that economic growth and human development are threatened by exogenous shocks of various origins. Many SIDS were still struggling to recover from the 2008 financial crises and the subsequent onslaught of repeated climate related events, when the COVID-10 Pandemic hit.

COVID-19 may have opened the way for a paradigm shift in development cooperation in SIDS, to make resilience building a more central concern. Initiative such as inter alia the MVI and The Bridgetown Initiative are powerful tools aimed at directing international effort towards integrating vulnerability more centrally into global strategies of UN institutions, international financial institutions, and the work of international development partners and in driving reform of the global development finance architecture. The SDG Summit and the 4th International Conference on SIDS are key platforms for further advocacy and action on these important issues for SIDS.

Proposed guiding questions:

  • What are the actionable entry points for SIDS to convert the current crises into opportunities for a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery and effective SDG implementation?
  • How can the international community best support SIDS recovery and transformation for accelerated SDG implementation?
  • What are necessary strategies to address debt vulnerabilities, ensure better financing for SIDS, and align development co-operation with SIDS sustainable development priorities?
  • How can resilience building and the development of proactive and preventative strategies, become more central in the lending policies applied in development cooperation and by international financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs)?

Chair:

  • H.E. Ms. Lachezara Stoeva, President of ECOSOC

Keynote address:

  • H.E. Mr. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Co-Chair of High Level Panel of the MVI

Interactive panel discussion

Moderator:

  • Ms. Cristelle Pratt, Assistant Secretary-General for the Environment and Climate Action, Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States

Panelists:

  • Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
  • Mr. Amit Prothi, Director General, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure
  • Ms. Ruth Kattumuri, Senior Director of Economic, Youth and Sustainable Development Directorate at the Commonwealth Secretariat
  • Ms. Renee Atwell, Dean of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Corps, Trinidad and Tobago, youth speaker

Lead Discussants:

  • Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Coordinator of UN Regional Commissions
  • Ms. Krshtee Sukhbilas,Global Steering Committee of Children and Youth Major Group (MGoS)

Interventions of Ministers and other participants (3 minutes each)