In a joint press release issued on Friday 26 July, the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) announced that they were “joining forces” to implement the results of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), held in Saint John’s (Antigua and Barbuda) from 27 to 30 May.
At the end of the conference, the Member States of the United Nations officially adopted the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda, a new ten-year sustainable development action plan for SIDS.
On Friday, having issued a reminder of the framework for conducting global initiatives set out in the Samoa Agreement (see EUROPE 13293/19), the EU and the OACPS welcomed “the closer cooperation between SIDS, the EU’s Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories, who share some common characteristics and specificities”, and looked forward to “working closely with SIDS on upcoming multilateral events”.
The EU and the OACPS have indicated their support for international efforts to reform the international financial architecture. They also welcomed the development of a ‘Multidimensional Vulnerability Index’ (MVI), believing that many of the challenges and vulnerabilities linked to sustainable development were “insufficiently reflected in common national indexes such as GDP and GNI per capita”.
The MVI, which has been under discussion among various international bodies for several years, aims to assess the vulnerabilities of countries, over and above simple economic indicators. In the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda, this index is cited as a potential benchmark for achieving the objective of strengthening the economic resilience of SIDS.
To see the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda, go to https://aeur.eu/f/d5o (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)