The Third Biennial Conference on Small States takes place from 26 to 27 March 2014 on the Caribbean island of St Lucia
The Third Biennial Conference on Small States takes place from 26 to 27 March 2014 on the Caribbean island of St Lucia and will focus on building resilience against external shocks such as natural disasters and global economic fluctuations.
Initiated by the Commonwealth in 2010 as a global forum to discuss policy challenges in the world's small states, the Third Biennial Conference will draw high-level participation from Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments of small states across the world as well as international development partners and regional organisations. It is hosted jointly by the Government of St Lucia and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Small states – with populations of 1.5 million or less - face a unique set of development challenges posed by their size and corresponding narrow production and export bases, as well as susceptibility to the effects of climate change.
2014 has been designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Small Island Developing States to celebrate the economic, social and cultural contributions that this group of countries has made to the world, as well as raise awareness of the challenges they face.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said: “For over four decades, the Commonwealth has championed the cause of the equality and rights of small states by raising international awareness of their vulnerability and their sustainable development needs.”
The conference will also address the debt and financing burdens of small states, governance structures needed for building resilience, environmental resource management in small states and social policies to support resilience.
“In much of our work, we emphasise the need for policies that are responsive to strengthening the resilience of small states. We seek to ensure that international attention is paid to the particular development challenges arising from the special constraints and susceptibilities to which small states are subject,” Mr Sharma added.
Immediately preceding the conference, a working group of Commonwealth ministers will meet to develop practical proposals to address the priority concerns of small states. The ‘Open-Ended Ministerial Working Group on Small States’ was a mandate from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2013.
In their communique of 12 November 2013, leaders noted that small states, including Small Island Developing States, were disproportionately impacted by the global economic crisis and have been slower to recover; are struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals; and are experiencing high debt burdens which pose a severe threat to their growth. They tasked the Commonwealth Secretariat to establish a group of ministers to explore ways of dealing with the issues.
Note to Editors
Journalists are invited to register to cover the meeting.
Follow #CWSmallStates for live tweeting from the conference.
