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Image: UNSDSN
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Investing in quality education (SDG 4) and human capital is a pivotal step towards achieving economic diversification and enhanced digital transformation to build resilience to the ongoing climate crisis, intrastate conflicts, and economic and social challenges. While significant progress has been made towards achieving SDG 4 in SIDS, with Small Island States being ranked fifth across world regions by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), SIDS are still facing barriers in strengthening access to and quality of education. High rates of young people are still not in the educational system, employment, or training (NEET) due to SIDS’ structural vulnerability. In Nauru, half of the young population is out of the education system or training and is jobless, followed by 47 percent in Kiribati, 43 percent in Vanuatu, and 38 percent in Samoa. A lack of youth involvement in the economy is more than just a lack of livelihoods, but instead the entire economy suffers without their innovation and creative spirit.
In a recent interview ahead of the United Nations 77th session of the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated: “if I had to choose one thing to improve the capacity of understanding of climate change and the response to clime change, that thing is education.” In this regard, world leaders gathered at the Transforming Education Summit on 19th September on the sidelines of the General Assembly with the aim to make education a top priority on the global political agenda, while guiding the discussion towards the need for mobilizing action to transform education in the digital age. Along the same agenda, the Samoa-Knowledge Society Initiative was launched with the aim of strengthening digital transformation by enabling youth with access to an online open learning and research platform to enhance their skills and capabilities. The Samoa-Knowledge Society could encourage more SIDS to prioritize investing in enhancing their youths’ educational and training capacities to build knowledge societies capable of responding to pressuring challenges and inspiring a bluer and greener recovery.
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Image: MR Roderick J. Mackenzie / New Zealand Defence Force via Getty
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Climate change impacts, like sea-level rise, exceeding the coping capacity of countries, are called Loss and Damage. Over the past years, SIDS and other developing countries have been calling for financial mechanisms to support their efforts in addressing loss and damage. Ahead of the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt, where Loss and Damage is expected to be a key area of negotiations, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) organized a Virtual Workshop on Loss and Damage. The workshop objective was to share experiences and advance discussions among Pacific SIDS on the call for a Loss and Damage Finance Facility. The session allowed the delegates to “consider the emerging opportunities to provide a broader view on the loss and damage landscape and to encourage Pacific SIDS to organize themselves strategically for the global climate change negotiations”. In the meantime, and on the sideline of the 77th session UN General Assembly in New York, Denmark has committed about USD 13 million specifically for loss and damage.
SIDS are particularly prone to the impacts of climate change and Pacific SIDS are no exception. Last July, the ADB published a review of evidence to inform guidance on selecting sea-level rise (SLR) projections for climate risk and adaptation assessments in the Pacific Islands Region. The document highlighted that “not only is SLR greater than 1 m (relative to the 1995–2014 baseline) conceivable at some point in the 21st century, but it is also plausible that SLR could exceed 2 m by 2100.” The review also reported that most Pacific Islands are subsiding which would magnify the impact of SLR.
As the degradation of marine and coastal ecosystems in the Pacific and elsewhere is weakening the ocean’s ability to play its role as climate regulator, this situation not only affects SIDS, but will have global impacts. More than ever, the need for stronger global cooperation to accelerate climate action is needed.
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Image: Virtual Expo Dubai
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To support SIDS in reaching their ambitious climate targets and national energy policies, capacity building, project facilitation, and access to international finance are critical. During a week-long roundtable in Abu Dhabi, SIDS from the AIS region came together to call for an increase in private sector participation as independent power producers and commitments of private capital towards renewable projects in SIDS. The event, organized by IRENA through its SIDS Lighthouses Initiative, established the priority to support enabling frameworks for the increased deployment of renewables and the development of bankable renewable energy projects that will attract more private sector participation in SIDS.
Several SIDS including Cabo Verde, Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, Singapore, and the Seychelles, showcased the status of national energy policies, concrete lessons from project development including success stories and best practices on strengthening private sector engagement. For example, Seychelles announced the negotiation of the first power purchase agreement (PPA) with an independent power producer. This model can be replicated in other SIDS to help remove barriers and simplify the process - as expressed by Ms. Nirkita Seeburn-Sobhun from Mauritius, “We look forward to more knowledge sharing, best practices and lessons learned on the design of bankable PPAs and attracting private investment for renewable projects.”
The roundtable, built on similar dialogues that have been organized in the Pacific region and later this year in the Caribbean, shows the importance of knowledge sharing among SIDS within and across regions in disseminating and replicating successful models responding to SIDS specific needs.
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"Digital will be a key tool. We have seen other countries leverage tools like the Cloud to effectively ‘backup’ their countries. But we will need to go beyond this, and potentially even conceptualise what our countries could look like – in-part – as digital entities."
In this exclusive interview, His Excellency Mr. Kausea Natano, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, highlights how digital is central to support SIDS though the Rising Nations Initiative, helping ensure Pacific nations maintain their livelihoods and cultural heritage in the urgent face of the climate change crisis. Digital will enable a "globally-distributed diaspora", while in parallel supporting local climate resilience.
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Q: Excellency, you’ve contrasted the climate-driven uncertainty of the future for people in most parts of the world with the uncomfortable certainty of the future for people of Pacific Atoll island countries. How urgent is the situation for your States and what does that mean for your people?
A: Indeed, it is an extreme urgency for us. As mentioned in my remarks during the UNGA, saline intrusion is affecting our drinking water, while higher tides, stronger storms and frequent floodings are devastating our villages, slashing our crops yields and destroying our infrastructure. Marine ecosystems, on which our ancestors relied for centuries, are perishing due to ocean warming and acidification impacting food security, tourism and our cultural identity. A recent review of climate projections for the Pacific published by the ADB last July indicates that not only is a 1m sea-level rise conceivable during this century, but that a 2m rise could also be exceeded by 2100. This means that many islands will be inhabitable or faced with the bold reality of submersion. The question will not be if, but when, communities will be displaced.
Q: How do you intend to communicate the extreme urgency that the Pacific Atoll countries are facing to the international community?
A: It is paramount that countries, international organizations, civil society, philanthropy, the private sector and all stakeholders grasp the urgency we are living in. The Rising Nation Initiative is therefore structured around three complementary pillars of action: Knowledge, Partnerships and Advocacy. The first pillar will focus on Knowledge. It will aim at developing a White Paper studying the climate impacts on Pacific Atoll countries and presenting recommendations. The partnership pillar will elevate the goals of the RNI on the international agenda and inform all relevant fora of the extreme and immediate urgency that we are facing. Finally, the Advocacy Pillar will focus on effectively informing policymakers, climate action movements and global citizens on the unprecedented urgency facing the populations of Pacific Atoll countries. This will mobilize the adequate political momentum for action.
Q: During recent years, we have seen SIDS increasingly taking advantage of digital tools to transform their challenges into opportunities. Can you tell us what role will the digital play in the Rising Nations Initiative?
A: The short answer is that digital will be a key tool. We have seen other countries leverage tools like the Cloud to effectively ‘backup’ their countries. But we will need to go beyond this, and potentially even conceptualise what our countries could look like – in-part – as digital entities. Emerging concepts such as the Metaverse may be useful, but we’ll also need to use digital to engage our globally-distributed diaspora. The RNI aims to establish a blueprint for a transformational and climate-resilient “Digital Nation State,” which will ensure our hopeful continuity in the digital space – and also allow a connection to the offline space. Economically, we can continue to support ourselves, including through the sustainable use of our Exclusive Economic Zones. Digital will allow that by making distances irrelevant, and through providing a payment architecture. This will ensure that our people can maintain their livelihoods and citizenship. Culturally, we want to establish a secure digital repository of Tuvalu’s geographies and history so as to ensure that all future generations will be able to experience the richness of their cultural heritage. But digital will not be a panacea. We must not sever the physical connection we have built amongst our people – this is a key part of our national sovereignty and identity.
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The SIDS Data Platform has been developed to provide policymakers, research institutions, UNDP country offices, and other development agents with freely available access to updated, standardized, and comprehensive data. The database of country-level indicators is compiled from 22 databases and research studies and presented alongside analytic tools, country profiles, and through a customizable Multidimensional Vulnerability Index. The GIS portal features over 80 research studies and databases, with visualization and analytic tools to allow development agents to been able to discover, access, and export this data. Custom machine learning models have been developed to impute the indicator datasets to provide an interactive interface for testing modeling approaches for filling in gaps in the database.
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As the world is suffering from the Triple "C"s crisis, reflected in the threats posed by Climate Change, COVID-19 pandemic recovery, and Conflicts, risks to human suffering and well-being and limitations to human development are increasing. The Human Development Report stresses on the fact that human development should not be the end goal but should be perceived as a means to a path forward in critical times, and that the future of nations and the way to achieving sustainable development lies in investing in humans' diversity, creativity, and innovation. The report sheds light on the Three "I"s, Investment, Innovation, and Insurance, and how these three mutually reinforcing elements can have a great impact on human security and development.
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The E-Government survey for 2022 has been launched on September 28th, with a digital government ranking of 193 UN Member States. For the first time the report includes an assessment of the most populous city in each Member State, and with more than 20 years of data, enables longitudinal analysis. The report includes SIDS as an analytical group, which can be further explored in the data centre. 24 SIDS are represented in total, with an average rank of 86.
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Pathways to Adaptation and Resilience in Pacific SIDS - Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2022 for ESCAP Subregions
The Pacific SIDS remain a special case for sustainable development due to their unique vulnerabilities that slows down their progress on social, economic, and environmental objectives. Climate change impacts along with the vulnerabilities stemming from the combination of physical characteristics, remoteness and poor infrastructure have a profound impact on development across all sectors in the Pacific SIDS. With a focus on the Pacific SIDS, this report provides analytics, solutions, and key recommendations to operationalize these strategic pathways in climate change and disasters and related areas of technology.
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The State of the World’s Mangroves 2022
Healthy mangrove ecosystems are critical for global climate action – playing a key role in carbon storage and in building resilience to a rapidly warming world. Mangroves stabilize coastlines, reduce erosion, foster biodiversity growth and protect coastal communities by building their adaptive capacity and resilience. It has been estimated that mangroves prevent more than US$65 billion in property damages and reduce flood risk to some 15 million people every year. Many SIDS have taken steps to consolidate their efforts in the management of mangrove ecosystems, such as Fiji, which has been working on the re-establishment of a mangrove nursery, and has raised thousands of seedlings that will serve to restore mangrove ecosystems and prevent coastal erosion. This report is a compilation of the most current information about mangrove forests and efforts to reverse the downward trends impacting the coastal trees and the local communities who depend on them.
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Youth in Fiji and Solmon Islands
Young people all over the world are tapping into their skills to shed light on climate action, whether through science, education, law, or technology. Fiji, Solomon Islands and the wider Pacific region are experiencing a ‘youth bulge’. As such, the livelihoods pathways of youth in these countries will be a key determinant of their social, political and economic futures. This book looks at the cultural expectations of Fijian and Solomon Islander youth, as well as the socio-political positioning of youth activists. It investigates how formal and informal structures – such as education, employment and civil society – affect the ability of youth to achieve their potential and actively engage in their societies.
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The Ultimate Fintech Experience
Fintech Islands will be a global event that brings together the disruptive, influential and innovative technology companies and leaders that are redefining financial services across the globe and we would love to have you join us for the event. The goal of the event is to discuss global trends in fintech, showcase new applications of technology for the financial services industry, and captivate an audience with the power to build what’s next. Fintech Islands also aims to facilitate networking and collaboration among financial institutions, technology providers, startup investors and other key players in the financial services sector.
Register here: https://www.fintechislands.com/registration
When: 5-7 October 2022
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Integrated Spatial Planning
The United Nations Development Programme and PacMARA are pleased to offer a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Integrated Spatial Planning. With generous support from the GEF and Sida, this five-week course draws on the Essential Life Support Areas (ELSA) methodology, pioneered by UNDP and partners for using spatial data to identify areas where nature-based actions can support in halting biodiversity loss, addressing climate change, and fostering sustainable development based on the experiences of 12 pilot countries. This course will explain how this integrated spatial planning methodology is helping countries create their own ‘Maps of Hope’ to chart a course for action on nature, climate, and sustainable development.
Register here: https://www.learningfornature.org/en/courses/integrated-spatial-planning/
When: 17 October - 18 November 2022
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