5 May 2011
UN DESA Hosts “Soft Launch” of Revitalized SIDSnet, Formal Launch Expected During UNCSD Prep
story highlights

SIDSnet is undergoing a redesign to become a knowledge management system and an online global platform aiming to facilitate partnerships for SIDS.

The event hosted by UN DESA, along with UCSIS and GLISPA, featured a virtual tour of the new SIDSnet website, which is still in development.

Speakers also highlighted and encouraged SIDS' preparations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

4 May 2011: A “soft launch” of the revitalization of the Small Island Developing States Network (SIDSnet) took place on 4 May 2011, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, in an event hosted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), along with the University Consortium of Small Island States (UCSIS) and Global Island Partnership (GLISPA). Speakers also highlighted and encouraged SIDS’ preparations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

SIDSnet is undergoing a redesign to become a knowledge management system and an online global platform aiming to facilitate partnerships for SIDS. The event – part of the 19th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development’s (CSD 19) Partnerships Fair – featured a virtual tour of the new SIDSnet website, which is still in development and not yet publicly available.

Hiroko Morita-Lou, UN DESA’s SIDS Unit, gave opening remarks. She highlighted that SIDS’ needs have changed and so must the international community’s support for it. She noted that the period from May-September 2011 will allow users to interact with the new site and provide feedback on its structure and content. The formal launch is expected to take place during the upcoming SIDS inter-regional preparatory meeting for the UNCSD, on a date to be announced.

Fernando Fernández-Arias Minuesa, from the Permanent Mission of Spain to the UN, recalled that Spain’s involvement with SIDS began at the initiative of the Canary Islands, which shares many of SIDS’ vulnerabilities. Spain is supporting the revitalization of SIDSnet.

H. Elizabeth Thompson, UNCSD Executive Coordinator, gave the keynote address. Highlighting the “invaluable platform” that the UNCSD will offer for SIDS issues, she urged SIDS to submit proposals on the “zero draft” of the Conference outcome document to ensure that a SIDS perspective is included in the final agreement. Thompson noted the need for accessible data to underpin SIDS’ planning and decision-making, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of implementation of international processes (e.g. Mauritius and Barbados outcomes, and biodiversity and climate change conventions). Thompson said in the current “knowledge society and economy,” those with knowledge have the capacity for success, and knowledge management can give countries an advantage in the marketplace.

Keneti Faulalo, SIDS Unit, emphasized that SIDSnet aims to serve as a platform for other existing tools in support of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA), and to make information more readily available. Faulalo described the system’s design as a pyramid, integrating information both vertically – to enable local communities to follow and engage in activity at the international level – and horizontally – by sharing information across stakeholder groups, sectors, thematic areas. For example, the platform could bridge the work of those who represent their countries at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) with those who follow the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He also noted the evidence-generating function of the new SIDSnet, which will provide factual information regarding SIDS’ well-known challenges, thus strengthening the 2014 review of the BPoA.

Members of the SIDS Unit also explained technical aspects of the new SIDSnet, such as the content management system, the taxonomy and thematic areas, and opportunities for users to add information to the site.

David Smith, UCSIS, addressed capacity development in SIDS, including how the information to appear on SIDSnet would be generated. He also noted the importance of finding an alternative measurement to per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which “makes SIDS look more prosperous than they are.”

Kate Brown, GLISPA, said the revitalization of SIDSnet is an opportunity for greater focus on islands under the CBD’s In-Depth Review of the Programme of Work on Island Biodiversity over the next year and a half, the only such opportunity for the next 10 years.

Jessica Robbins, GLISPA, discussed Solutions Exchange, a “Communities of Practice model” for SIDS, which is a facilitated, email-based mechanism for practitioners to exchange information about day-to-day challenges in their work. The resulting guides to field activities will be made available on SIDSnet.

Questions from participants addressed ways for users to add information to the site, how SIDSnet could promote itself among competing online projects, the need for raw, disaggregated data, and SIDSnet’s “lightness” and accessibility in areas with low bandwidth availability, including access by mobile phone.

Regarding next steps, Morita-Lou noted there would be an additional briefing for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and that participants in the soft launch would receive an invitation for restricted user access to SIDSnet for the purpose of providing feedback to the SIDS Unit. [SIDSnet Website] [GLISPA Brochure] [UCSIS Website] [Pacific Solutions Exchange]

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