October 2014: The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has outlined plans for ensuring implementation of commitments made at the 2014 Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), some of which specifically address the role of the UN system in supporting SIDS.

The Conference took place from 1-4 September 2014, in Apia, Samoa, and resulted in an outcome document, the SAMOA Pathway, and hundreds of new multi-stakeholder partnerships for the development of SIDS.

DESA says the following actions have already begun: design an implementation matrix outlining the various roles of the UN system; plan a comprehensive review of UN support to SIDS; expand the SIDS partnership platform for monitoring and evaluation; strengthen DESA’s technical support, capacity building, and collaboration with SIDS; support the incorporation of SIDS priorities into the post-2015 development agenda, the Third Financing for Development (FfD) Conference, and the work of the UN General Assembly and High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF); and provide annual reporting on the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA), Mauritius Strategy (MSI), and SAMOA Pathway.

Wu Hongbo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and SIDS Conference Secretary-General, said DESA is “ready to do its part, both through its own advisory services, its normative and analytical work, and through its coordinating role in rallying UN system-wide support.” [DESA Press Release] [SD in Action: October 2014] [IISD RS Coverage of Samoa Conference]