Informal meeting of the General Assembly to allow the Co-Chairs of the High-Level Panel on the Development of a
Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to present the final edited version of the Final report to Member States

March 28, 2024.
Trusteeship Council. 10:00 am – 12:00


Mr. President, Co-chairs of the High-level Panel,

The Alliance of Small Island States welcomes this day and this informal meeting.

We have stood firm in our request for the development of a multidimensional vulnerability index. We have done so even when we were told our request was unrealistic and unreasonable. Our unwavering commitment to our own development drove our ambition and fortitude, and after three decades of continuous advocacy, we have achieved the first step in what has been a very long process towards justice.

The tools of a foregone era can no longer ensure our future. The complexity of the challenges that currently beset us requires a greater understanding of the challenges themselves, as well as those being challenged.

We welcome the Panel’s Final Report and wish to expressed our sincere appreciation and thanks to the distinguished Co-Chairs, H.E. Prime Minister Gaston Brown and H.E. Ms. Erna Solberg, and all panel members for their own commitment to the fulfillment of their terms of reference. We are assured that the report and recommendations of the Panel form a substantive basis for the implementation of the MVI. We look forward to intergovernmental discussions on the report’s recommendations.

Mr. President, you can be assured that AOSIS will engage actively and constructively in that process.
AOSIS is of the view that the way forward must be grounded in a collective appreciation of the merits and utility of an index, and work must continue to build on the Panel’s work, representing at all times, the current and future reality of vulnerable countries. The governance arrangements should be agreed in earnest. The good must never be at risk of the perfect. We must forge ahead; any delay risks our collective sustainable development.

Finally, but most importantly, AOSIS believes that the MVI is an idea whose time has come. It represents for us one of the most practical ways in which the desire to reform the international financial architecture can be made tangible.

Thank you.