AOSIS Statement
Opening and Welcome Address
Technical Workshop in support of the Fourth International Conference on
Small Island Developing States (SIDS4)
11-13 March 2024
Tanoa Tusitala Hotel- Apia, Samoa

Talofa and a very warm welcome to Samoa.

Over the next three days, you will begin the conversation on an extremely important issue that is central to the success of the SIDS’s next Program of Action to replace the Samoa Pathway – a monitoring and evaluation framework.

Ten years ago the international community met here in Samoa to agree to a new development platform for SIDS. We were energized with the possibilities that framework presented and hopeful that the tide would turn towards our sustainable development. As we reflect on the interim years, we can agree that although we have had some success, too many fissures remain. We have withstood extreme events, slow onset ones, a pandemic and dwindling global growth. The high growth rates that marked our development in the pre-Samoa era, seem solely historical. The impacts of climate change are bearing down more intensely and in a shorter period of time. Our challenges outstrip our fiscal space to act.

2024 presents itself as an important point of departure for our future development. This is where we right our sails. This is where we collectively get it right. The last decade presents a collection of lessons for us to build on. We know for instance that the monitoring of the successes and limitations of the Samoa Pathway came too late. SIDS have emphasized that this would not happen again. Without a credible and scientific look at how we are meeting the priorities we lay out, then future action becomes unsustainable. We intend to ground the SIDS4 outcome in a detailed programme of action that delineates measurable, reportable outcomes.

This workshop is the first step in that process. It will be used to inform the development of a monitoring framework for the new programme of action. It will result in recommendations for the development of the new monitoring framework, which will be presented for AOSIS-endorsement at a follow-up meeting in New York. The recommendations will then be presented to all Member States at the Second Preparatory Committee, 1 to 5 April 2024.

Those of you who have joined us over the new few days are essential for the reflection needed and the recommendations required. Your specific experiences across our three regions will undoubtedly present a robust, SIDS-devised, and SIDS-led approach.

SIDS are facing an uphill battle. Our new ten-year plan offers the international community the opportunity to recommit to SIDS and our development, to ensure that we do not lose further ground, and to safeguard our resilience. Your deliberations are key to all this. I do not need to emphasize how important this work is for us all as the SIDS’s family.

I look forward to reading your recommendations in due course and I wish you every success in your deliberations.

Faafetai.