The post-war liberal order is in a testing time. Global organisations like the UN have always had to navigate the turbulent waters of the international community but governments it once relied on for its greatest support are now giving voice to some of its strongest detractors.
For Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the return of great power politics to the international arena has renewed their need to work more closely together, both to meet shared national goals and support the very future of SIDS as an entity in a world where borderless challenges, like climate change, threaten it.
The Temptation to Turn Back
In 2020 many nations are flirting with protectionism and isolationism in a way not seen since the early years of the 20th century. There may be members of the public in the Caribbean who are considering whether their government should also travel this path, and opt for a step back from bilateral and multilateral relations. However, SIDS who follow this path do so at their own peril.
Recent years have confirmed in the minds of many that the post-war consensus on free trade requires reassessment. Furthermore, the legacy of this fallout is seen not only in trade inequity, but in many SIDS being the most vulnerable to the growing threat of climate change. This problem is not primarily caused by small island states who, collectively, are responsible for less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but by the nations that rank among the world’s largest in economic power and population size.
SIDS are amongst the highest ranked countries in the Global Climate Risk Index 2019, an annual risk index published by GermanWatch which “analyses to what extent countries and regions have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.)”. It is why the collective work of SIDS is mostly engaged in combatting climate change.
Speaking a Common Language
For a region like the Caribbean, with over two dozen states and more than 7,000 islands, the realities of geography mean history was never likely to deliver a situation where a sole authority (or select few) would be in a position to speak exclusively for the many. Similar dynamics exist in other areas of the world with SIDS. This is in contrast to the United States where a population well in excess of 300 million exists under one federal government; or the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) operating via the ascent of Washington DC, Ottawa and Mexico City.
A nation of hundreds of millions, or billions, may think it can ‘go it alone’ but, for the population of around just 1,269 on the South Pacific island of Niue, ongoing engagement with other SIDS, and the wider international community, is critical. Engagement via international organisations such as the UN offers small nation states equal power in voting and other areas of national expression that make it irrelevant whether a country has 100,000 or a billion citizens. Nonetheless, the power of an individual small nation is enhanced by collective action with other SIDS. The advent of the Small Island Developing States Partnership Framework is a key example of this.
Small Island Developing States Partnership Framework
As a result of the establishment of the Partnership Framework, following the 2014 Third International Conference on SIDS, SIDS around the world have seen over 260 new partnerships formed. As of 2018 it was also clear that the priority areas of the SAMOA pathway that seeks, among other goals, to assist nations in the pursuit of sustainable development by enhancing food security and implementing disaster risk reduction, had achieved much success. The efforts of governments to legislate at a national level to meet Sustainable Development Goals has also been a bright spot. That said, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses.
The success has been uneven, and some goals of SAMOA, such as combatting climate change, require a lot more work globally. The 10-year plan received a mid-term review in September 2019, and with it Saint Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet declared the very existence of SIDS to be under threat unless more collective progress on previously agreed goals isn’t made.
A key aim of the Framework is to see greater engagement across SIDS by the private sector, civil society and academia alike, but so far it is civil society that has been leading the charge. By no means would one decry the work of SIDS diplomats and other civil officials in delivering on their targets but said leaders have a dual need: to advance their own engagement plus spearhead that of the private sector and academia. Consequently, this goal remains one yet to be attained.
