51吃瓜

Chair of AOSIS, Amb. Paolelei Luteru,
Dr. Ayhan Kose,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates and Dear Colleagues, 

I warmly welcome you to this briefing session which we are very pleased to organize with the World Bank. 

I would like to thank the World Bank for including a chapter on small states for the first time this year in its flagship report: “Global Economic Prospects”. 

This is indeed very timely. 

And, very pertinent to the work of my Office, which supports 91 of the most vulnerable countries in the world comprising the LDCs, LLDCs, and the SIDS.  

Of the 50 countries classified as Small States in the report, 39 belong to one or more of these 3 groups.  

We found the takeaways of the report on the impact of current and overlapping crises on Small States very useful. 

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,

Small states are not a homogenous group. 

They are diverse in size, geographic location, and development progress. 

As such there is no “one-size fits all” solution. 

However, they share many common challenges due to their small population size and remote location. 

They mostly rely on imports to meet their essential needs and thus remain highly vulnerable to external shocks and economic volatility.  

The lack of diversity of their economies add manifold to their challenges. Many of them are primarily reliant on service industry, particularly tourism, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism revenues in SIDS declined by $43 billion in 2020, a 70 per cent drop in nominal terms. And the sector is still struggling hard to recover.

The latest World Economic and Social Prospects report, released this week, concludes that the short-term economic outlook for SIDS still remains bleak. 

Tourist arrivals have not yet reached the pre-pandemic level. It remains 43% below 2019 level globally. 

Small States, especially the SIDS, are also disproportionately vulnerable to a range of natural disasters. 

Since 2000, in the SIDS alone, there has been over $30 billion in direct damages due to climate related natural hazards.  

At this moment, 10 island States are among the 15 countries with the highest disaster risk.

Over and above these, many of them are also caught in a vicious cycle of debt trap.  Their high risk to disasters has aggravated the situation further. 

After each disaster strikes, many of them must borrow to rebuild. 

All too often, their recovery and reconstruction efforts slide back due to a new disaster. They need to borrow again, and the cycle continues.

Just to put it in perspective, let me give you a reality check.
Over the past fifty years SIDS have lost a staggering $153 billion due to weather, climate and water related hazards. 

If this loss could have been avoided, the SIDs would have been on a much better footing to achieve the 2030 Agenda.  Many of them would have had a much lower debt level to service.

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,

Where do we go from here.  

Let me share a few specific thoughts.

First, enhanced ODA can provide a key role in supporting the efforts of the Small States to overcome the crises and put them firmly on track to achieve the SDGs.

But it’s not good news on the ODA front.   
An internal study conducted by my Office revealed that the ongoing crises, including the war in Ukraine, may impact on ODA flow towards vulnerable economies. 

This is going to jeopardize the recovery efforts of these countries.

We urge the development partners to ensure that their support to the Small States is not reduced or diverted. 

Second, it is important that the allocation of concessional finance is not mainly based on the income criteria. 

This puts Small States who are above the GNI threshold in a disadvantaged situation, as their other vulnerabilities, are not taken into consideration. 

We need a more evidence-based approach to determine access to concessional financing, which would consider other dimensions of vulnerabilities in economic, environmental and social fields. 

The multidimensional vulnerability index (MVI), currently being developed by a high-level independent panel, could be a much-awaited solution to that end. 

The MVI could give the international community a new tool to ensure a more equitable access to concessional financing and help address a longstanding concern of the SIDS and other countries in special situations. 

Third, the progress made in Sharm El Sheikh on loss and damage due to the climate change is a welcome development. 

We are happy to see the establishment of the loss and damage fund.

It is now important to build new partnerships to fully operationalize the loss and damage fund.

It is imperative to create a system, which will ensure enhanced access of the vulnerable countries to finance their loss and damage response.

Finally, the Fourth UN Conference on SIDS provides us a good opportunity to have a comprehensive review of the current situation and agree on a new generation of cooperation framework to support the efforts of the SIDS to overcome their pressing challenges.

This is coming up in 2024, as the SAMOA Pathway reaches its concluding year.

My Office will invest every effort to support the delivery of an ambitious and transformative agenda for the SIDS. 

We will also work with partners to agree on concrete deliverables, which will provide necessary momentum to accelerate the achievements of the 2030 Agenda in SIDs. 

I look forward to having World Bank as a key partner in this process. 

Let me rest it here.

Thank you.