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UNESCO launches IslandWatch and wins award at conference developing ten-year roadmap for Small Island Developing States
Every ten years, the United Nations organizes a conference to establish a roadmap for fostering sustainable development and greater resilience in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The theme of this fourth conference was Charting the Course toward Resilient Prosperity. The main outcome is the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS: a Renewed Declaration for Resilient Prosperity. This roadmap supersedes the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway (SAMOA Pathway) adopted in 2014.
The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS outlines the 10 priority areas for SIDS for the next ten years, namely: Building Economic Resilience; Scaling up Climate Action and Support; Scaling up Biodiversity Action; Conserving and Sustainably Using the Ocean and its Resources; Mainstreaming Disaster Risks; Safe and Healthy Societies; Data collection, Analysis and Use; Science, Technology, Innovation and Digitalization; Productive Populations; and, lastly, Partnerships.
Transcultura programme wins award
On 28 May, the UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, won the prestigious United Nations SIDS Partnerships Award in the ‘Social’ category for its implementation of the SAMOA Pathway. Transcultura received the award at a ceremony broadcast by UNTV at 4 pm Paris time on 10 July at which UNESCO was represented by Alessandra Borchi, general coordinator of Transcultura.
Over the past four years, the Transcultura programme has been fostering entrepreneurship in cultural and creative industries among youth in 17 SIDS to compensate for the sharp drop in tourism since the COVID-19 pandemic. Transcultura has resulted in the establishment of the Caribbean Cultural Training Hub, which is fostering synergies between key educational institutions in Cuba and the Caribbean.
Over 1,600 young people from 17 SIDS in the Caribbean have benefited from the programme, more than half of them women. In addition, 600 cultural professionals have been trained through a combination of in-person and online courses.
Transcultura has also facilitated cultural exchanges involving over 200 organizations from the Caribbean and European Union.
UNESCO launches IslandWatch programme
UNESCO launched its new IslandWatch programme on 28 May at a side event of the SIDS4 conference. IslandWatch builds on the Sandwatch programme, which UNESCO launched in 2001.
Sandwatch engaged teachers, school pupils and local communities in monitoring their beach and coastal environments using a scientific approach based on the collection and analysis of evidence. Students learned, for example, how to test seawater for pollutants and take regular measurements over time to ascertain to what extent the beach was undergoing erosion. They also learned to care for their beaches better by establishing a limited number of footpaths to protect the fragile plants growing on sand dunes, which anchor spare sand. Sandwatch was recognized in 2014 as being one of the 25 most successful projects of the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development.
IslandWatch expands the scope of monitoring beyond coastal ecosystems to address broader environmental challenges, such as threats to biodiversity, marine and freshwater resources. By integrating contemporary digital and other technological advances, IslandWatch will be modernizing monitoring methods while supporting the development of data and information management systems by engaging academic institutions to ensure that these can provide the requisite evidence to inform local and national education and environmental policy frameworks.
During the side event on 28 May, UNESCO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Ocean Commission which builds on the previous agreement and establishes a formal partnership for the rollout of the IslandWatch pilot in Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The pilot phase will also benefit other countries that used to be heavily involved in Sandwatch and which have expressed interest in contributing to the revamped programme. In the Caribbean region, these pilot countries will be the Dominican Republic, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago. In the Pacific region, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Kiribati will be participating.
IslandWatch has a budget of US$1.9 million, US$1.2 million of which still needs to be mobilized.
UNESCO building resilience to natural disasters
UNESCO is also implementing projects to reinforce island resilience to natural disasters. For instance, since August 2022, UNESCO has partnered with coastal communities in Guanahacabibes Peninsula Biosphere Reserve in Cuba to restore mangrove forests and bolster the local economy. Mangrove forests serve as coastal communities’ first line of defence against climate change, as they play a crucial role in protecting coastal communities from strong winds and waves and in combating erosion caused by sea-level rise.
Between 2018 and 2020, UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme worked with local communities and school children in La Selle Biosphere Reserve and beyond to reforest the bare hills. In 1960, about 60% of Haitian territory was covered by forest. By 2011, this proportion had shrunk to 3.5%. Since about half of the country is hilly, this deforestation has led to severe erosion. Without trees and shrubs to retain moisture, rainwater carries off precious topsoil and can easily destabilize the soils, leading to landslides. The growing frequency and strength of hurricanes and tropical storms is making both flooding and landslides more common in Haiti.
Another project implemented in Haiti between 2021 and 2023 sought to make buildings more resilient to earthquakes. This project inspected more than 620 schools and trained more than 600 masons, 200 foremen and 200 civil engineers and students of engineering – including 80 female engineers – how to retrofit unsafe buildings and use safe construction techniques to ensure that buildings could withstand earthquake tremors.
A similar project was implemented in the Dominican Republic over the same period. Here, UNESCO trained local students of engineering and architecture how to assess the vulnerability of schools to an earthquake and correct this vulnerability through retrofitting and other measures.
Resilience starts with good data
At the SIDS4 conference, UNESCO explored how the digital transformation is accelerating socio-economic resilience in island nations. Since 2021, UNESCO has been collaborating with the private sector, governments, academia, civil society and the public to craft a Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Policy Roadmap, as part of an effort originally initiated by the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers SIDS an opportunity to modernize their institutions and infrastructure by digitizing public services for greater efficiency and more inclusive socio-economic growth. However, to make the most of AI's potential, small island nations will need to put policies and safeguards in place to address AI’s potential downsides.
Despite the crucial role that sex-disaggregated data play in informing water management and governance, these data are almost non-existent in SIDS. In July 2023, experts from UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme conducted a household survey on Malolo Island in Fiji, where the absence of rivers makes the population entirely reliant on rainfall and a limited amount of groundwater. The survey found a good distribution of tanks to collect rainwater but that these tanks were in need of maintenance and renovation and that villagers often lacked the requisite skills to undertake minor repairs. The survey was accompanied by a fact-finding workshop for the benefit of technical officers from the Water Authority of Fiji and the Fiji Meteorological Service.
SIDS are stewards of vast ocean territories that span about 30% of the ocean. Their sheer expanse makes it imperative to collect data to ensure that decisions about strengthening resilience and fostering sustainable development are based on solid evidence.
One threat that SIDS face are invasive marine species. This is a crucial issue, given the importance of fisheries for SIDS. For the past three years, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has been assisting Pacific Island countries in putting an early warning system in place for these ‘bioinvasions’. Through the PacMAN project, it has been training local scientific personnel how to collect environmental DNA samples from the waste, mucus or cells of fish and other marine species then analyse this genetic material to identify the species. With this method, it becomes possible to identify a species without interacting directly with it.
In December 2023, UNESCO launched the Ocean Decade Capacity Development Facility, which focuses on building skills in ocean science in SIDS, least developed countries and among early-career professionals. At the SIDS4 conference in May, the Ocean Decade partnered with Fugro to underscore the intricate interconnection between coastal resilience and ocean data.
