{"id":204270,"date":"2024-06-11T10:26:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=204270"},"modified":"2024-06-11T10:26:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:26:51","slug":"small-island-states-press-for-global-financial-reform-tired-of-being-serfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/small-island-states-press-for-global-financial-reform-tired-of-being-serfs\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Island States Press for Global Financial Reform, Tired of Being \u2018Serfs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SOURCE: PASSBLUE- An unusually blistering heat wave smothered this Caribbean island nation just as thousands of participants from across the globe \u2014 including 22 heads of state and government \u2014 attended the fourth\u00a0United Nations conference on small island developing states<\/a>, held every decade since 1994.<\/p>

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Hosted by the American University of Antigua from May 27-30, the conference \u2014 also called SIDS4 \u2014 presented a series of dialogues, panels and buffet of side events to address the unique sustainable development challenges of the world\u2019s 37 small island developing states<\/a> face from, most notably, the crippling impacts of climate change and the burden of managing unsustainable levels of debt<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the course of the next 18 months, we need to have a new deal\u201d for SIDS, said<\/a> Prime Minister Mia Mottley<\/a> of Barbados at the conference. \u201cWe have seen some progress, but it is not enough.\u201d<\/p>

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Don’t miss a  story,  Subscribe to PassBlueSIGN UP NOW<\/p>

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Therese Turner-Jones, who grew up in the Bahamas, lived in Jamaica for 10 years and now resides in Barbados, described the \u201cabsolutely crushing\u201d heat wave during the conference as \u201chorrifying,\u201d and exactly what other countries and policymakers from outside the Caribbean needed to experience to fully sense the plight of SIDS. Their economies are disproportionately impacted by severe weather related to climate change and other external shocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner-Jones<\/a> is the vice president of operations at the Caribbean Development Bank, based in Barbados. Like most conferencegoers, drenched in layers of sunscreen mixed with sticky sweat, she said that the sultry temperatures will help outsiders better understand how SIDS feel. But whether the experience will translate into meaningful change for the special category of countries remains a looming unknown, fraught with political tensions between the West and the rest.<\/p>

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As SIDS4 wrapped on May 30, UN member states adopted the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS<\/a>), a 10-year sustainable development plan for vulnerable island nations. The ABAS is not legally binding but carries moral weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is part of a series on small states, published by PassBlue<\/a>. The series focuses on how small countries, which make up most of the UN membership, can optimize the multilateral system individually or as a bloc to enhance their prosperity, security and other governance needs.<\/p>

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\u201cThe international community has a duty to support you,\u201d UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said<\/a> in his opening remarks at the conference. The effort should \u201cbe led by the countries that have greatest responsibility and capacity to deal with the challenges you face.\u201d<\/p>

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Mottley, a frontline advocate for SIDS who was the conference\u2019s most popular participant, is the driving force behind the groundbreaking Bridgetown Initiative<\/a>. Named after the capital of Barbados and established in 2022, it seeks to reform the development finance apparatus, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, especially focusing to benefit SIDS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe tell people in the name of all of the religions of the world, protect the vulnerable,\u201d Mottley said in her husky voice. \u201cAnd the one place we don\u2019t practice what we preach is in the international political arena.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Seton<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The SIDS community of 37 UN member states is a considerable voting bloc in the UN General Assembly, although not a monolith. It represents three regions: the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and South China Sea; the Caribbean; and the Pacific. SIDS\u2019 total population<\/a> is approximately 65 million, roughly the same as South Africa, and it is spread across 1,000 distinct islands. They account for less than one percent of the world\u2019s total population, around eight billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, SIDS sit on the edge of the expanding global climate crisis even though they contribute only 1 percent of the world\u2019s carbon dioxide emissions. The top three contributors in 2022 were China, at roughly 30 percent; the United States, at 14 percent; and India, 8 percent. SIDS countries are consistently vulnerable to extreme weather events. Dorian, a category-five hurricane that devastated the Bahamas in 2019, for example, caused billions of dollars<\/a> in damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Yale Climate Connections<\/a>, a project of the university\u2019s School of the Environment, \u201cwaters across the Atlantic\u2019s tropical belt \u2014 extending from the coast of Africa through the Caribbean \u2014 are hotter now than in any other late May on record\u201d this year and will only get hotter through the summer, potentially creating a more \u201cactive and destructive\u201d hurricane season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a side event at the conference, Jerome Fitzgerald<\/a>, a senior policy adviser for the Bahamian government, said that given the grim outlook, people there are terrified of what may happen to the island in the months ahead. The 2024 hurricane season officially began on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Seton<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The worsening climate threats, combined with other vulnerabilities unique to SIDS, such as their remoteness, dependence on food imports, limited population and suffocating debt, create a vicious cycle of oppression that severely limits their development and ability to recover from extreme weather occurrences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily Wilkinson<\/a>, a research fellow and director of the resilient and sustainable islands initiative at ODI, a global think tank in London, told PassBlue that extreme weather events are not the only threats to SIDS\u2019 financial stability. Other \u201cprice shocks\u201d that raise the cost of resources, like the Covid pandemic or the war in Ukraine, can compound the debt burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UN\u2019s Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS<\/a>), \u201cOver 40% of SIDS are now on the edge of or are already grappling with unsustainable levels of debt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janine Felson, Belize\u2019s deputy permanent representative to the UN, told PassBlue by email that her small island nation of 400,000, classified as a \u201chighly indebted country\u201d by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED<\/a>), \u201cneeds help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Seton<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2020, our public debt stood at 126 percent of GDP,\u201d Felson said. \u201cAt that point, we were experiencing the worse impact from Covid, our economy was on pause, and we were still paying our debts for our daring attempts to keep our promise to Belizean people. We cannot cope on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cUnsustainable debt means unsustainable development for SIDS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another widely debated initiative at SIDS4 was the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI<\/a>). Considered a milestone in international financial reform, the index captures a country\u2019s needs by providing a more accurate, tailored assessment of its vulnerabilities and overall well-being, rather than using the narrow lens of gross national income (GNI) per person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shade was in short supply at outdoor gatherings during the three-day SIDS conference amid a keenly felt heat wave. UNDESA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIreland has been working with SIDS for many years now, in support of their calls for an assessment of prosperity and progress,\u201d Fergal Mythen, Ireland\u2019s ambassador to the UN, said in an email to PassBlue. \u201cThe MVI can be an important tool for the UN, the international financial institutions and others to address SIDS needs and build their resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while many participants welcomed the MVI, a political fault line has quickly emerged between advocates of reform from the global South, such as Mottley and Gaston Browne<\/a>, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and what they call the \u201cpost-colonial powers\u201d from the global North, who are resistant to upending the long-entrenched global financial system that benefits the powerful, the advocates say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Global<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although the MVI has been finalized, it has yet to be officially adopted. Negotiations in the UN General Assembly, led by Portugal and Antigua, continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a problem for the SIDS and not the US or other donor countries. They\u2019re kind of logged into a system that appears to work for them,\u201d Godfrey Baldacchino<\/a>, a professor at the University of Malta, said to PassBlue after the conference. \u201cIt also allows them to practice soft diplomacy on their own terms. If I\u2019m giving you [SIDS] money, I\u2019d rather decide and determine the terms. I don\u2019t want you to pull the carpet from under my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mottley believes that the core problem for SIDS development is the missing political will among the powerful, which is a recurring problem from the viewpoint of the global South as they push for more equality with the North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She warned that if the rules of the global financial assistance game don\u2019t change for SIDS, \u201cWe will continue to be serfs, for want of a better phrase, with a feudal overlord system [of] the countries that were former colonizers who have continued to be able to direct the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mottley\u2019s ability to speak plainly and avoiding hollow diplomatic buzzwords make her a sought-after leader in the SIDS space. She\u2019s the kind of person you would want to be sitting in the exit row if the plane you were on was forced to make an emergency landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Global<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Baldacchino believes that Mottley, \u201cthe champion\u201d of SIDS reform, he says, will continue to push for an overhaul of the international finance institutions after the conference has ended. \u201cWatch that space,\u201d he said. \u201cThings are going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for what the SIDS4 accomplished, Baldacchino said it\u2019s the \u201cinformal agenda\u201d that will benefit SIDS. \u201cThe meetings, the coffee breaks, the snacks, the lobbying, the networking, all that will be a kind of investment that these small states may be able to cash in subsequent to these events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd don\u2019t underestimate the fact that for a week, the attention of some media in the world were focused on Antigua,\u201d Baldacchino added. \u201cThis is not something that small states enjoy on a regular basis. It\u2019s a very, very rare thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond SIDS4, Antigua\u2019s Browne, who remains \u201cvery hopeful,\u201d insisted that those on the reform frontlines must keep fighting, \u201cespecially for developing countries and small island states.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the conference sidelines, PassBlue met with Richard Verma<\/a>, the US deputy secretary of state for management and resources, at the four-star Hodges Bay Resort and Spa in Antigua, where the US delegation was staying (led by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland<\/a>). Verma said the US tries to address the issues special to SIDS \u201cthrough our own kind of bilateral and regional approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s about showing up,\u201d he said, \u201cshowing up with resources\u201d and working \u201cmultilaterally and bilaterally on the policy issues, so that their voices are heard . . . . These are sovereign countries with their own ideas, with their own histories, which are superimportant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US sent 50 interagency representatives to Antigua and contributed $300,000 to the costs of the SIDS4 conference, Verma noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabo Verde has offered to host the next conference, 10 years from now. Rabab Fatima<\/a> runs the UN\u2019s Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States office and is a special adviser to SIDS4. The Summit of the Future<\/a>, to be held at the UN in September, she says, is \u201ca critical opportunity for SIDS to elevate their concerns and priorities on the global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can \u201cleave no one behind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Hosted by the American University of Antigua from May 27-30, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":204271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSmall Island States Press for Global Financial Reform, Tired of Being \u2018Serfs\u2019 - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/small-island-states-press-for-global-financial-reform-tired-of-being-serfs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small Island States Press for Global Financial Reform, Tired of Being \u2018Serfs\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SOURCE: PASSBLUE- An unusually blistering heat wave smothered this Caribbean island nation just as thousands of participants from across the globe \u2014 including 22 heads of state and government \u2014 attended the fourth\u00a0United Nations conference on small island developing states, held every decade since 1994. 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