Already, several Caribbean Ministers, government officials, experts, leaders of non-governmental organisations and representatives of Regional organisations including Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General, His Excellency Edwin Carrington, and Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Professor E. Nigel Harris are participating in the Meeting. Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Director-General, Dr. Len Ishmael is also expected at the Mauritius meeting on Tuesday.

At the United Nations-sponsored meeting, which is being held under the theme, “Small Islands, Big Stakes,” the Caribbean Region is pressing for greater commitment and more funding for programmes in sustainable development and related areas including disaster mitigation – especially the setting up of early warning systems, vulnerability reduction, resilience building, trade adjustment, energy, tourism and culture.

The International Meeting on the Sustainable Development of SIDS, which is being held in the capital city of Port Louis in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius is reviewing progress in implementing the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) which was approved at the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States held in Barbados in 1994.

There is consensus that implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action has been slow, delayed by among other things, a lack of financial resources. In addition to vulnerability and sustainable development challenges faced by small island states, the small islands are also pressing for the inclusion of issues such as culture, trade, HIV/AIDS and security concerns - items they hope to discuss with representatives of large countries and international donor organisations at the Mauritius meeting.

CARICOM’s technical team includes Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, Professor Rex Nettleford; former Assistant Secretary-General of CARICOM, Mr. Byron Blake; and Executive Director of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, Mr. Vincent Sweeney.

Highlighting the plight of small states in regions like the Caribbean, President of the International Meeting, Prime Minister Paul Raymond Bérenger of Mauritius, during his opening address, noted that the Pacific and Caribbean regions have been suffering the most from a recent spate of natural disasters. In its response, he said, the Government of Mauritius has supported the relief efforts for the victims of the tsunami in Asia and has decided to contribute to the disaster relief and recovery funds in The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Grenada and Jamaica in a show of solidarity.

In a statement to the Meeting, Officer-in-Charge of the Trinidad-based United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Mr. Rudolf Buitelaar, noted that despite financial constraints, much has been accomplished by the SIDS of the Caribbean, using for the most part, their own resources. He pointed to advances in the areas of Climate Change, Coastal Zone Management, Waste Management and Tourism. He said Caribbean SIDS have also acquired an enhanced understanding of the sustainable development process and have established a range of institutions and management modalities such as environmental management authorities and national biodiversity strategies and action plans. These steps, he said are in addition to laws which have been enacted that recognize the complexities of integrating environmental concerns into the development process.

Despite these achievements, the ECLAC official pointed out, Caribbean small island states face serious constraints to building resilience to confront the several dimensions of their vulnerability.

In the first plenary session of the International Meeting on Monday, The Bahamas, Barbados and Belize were elected as Vice Presidents of the Meeting from the Latin America and Caribbean group of countries, while Barbados’ Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Christopher Hackett was elected Rapporteur-General.

As a fitting prelude to a major discussion on culture on Tuesday, January 11, Monday’s opening ceremony featured a cross section of the children of Mauritius performing the Caribbean ballad, ‘Island in the Sun’, made famous by Harry Belafonte. A panel discussion on, ‘The Role of Culture in the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States’, will be an important part of the meeting’s agenda on Tuesday. Caribbean scholar and cultural icon, Professor Rex Nettleford will be the keynote speaker at a Caribbean partnership event on Tuesday focusing on Vulnerability and Cultural Resilience in the Caribbean.

Professor Nettleford’s address will deal with Culture and Resilience-Building in the Caribbean, while Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the Indies (UWI) St. Augustine campus, Dr. John Agard and Senior Lecturer at Mona, Dr. Michael Witter will speak on the Vulnerabilities of Caribbean SIDS. At the event, a presentation of partnership proposals in culture will be made by Programme Manager for Culture at the CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Hilary Brown.