International financing is the fuel for sustainable development, but small island States are “running on empty” – drowning in debt and rising sea levels due to climate change and through no fault of their own.
That’s the warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Day Two of the pivotal Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) taking place in the Caribbean twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda this week.
The 39 States known collectively as SIDS have been uniquely vulnerable to the trifecta of COVID – which crippled the tourism many rely on – the Russian invasion of Ukraine; and “battered by a climate catastrophe they did not create”, said Mr. Guterres.
SIDS are paying more to service their own debt than they invest in healthcare and education, the UN chief warned, leaving these nations unable to make the investments they need to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Many of them are classified as Middle-Income, shutting them out of the debt support reserved for the poorest nations.
“SIDS are doing everything they can”, Mr. Guterres continued, pointing to the advocacy of Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne to develop a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index that “truly reflects” the needs of SIDS.
Fellow Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados has also spearheaded the Bridgetown Initiative to transform lending and provide inclusive and resilient finance. The Pacific nation of Samoa has led the Alliance of Small Island States’ initiative to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund and fairly compensate vulnerable nations for the impact of corrosive climate change.
“You are leading by example”, the UN chief told delegates from the representatives of island nations gathered in Antigua, “but too often you are facing closed doors – from institutions and systems that you had no hand in creating”.