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STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR. EDWIN CARRINGTON, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY, AT THE TWENTY SECOND SPECIAL SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON THE REVIEW AND APPRAISAL OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAMME OF ACTION FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL ISLAND DEVELOPING STATES, 28 SEPTEMBER 1999, NEW YORK

Mr. President,
Distinguished delegates,

Mr President, we thank you for the opportunity to address this august chamber on a subject which spells life or death to the countries of our Region – the Caribbean.

Held as it was in Barbados – a founding Member State of the Caribbean Community – the 1994 SIDS Conference and the resultant Barbados Plan of Action are of particular significance to the Caribbean Community.

As a fifteen member grouping of twelve small islands and three low lying coastal states, the Caribbean Community is the largest economic grouping of small States Members of the United Nations.

The Member States of the Caribbean Community are vulnerable to virtualy all the classic problems of small states, some more than others . They are located in a geographic region highly susceptible to natural disasters – hurricanes, storms, floods, droughts, earthquakes and volcanoes. And, while other countries do experience many, if not all of these natural disasters the significant difference in the case of the Caribbean and other small island states, is that as a result of their small size, the impact of these disasters tend invariably to leave no corner unaffected.

Many of these disasters are related to climate change and global warming, two phenomena to the causes of which small islands states contribute little, but from which, they are likely to suffer most.

The latest information suggests that these various disasters, natural and man induced, are likely to increase in numbers and intensity and are projected to cause even greater loss of life and of economic and social facilities and infrastructure. The frequency and intensity of recent hurricanes in the Caribbean Region would suggest, unfortunately, that this projection might well be correct.

In evaluating the quality of life therefore in these States, those who are guided simply by somewhat bloated per capita income levels must understand that such income levels need to be seriously deflated by an appropriate Vulnerability Index if one is to arrive at a realistic real sustainable quality of life. Also such an Index must have relevance and reference to by the entire International Community and its relevant institutions. In the present circumstances, therefore, all those who tend to see these territories as paradise , must please understand, that there is a serious downside to paradise!

Mr. President,

The CARICOM States are also highly open economies, significantly dependent on agricultural exports, mainly traded under preferential arrangements. Indeed , this was how the foundation of these economies was laid . These economies are now being seriously adversely affected by the current process of globalization and trade and financial liberalization and to an all-too-rapid dismantling of those preferential trading arrangements. The banana case is only the most dramatic.

The resulting vulnerability and volatility of their export earnings to these and other external economic shocks, factors over which they have no control whatsoever, are well known. It is not surprising therefore that nine of the fourteen independent CARICOM States are among the twenty five most vulnerable States in the world.

Mr. President,

This Special Session and the upcoming WTO Ministerial Meeting therefore present ideal opportunities for the international community to address both the natural and policy induced sources of vulnerability of Small Island Developing States. It is an opportunity that the international community cannot squander with impunity!

Mr President,

We in CARICOM like many other Small Island Developing States, have not been standing idle in this regard. We have been pursuing various measures to protect our environment and enhance our sustainability . In doing so we have received some support from our external partners for which we are deeply appreciative. A few examples of regional level action will demonstrate:

  • with respect to our living marine resources, we have been implementing with significant assistance from Canada, a Caribbean Fisheries Resources Assessment and Management programme. We sincerely hope that the assistance can continue as we move to a longer term more regionally sustained effort;
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  • with respect to sea-level rise, we have just commenced the implementation of a Caribbean Programme for Adaptation to Climate Change to provide data and develop human resources. For these activities we have received assistance from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and from the Organisation of American States (OAS). We trust that this assistance will be continued over a longer phase as this problem, like most of the constraints facing these small states, cannot be removed overnight;
  • with respect to disaster mitigation and response, we have created a Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to prepare for and coordinate response to disasters. Resources are needed to strengthen this into a Preparation Response and Recovery Agency. More UNDP assistance is urgently needed as bilateral ODA continues to decline.
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  • with respect to environment policy, we and the European Union have just agreed on a European Union financed Environment Programme for the countries of CARIFORUM.
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Mr. President,

With respect to the Caribbean Sea – the common environmental endowment of the entire region – we have launched a project seeking a United Nations Resolution for the International Recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the Context of Sustainable Development, with the full support of the entire membership of the Association of Caribbean States. The aim is to protect and preserve this most valuable asset and regional patrimony. We thank all those States who have already signified their support for this initiative and trust that those members , who continue to harbour doubts, will join us in the weeks ahead in taking the first step towards the achievement of this objective which will undoubtedly be to the benefit of all Member States of the United Nations.

Mr. President,

The Work Programme of the Caribbean Community Secretariat, which I have the honour to lead, has from 1995 – the year after the Barbados Global Conference – included a specific focus and priority on sustainable development commencing by lending visibility to the outcome of the 1994 Barbados Conference.

One year after Barbados, our Ministers Responsible for the Environment met in Trinidad and Tobago to review the SIDS / Plan of Action and create a coordinating mechanism for follow-up. The task was entrusted to the CARICOM Secretariat and the Port of Spain Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (UN/ECLAC) . Unfortunately, although our two Agencies continue to work closely together, to this end, neither has had the necessary resources to make this mechanism sufficiently effective.

Mr. President,

More generally, to diminish the limitations of the naturally imposed smallness of our countries we have been deepening our integration arrangements to create out of fifteen individual economies, including Haiti, a Single Market and Economy with special provision therein for the arrangement among the smallest of our already small states – the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The overall arrangement will not only create for us a little more size but will help to better position us to become more effectively integrated into the globalizing international economy.

We are therefore, Mr. President, very conscious that much depends on our own efforts. We are however equally conscious that our efforts can only be successful in a positive and responsive international environment; an international environment which recognizes a place and role for even its smallest and most vulnerable Members.

Mr. President,

The Caribbean Community welcomes the three new members of the United Nations – Kiribati, Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga, all members of our sister Organisation, The South Pacific Forum and of the Alliance of Small States. We look forward to working with them in our joint efforts on behalf of the Small Island Developing States of the SIDS.

Mr President,

The Members of the Caribbean Community have been greatly encouraged by many of the statements of understanding expressed during the Special Session, by the developed and larger developing States, of the plight of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). We intend to hold you to your word! We look forward to the international community to adopt and implement the policies, including providing the resources, which would add more muscle to the Barbados Plan of Action and impact positively on the condition of Small Island Developing States, as part of the United Nations of the Twenty First Century.

Mr President, the United Nations cannot afford to hold forth as its promise to mankind for the new millennium, a world comprising large rich countries and small , poor and vulnerable ones!!

I close Mr. President, by thanking you for your skillful guidance of this debate which can prove decisive for the condition of humanity in the coming century. We thank the Secretary General and his staff for their continuing outstanding service to all mankind and we wish the United Nations an even more glorious Twenty First Century.

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