Montserrat Among Overseas Territories to Receive International Support to Build Climate Resilience

Montserrat is among thirteen British, Dutch, French, and United States (US) Territories in the Caribbean to qualify for international support, which would provide some assistance in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building climate resilience.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI), through Special Envoy to the Premier, Benito Wheatley, secured support at the United Nations (UN) Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Regional Preparatory Meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The regional meeting held last month, brought together SIDS in the Caribbean, including the Associate Member Countries of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The aim was to agree on priorities and identify needed international support to be included in the next SIDS international framework for sustainable development that will be agreed at the UN Fourth International Conference on SIDS in Antigua and Barbuda in 2024.

Wheatley also successfully introduced a clause on the Associate Member Countries for inclusion in the outcome document that was adopted by all participants.

Additionally, he says Caribbean Territories are also SIDS that need international support, noting the gaps in assistance to support Associate Members of ECLAC in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the need to reverse the impact of COVID-19 on their societies, as highlighted in the 2021 ECLAC High-Level Meeting of Associate Members.

Furthermore, he acknowledges that the Associate Members’ need for international support to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the SIDS sustainable development agenda, to build climate resilience, and calls for international measures to Caribbean SIDS to be extended to them.

The Associate Member Countries of ECLAC include Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Guadeloupe,Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands.

Representatives of Caribbean Governments, UN agencies,regional organizations, and civil society organizations also attended the UN Caribbean SIDS Preparatory Meeting.