The Transition from Small Island Developing States to Large Ocean States: The Promise and Problems in Pursuing the Blue Economy

Excerpt and Photo Credit: saisreview.sais.jhu.edu

The earliest formal designation of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a distinct group of developing countries with their own set of specific challenges occurred in 1992 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is commonly referred to as the Earth Summit. There, the UN recognized the sustainable development challenges facing SIDS and the need to implement programs and measures to support them. Preceding the conference, small island states established the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). Comprising nearly 20% of UN membership, the AOSIS provides SIDS a platform to pursue collective goals. They used this entity to lobby for the first UN conference devoted exclusively to SIDS in 1994 in Barbados, with the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. Since then, the UN has continued to focus attention on these countries as a “special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities,” with its most recent conference on SIDS taking place in May 2024 on St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda.