Background

Commonwealth Secretariat to launch first Global Small States Conference

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s first Global Small States Conference will be held in Marlborough House on 28-29 July 2010, to discuss how the Secretariat can further highlight the concerns of small states to the global community.

July’s conference will be the first in a series of biennial events to provide a platform for small states to exchange views on their challenges and highlight examples of good practice, to develop a common position on global issues and to advocate their concerns to international agencies and donors.

At the end of the two-day event, participants will deliver recommendations for promoting the interests of small states, with specific actions to be taken by the Secretariat, small states and the international community.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith said: “The first global biennial conference is particularly timely given the ongoing international review processes such as the five year review of the Mauritius Strategy and the ten year review of the Millennium Development Goals. The Secretariat is working to ensure that the conference delivers clear outcomes; and that these outcomes are linked to outcomes from these international review processes.”

The agenda for the conferences will be chosen by small states in different regions of the Commonwealth. This year’s programme will focus on:

· Emerging debt crisis of Small States

· Financing sustainable development

· Private Sector Development

· Vulnerability and Resilience, and

· International Trade and regional Cooperation

The conference will attract representatives from Commonwealth small states ranging from senior officials from ministries of finance, environment and trade, as well as development partners such as the Australian Government’s overseas aid programme (AusAID), CARICOM, the UK Department for International Development (DfID), the World Bank, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and more.

Subsequent conferences may be held in different parts of the Commonwealth.

How it all began

Ministers at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting in 2009 urged the Secretariat to collaborate with development partners to convene a biennial conference of small states representatives to promote discussion and sharing of experience.

The conference is also in response to mandates from the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which called for, among other things, promotion of sustainable development in small states and encouragement of new public-private sector partnerships.

This meeting will replace the Commonwealth Ministerial Group on Small States that used to meet in the wings of CHOGM.

What are Small States?

The Commonwealth is home to 32 of the world’s small states. The Secretariat defines a small state as a country with a population of 1.5 million or less with unique special development challenges – limited diversification, limited capacity, poverty, susceptibility to natural disasters and environmental change, remoteness and isolation, openness, and income volatility. The Secretariat’s grouping of Small States also includes the larger member countries: Botswana, Jamaica, Lesotho, Namibia and Papua New Guinea, because they share many of the same characteristics of small states.

Small states are among the most highly indebted countries in the world. With debt ratios above the International Monetary Fund recommended 60 per cent to Gross Domestic Product, some small states are effectively insolvent.