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Iceland proposes closer co-operation with the Commonwealth Secretariat

17 January 2008

Experts will visit Caribbean and Pacific regions later this year to explore opportunities for development co-operation in areas such as fishing

Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith welcomed a delegation from the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London on 11 January 2008.

The delegation, led by Jon Erlingur Jonasson, Minister Counsellor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accompanied by Kristjan Guy Burgess, Executive Director of the Icelandic Global Centre, met with Secretariat officials on their way back to Iceland from an exploratory mission to the Caribbean region.

Over the last three years, the Government of Iceland and the Secretariat have collaborated on a jointly financed and managed fisheries programme in the Pacific region. This programme of co-operation will come to a conclusion in June 2008 but may be followed by new programmes in the Pacific and the Caribbean as well. It has successfully built the capacity of more than 80 Pacific Island nationals who have been trained at both the United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme (UNU-FTP) in Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as at the University of the South Pacific.

Iceland has also proposed further collaboration with the Secretariat regarding small island developing states, following the Government of Iceland’s decision to pursue a more active programme of development assistance through its Island Growth Initiative.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, will lead an Icelandic delegation of experts to the Caribbean and the Pacific later this year to explore opportunities for development co-operation in areas such as clean energy (geothermal and hydro-electricity), ocean governance, climate change and gender issues as well as in the area of fisheries. The Caribbean Community and Common Market, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Pacific Islands Forum Secretariats will serve as regional partners. The Commonwealth Secretariat has been asked to facilitate and participate in these discussions.

The delegation also requested assistance from the Secretariat in holding a global meeting of all small island developing states from the Pacific, Caribbean, Indian and South Atlantic Oceans to discuss development challenges in a range of areas where Icelandic experience can be transferred.

Iceland is keen to share its knowledge and expertise with other small island states, having transformed its economy from being one of the poorest in Europe to holding the number one position in the UN Human Development Index.

Note to editors:

On 13 April 2005, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Government of Iceland signed a co-operation agreement to provide assistance on sustainable fisheries management to the 12 Commonwealth Pacific Island Countries (PICs) over an initial three-year period (2005-2008).

Iceland has made available a total of 18 million Iceland krona (approximately £167,000) to this programme. The assistance has focused on capacity-building in the area of (a) fisheries statistics and stock assessment, and (b) fisheries policy and planning. Personnel from the Ministries of Fisheries in PICs have been selected to attend the regular six-month training offered by the UNU-FTP in Reykjavik, while short courses have been delivered in the Pacific region.

Thirty-two members of the Commonwealth are classified as small states and the Commonwealth Secretariat has been a leading advocate of the special needs of such states, which continue to be marginalised in the global economy. Over the past six years, the economies of small states have grown less than the world average and developing countries as a whole. In 2006 for example, small states’ real GDP grew by 5.1 per cent compared with 8.1 per cent for developing countries as a whole. In addition, the current account balance of most Commonwealth small states widened in 2006. Development aid to small states is still lower than the flows received during the 1990s despite falling exports receipts due to the erosion of trade preferences. The analysis of the human development trends in small states shows that although GNI per capita has increased in all such states, some countries have experienced a decline in life expectancy and adult literacy. Small states’ development challenges include remoteness and insularity, susceptibility to natural disasters, limited institutional capacity, limited diversification, and a high degree of openness.