Pacific SIDS group at the UN

19 May, 2014

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Pacific SIDS group at the UN

The Pacific Small Island Developing States (Pacific SIDS) bloc has attended the UN General Assembly Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to highlight three priority areas for the SDGs, which will soon replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): oceans, climate change, and fostering peaceful and inclusive societies. The group says the goals and targets must reflect the special circumstances of SIDS and other vulnerable groups. However, since these issues were amongst newer proposed areas, it was still uncertain at the conclusion of their UN session as to whether these areas will be included. A summary of this latest session can be found here.

General agreement was reached on areas related to “unfinished business” in the MDGs that will continue, i.e. poverty eradication, food security, education, health, gender, and water. Meanwhile, Vanuatu’s newly appointed Ambassador to the UN focused on the transition from MDGs to SDGs at a recent breakfast forum hosted by PiPP. This is the 11^th of 13 Open Working Group sessions mandated by the Rio+20 Outcome document to prepare a proposal on SDGs for consideration by the UN Assembly.

This article was written by

Frida initially joined PiPP under the research internship programme. She continues to support the ongoing development of communication activities and maintaining our website. Outside of PiPP, she is deputy-chair of the board of Youth Challenge Vanuatu.

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