Statement
by the Honourable Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa,
Prime Minister of Samoa and the Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
at the
Opening Ceremony for the Fourth International Conference on SIDS
27 May 2024. St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda
As Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, and host of the last SIDS Conference, it is an honour for me to address this august assembly, and to hand the helm to Antigua and Barbuda.
SIDS set out on this journey with high aspirations and ambitious ideas which according to media personality Naman Mishra, “are the seeds of innovation, the catalysts of change, and the driving forces behind progress. Ideas have the remarkable capacity to inspire action, to challenge the status quo, and to push the boundaries of what is possible.”
They have the power to change the world. Their impact can change the course of history.
And often, they have.
We arrived here, in the beautiful islands of Antigua and Barbuda determined to right our sails. As we did in Samoa a decade ago, and in Mauritius and Barbados two decades prior, we as SIDS have held fast to the conviction that our sustainable development is not a wistful notion, but a belief grounded in absolute possibility.
Hope belies our resilience. We hold on to the idea of our resilient nations even during what can often seem like an impossibility. Any cursory look at the world we live in reveals a space of conflict, want and inequality.
Our future seems precariously perched.
The seas rise, our debts mushroom , our people struggle, and we are told to keep heart, to bear up. It's a story that predates the First International Conference on SIDS.
But a better world is possible. It is our intrinsic belief that we can in fact right our sails and create a world where the idea of our resilient development is not farfetched.
Perhaps the difficulty, as economist Keynes puts it, “lies not so much in developing new ideas but escaping from old ones”. The path to real change can seem almost hopeless, especially when this intractable system seems so fixated on maintaining itself. Even when the socio-economic imperative to act seems certain, we hesitate on political expediencies.
The decades-long approach of the multilateral system was perhaps more acceptable years ago, but the same cannot be said today. We know well that the layered crises we are observing across the world leave little room and time to manouver. Working in silos is not the answer. We know that SIDS are facing unenviable decisions - the choice between the recovery of today or the development of tomorrow.
Throughout this week leaders from across the SIDS regions will petition for greater equity, for the international community to see us today, as they did in 1994, as a group of countries whose unique vulnerability warrants treatment as a special case for sustainable development.
I do not doubt that our leaders will speak about a world where economic growth and well-being ought to be sustained and our economies are robust, diversified, adaptable and able to withstand shocks, ensuring social equity, and promoting environmental sustainability.
There is also no doubt that they will remind us that the next ten years are critical for SIDS. They might note that a new context is emerging where the economic, social, and environmental as well as geopolitical threats to SIDS development are so great that they can only be diminished by a reinvigorated enabling environment that gives meaningful effect to our sustainable development.
My call to you then is simple - remain focused: recollect SIDS remain a special case for sustainable development; reaffirm that action costs little but inaction can cost much; and recommit to grand ideas where countries, small or large, are all deserving.
In 1994 we set out on a noble path. We agreed that small islands and low-lying coastal developing States deserved special treatment. We formed partnerships and enabled action. But friends, it has not been enough. Often, we were too slow to act, or failed to act.
This week we are gathered in a unity of purpose. We are assembled to be bold, to create ideas with the power to change the world, and to confirm our commitment to SIDS through the ideas espoused in two Samoan proverbs: “E soso’o le fau ma le fau” – Unity is strength and resilience; “O I tatou ole fogavaa e tasi.” – Our common destiny is within sight when bound to partnership.
Let us not leave these shores with anything less.
I wish to thank our wonderful hosts, the honourable Gaston Browne and the warm people of Antigua and Barbuda for that distinctive island hospitality. Prime Minister, you and your team have gone above and beyond to ensure a successful SIDS4 and a time well-remembered, and we are grateful.
I also wish to thank the co-chairs of the SIDS4 Preparatory Committee, the Permanent Representatives of Maldives, and New Zealand to the United Nations, for leading us through what was not an easy, but wholly important process towards the completion of the outcome document for this Conference. The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) is our renewed declaration for our resilient prosperity. It is our guiding beacon for the next decade of action.
I wish us all well.
Soifua.--ENDS
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