THE Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment yesterday convened a meeting of the technical committee to the National Sustainable Development Bureau, which was recently established by Cabinet. This Bureau is headed by President Donald Ramotar. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the compilation of Guyana’s national programme of action as preparations intensify for the country’s participation at the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to be held in 2014 in the State of Samoa.
According to the Government Information Agency (GINA), this conference will focus the world’s attention on a group of countries that remains a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities.
Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Navin Chandarpal, who is the government’s lead person on this agenda, will liaise with the Bureau and the technical committee to draft a background report, which will then be the subject of a national consultation process.
The inputs garnered from the consultations will be incorporated into the national report which has a mid-year deadline. The SIDS initiative came out of the 1992 RIO Conference.
SIDS are low-lying coastal countries that tend to share similar sustainable development challenges, including small but growing populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on international trade, and fragile environments.