Session Objective

To showcase the Coalition’s commitment for charting the course towards disaster resilient infrastructure in SIDS by enabling a data ecosystem for disaster and climate risks.

Session Overview

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are highly prone to disasters due to climate change and extreme weather events such as sea level rise, coastal flooding and erosion, tsunamis and storm surges. Most of these island states also face development challenges that constrain their economic prospects such as remoteness to global markets, poor connectivity, lack of economies of scale, inadequate labour mobility, low levels of development combined with rapid population growth and limited capacity to adapt. 

Alternatively, due to their geography and natural resource base, they offer unique opportunities for the growth of eco-tourism, fisheries and forestry sectors, amongst others. Leveraging these opportunities requires significant investment in infrastructure, especially in sectors such as transport, electricity, housing, tourism, water, sanitation and coastal protection. Given the need for infrastructure investment and to reap long-term benefits from these investments, it is imperative SIDS address their disaster and climate risks and adopt a resilient pathway for sustainable development. 

 At present, SIDS face many institutional challenges to successfully build these resilient pathways. To address these challenges, the outcome document for the Interregional Preparatory Meeting of the 4th International Conference on SIDS has stressed the three key areas of intervention from the international community. These areas are: 

• Technology and Innovation 
• Capacity Building Support  
• Innovative adaptation finance mechanism

Against this backdrop, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is organising this session to bring together key SIDS stakeholders to discuss the need for a fully functioning and effective regional and global coordination mechanisms that will enable creation of pathways to achieve sustainable development goals in SIDS. The deliberations in this session will circle around the three key areas intervention identified in the inter-regional outcome document.