Islands Afloat

Small Island Developing States (SIDS), or Large Ocean States, in the Caribbean and Pacific, vary from a single island to complex archipelagos and from atolls to high islands. All face development challenges ranging from size, location and hazards, notably climate change, to terms of trade, crime and migration policies. SIDS populations are increasingly coastal, offering both possibilities for and challenges to livelihoods, which are here assessed against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SIDS have increasingly been recognised as a formal group with collective objectives, most recently set out in the ‘Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS’ that stresses health, gender equality, water, energy and food security. SIDS seek to move strategically towards a more equitable and sustainable blue economy, in what is seen in the Pacific as a Blue Pacific Continent, that takes advantage of their large Exclusive Economic Zones. Such changes and strategies occur in a context where global geopolitics has substantial repercussions for the SIDS.