Barbados+10 Mauritius ‘05

UNESCO’s contributions to MIM – Plenary Panel on Culture – Youth Visioning special event – Small Islands Voice side event – Ocean and Coastal Management partnership event – Civil Society Forum support – ‘Lest We Forget’ exhibition – Media coverage – Information materials

Plenary Panel:‘Role of Culture in the Sustainable Development of SIDS’ – To examine broad, holistic definition of culture embraced by UNESCO & review its importance for sustainable development of SIDS – Strong support for recognition of culture as essential and all-pervading dimension of human living and development – Culture identified as fourth pillar of sustainable (island) development – Areas for priority action include: - Involving communities in policy-making and safe guarding cultural heritage - Improving management of natural and cultural heritage sites - Invest in cultural industries to generate new and indigenous forms of employment and exports - Teach and transmit traditional community values and associated local and indigenous knowledge in basic education, Video on CD & web.

Youth Visioning for Island Living – 96 young people from 31 SIDS and six island territories with other affiliations – Discussing their perceptions and aspirations for the future of their islands – Supported by various host country, regional and international partners, besides UNESCO video on CD & web

Youth commitments for follow-up work – Life and Love in Islands – island lifestyles and cultures (17 projects) – My Island Home – safeguarding island environments (15 projects) – Money in my pocket – economic and employment opportunities (11 projects)

Small Islands Voice (SIV) Side Events - Island memories - Preserving and promoting island cultures - Connecting islands via the internet - Eco-friendly practices for sustainable living in small islands - Community visioning in small islands

Outcomes of Mauritius Meeting Mauritius Declaration & Mauritius Strategy (MS) - reaffirm Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) remains ‘blue print’, and call for action in: Original priority areas of BPOA - Climate change and sea-level rise - Natural & environmental disasters - Management of wastes - Coastal & marine resources - Freshwater, Land, Energy res. - Tourism, Biodiversity resources - Transport & communication - Science & technology New & Emerging Issues - Sust. capacity dev. & ESD - Sust. production & consumption - Health (HIV/AIDS) - Culture - Trade: globalization & liberalization - National and regional enabling env. - Knowledge management & information for decision making

UN-NY follow-up Resolution on the MIM to be adopted by UN Gen. Assembly, Sept.’2005 Main elements include: - Articulate plan for implementing MS by relevant UN bodies, specialised agencies, regional commissions and other UN system organisations - Support regional SIDS meetings in with relevant regional organisations and stakeholders for follow-up MS implementation - Encourage Member States to contribute to SIDS Trust Fund - Strengthen SIDS Unit in Dept. Economic & Social Affairs (DESA) - Relevant UN agencies to further mainstream the MS in their programmes and establish SIDS focal point

UNESCO FOLLOW-UP - Intersectoral Information meeting for Perm. Delegations (16 March) - with Group of SIDS Ambassadors led by Mauritius Ambassador - Preliminary indications on proposed follow-up by Programme Sectors and through Youth Visioning process - Six-part approach with Mauritius Strategy as essential reference

UNESCO follow-up 1. Generating relevant inputs from Natural Sciences Sector 2. Generating Inputs from other Programme Sectors 3. Taking into account Participation Programme activities in SIDS 4. Dedicated Web Section on UNESCO response to the MS 5. Elaboration of new activities as specific responses to the MS: - SIV planning meeting - Documenting Pacific Island responses to SD challenges & UNESCO role in furthering SD in Pacific Islands - Input UN operationalization plan, e.g. Culture, Youth Visioning 6. House-wide follow-up via SIDS Working Group Work ongoing with respect to above items

UNESCO follow-up Selected activity areas in the Mauritius Strategy Climate Change & Sea-level rise -Ocean Carbon Programme: monitoring and assessing ocean’s role as carbon sink -Global ocean observations to monitor climate variability and change (IOC/GOOS) -Impact of climate change on rainfall, snowfall and glaciers (IHP/WCP)

Knowledge Management and Information for Decision Making 150 media development projects since the 1980s through International Programme for Development of Communications (IPDC) In , 19 new media projects approved for SIDS, totalling US$497,000. Some examples: Tonga: Contributing to alleviation of poverty through media for outlying islands Fiji: Community broadcasting development project Fiji: Women speaking to women in Fiji Solomon Islands: Media training for peace and reconciliation Mauritius: Post-production and professional training centre in East Africa Cape Verde: Media law reform Bahamas: Building community media capacity environmental stewardship St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Enhancing broadcast and production capacity at NBC radio

Freshwater resources - World Water Assessment Programme - Freshwater management issues in small islands addressed in the second interagency World Water Development Report - Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) programme of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) established in the Pacific - Regional training programme for hydrology scientists and technicians and regional hydrology networking in the Pacific - Trinidad & Tobago. Assessing the human watershed aquifer through the establishment of an experimental catchment - Discussion on SIVglobal forum: conservation and sustainable management of water UN wide: : International Decade 'Water for Life'

Health Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH) initiative - UNESCO & other strategic partners Areas: School health policies; Water, sanitation & the environment; Skills-based health education; School health services; HIV/AIDS; Food and nutrition; hygiene; Malaria;Violence;Drugs, alcohol & tobacco Projects (Caribbean): - assessment of implications of HIV/AIDS for early childhood schooling - developing methodology for estimating and projecting the prevalence of HIV/AIDS within the national educational sector - reinforcing cultural and communication dimensions in combating HIV/AIDS - handbook for use by health workers In the framework of Youth Visioning: Cape Verde: Youth & children against HIV/AIDS St. Lucia: Raising awareness through youth and for youth about HIV/AIDS UNAIDS - joint UN programme on HIV/AIDS

Coastal and Marine Resources - Development of ‘Global Ocean Observation System’ in SIDS regions - Coastal zone management workshop, Barbados April ‘05 - Support to Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts & Islands - Coral Reef Monitoring, Research & Capacity Building - Training course for young specialists – ‘Coastal, island and wetland biosphere reserves’: Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zanzibar - Capacity building for mitigating coastal erosion in Cuba - Sandwatch activities in many SIDS

Natural and Environmental disasters - Scientific study and mitigation of natural hazards: earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides and drought - Launching of Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (June 2005) - I nventory and assessment of biosphere reserves damaged or destroyed during the earthquake disaster - Groundwater for Emergency Situations project - Conservation and sustainable rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems following the tsunami of Dec. ’ 04

Culture - Intangible Heritage: SIDS to ratify the 2003 Convention (of 12 Member States that ratified sofar, 2 are SIDS) - Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions, to be submitted to General Conference Oct.’05 - Cultural industries (cinema, music, publishing, etc.) through the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, e.g. poverty reduction project planned in Fiji and Trinidad & Tobago, related projects in Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica. - Assistance to develop cultural policies in SIDS: Comoros, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau - Establishment of cultural diversity observatory for Indian Ocean region based in Mauritius. - ‘Biodiversity - Cultural Diversity, Tourism and Local Population’ seminar in Solomon Islands - Museum partnerships in Indian Ocean SIDS - Support to national World Heritage (WH) strategy workshops in SIDS regions

Sustainable Capacity Development & Education for Sustainable Development UNESCO in ESD 1. Lead agency in the promotion of the Decade on Education for Sustainable Development ( ) 2. Implementer of ESD - accelerating education reforms and coordinating activities of multiple stakeholders to implement ESD at international, regional, and country levels - Developing public understanding and awareness of sustainability: inter-regional internet forum with more than 20,000 individuals connected in SIDS - Re-orientating existing education at all levels to address sustainable development:: Sandwatch - Incorporating local and indigenous knowledge into ESD through formal and informal education system, e.g. LINKS activities in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Palau - ‘ learning by doing’, SIV support for sustainable development activities - Support cooperation between small island national and regional universities for combined inter-regional training courses – SIDS University Consortium start-up through UNITWIN

UNESCO will:  Continue to mainstream the special needs of SIDS in the Organization’s programmes  Continue holistic, integrated approaches to sustainable living and development in SIDS  Through nurturing intersectoral cooperation, with intergenerational dimension, at interregional level via proven platform approach and internet forums  Continue interagency cooperation and partnerships with IGOs and NGOs in the island regions ****************************************************************************************