The Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States is currently being held in Samoa. The goal of the four-day conference which will conclude today, is to focus attention on Small Island Developing States - a group of countries that remain a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities. One of the main topics addressed is disaster risk reduction.
At the sidelines of a partnerships forum on climate change and disaster risk management taking place during the conference, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms Margareta Wahlström, higlighted the importance of partnerships in disaster risk management and urged that the commitments made at the international conference must be prioritized and implemented as soon as possible.
The UN News Centre reported: "Disaster risk reduction is prioritized in the conference's outcome document, a 124-point compilation known as the Samoa Pathway, which was, unusually, agreed upon before the conference started on Monday. The section on risk comes right after climate change and sustainable energy, and includes a wide range of general commitment – from technical assistance and financing for early warning systems, to harmonizing national and regional reporting systems."
