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A Caribbean strategic position in relation to the post-2015 global agenda on sustainable development

Published date 2015-03-31
Author CANARI
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From the document:

Given limited resources, Caribbean negotiators need to focus their efforts on the issues most central to their own development pathways and needs. In statements to the Open Working Group on SDGs, the preparatory meetings for the September 2014 SIDS conference in Samoa and statements made at the conference itself, Caribbean governments articulated their own vision for development.

By analysing that material, the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) has been able to distil a coherent Caribbean sustainable development strategy that can help guide Caribbean negotiators. That strategy is based on instilling resilience in economic, natural, social and political systems by reducing exposure to external threats, creating economies of scale to overcome size constraints and building the assets needed for sustained development.

The first section of this briefing paper lays out the main elements of that strategy in a set of key messages that underpin Caribbean negotiating positions. In the next section, those messages are developed into more detailed statements on issues that will be debated in the negotiations on the post-2015 Global Partnership for Development. Those negotiations are scheduled to take place in the April 2015 session of the UN General Assembly’s inter-government negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda.

The table in the Appendix identifies the targets in the draft document prepared by the Open Working Group that most closely relate to key Caribbean issues and priorities and that therefore should be the focus of Caribbean negotiators’ greatest attention in the post-2015 negotiations. The table also identifies text from the SAMOA Pathway that can be used to support negotiating positions, other international processes at which the issues are also being addressed (which are also opportunities for communicating these Caribbean positions), and issues that Caribbean countries should consider in formulating their negotiating positions.