Strengthening the Pacific Voice in the Post- 2015 Development Framework

Although the Pacific shares a strong sense of vulnerability with other fragile states, it faces its own very specific set of development challenges relating to size, location and unmatched exposure to climate change, ocean acidification, natural disasters, and other external shocks.

Last year, during the Special Body on the Pacific Island Developing Countries at our annual ESCAP Commission Session, I said that Pacific concerns about the collective management of the ocean economy, as a global and regional common good must be incorporated into our regional and global development planning and strategies about resilience, climate change, and sustainability.

We need a mindset change from one which regards our island states as small and isolated, to one which sees them as the custodians of our large ocean of opportunity. I would like to repeat that message today as we discuss the MDGs and the post-2015 development agenda.

Read more at the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific