Pacific Small Island Developing States are going through a unique socio-economic transformation. Shaped by their geographical locations and climate -induced vulnerabilities, development indicators like income per capita disguise their true status. As the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action, or SAMOA Pathway, the current overarching UN framework for guiding global, regional and national development efforts to achieve the development aspirations of SIDS, comes to an end in 2024, Pacific members and associate members of ESCAP are coming together to amplify the Pacific voice in the Fourth International SIDS conference in Antigua and Barbuda in May 2024.

The Pacific regional preparatory meeting for the 10-year review of the SAMOA Pathway in Nuku’alofa, Tonga from 16 to 18 August 2023, reaffirmed Pacific SIDS as a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique, inherent and particular vulnerabilities, and identified a set of new opportunities.

In view of this, Pacific Perspectives 2023: Advocating the aspirations of Small Island Developing States provides another opportunity to highlight some of the key socioeconomic and climate change features of the Pacific, while highlighting several regional and national initiatives that could be scaled up across the region. The publication covers Advance Pacific priorities (Chapter 1); Synergise strategic regional and national approaches (Chapter 2); Harness cooperation potential (Chapter 3) and The Way Forward (Chapter 4).,

It hopes that the findings, analyses, regional and national experiences, and policy ideas contained in the publication will help Pacific member States and other stakeholders to effectively enhance the aspirations of Pacific communities