Small Island Developing States (SIDS) occupy a special place in this Planet with unique landscape, ecology and culture. They possess unique natural resources in terrestrial areas and in the deep sea. Among these are minerals, unique biodiversity including potential bioresources for pharmaceutical products, hydrocarbons, renewable energy resources and fish stocks. They also have unique indigenous knowledge that can help them to develop sustainably and manage their natural environment productively and equitably.

With bountiful supplies of renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind, sun, ocean, wave, and hydro and geothermal, accelerated deployment of renewable energy, SIDS provide a range of options for development as well as vulnerabilities due to anthropogenic pressures such as climate change, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, pollution and economic dependencies.

In order to address the special needs of SIDS, a number of initiatives have been devised, adopted and implemented. One such initiative is the Small Island Developing States accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway (SAMOA Pathway) that was adopted in 2014.

This note provides elaborations about the evolution of the SAMOA Pathway, its priorities, implementation issues, besides suggesting a select number of interventions in support of sustainable development of SIDS until 2024 when SIDS are expected to assess the status of implementing the priorities addressed under the SAMOA Pathway (SAMOA Pathway+10).

All of these are provided to strengthen the implementation and impact of the ongoing multi-country, multi-year programme of work under the European Union funded Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) (ACP MEAs) programme, that is under implementation since 2009 and currently is in its third phase (ACP MEAs 3).