Prime Minister Mark Brown handed over the chairmanship of the Smaller Island States (SIS) to the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, Wesley Simina, last week.

Leaders of the Smaller Island States met in Tonga to discuss priorities for the group within the Pacific Islands Forum. The group consists of the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration (MFAI), the SIS grouping, established more than three decades ago in 1985, has long been recognised by Forum Leaders for special attention as the most vulnerable members of the family. This is due to their unique characteristics of small size, isolation, limited transportation links and resource constraints.

PM Brown and the fellow SIS leaders acknowledged the economic, social and environmental challenges they face, including the intensifying impact of climate change, food security issues due to limited agricultural potential and very small populations, connectivity challenges resulting from expensive and irregular transport links, and diseconomies of scale.

“SIS Leaders invited regional organisations, development partners, and international agencies to work with SIS to support SIS priorities and challenges, including in the areas of transportation, education, health, climate finance and mobility, resource management, labour mobility, and capacity building,” the statement said.

PM Brown noted that the “SIS constitute a sizable block of the Forum – eight out of eighteen member states – that face similar challenges as all Members, but SIS problems are compounded by disproportionately higher costs.”

“Infrastructure costs per capita are excessive, banking services and costs are crippling, and for some, simply unavailable; and access to concessional financing for development is grossly inadequate.

“Dedicated resources must be allocated for SIS as even a relatively small pool of financing can go a long way to mitigating the challenges faced by our smaller Members.”

At the Leaders Retreat later last week, the full Forum membership “resolved to elevate the visibility of the Smaller Island States, its priorities, challenges, and contributions at the national and regional level to better inform targeted regional solutions and called for the recognition of the Smaller Islands States grouping across the regional architecture in the Pacific, to ensure concerted efforts and steps are taken to address and respond to our vulnerabilities and challenges.”