26 May 2024, Antigua and Barbuda - The echo of young people from across Small Islands Developing States will resonate at the Fourth International Conference to start in Antigua and Barbuda tomorrow.

Approximately 60 Children and youth between the ages of 14 to 24 from across all SIDS have gathered for the SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit from 24 – 26 May 2024. These young people have connected to help find a targeted path ahead that will help support action to achieve SIDS-targeted initiatives at the national, regional, interregional, and global levels.  

The Summit has been designed and facilitated by SIDS youth who have worked together supported by UNICEF Pacific, UNFPA Pacific and UNDESA to develop a workshop that empowers them to create project proposals, fundraise and then implement these for a better future across our Small Islands Developing States.

“Our goal was to come up with a Call to Action that all of our Small Islands Developing States would aim for in the next ten years.  We have developed our projects relevant to our region, for example the Pacific Islands have focussed on quality education, and then we pitch these to implement,” said Stanislaus Kostka of the Federated States of Micronesia, also on the Steering Committee that helped design and coordinate the SIDS Global Children and Youth Summit.

“This Summit is significant for our youth as we have been able to learn from each other, discuss solutions for a future we would like and develop projects that we know we won’t receiving funding for immediately – we have a long-term goal with our projects and we will get there.  It’s important that we are being heard.”

Of the 60 children and youth delegates, 14 are from the Pacific Islands represented by the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.  

The three-day Summit is an opportunity for SIDS youth to share their perspectives on an intersection of social and environmental issues as well as their impacts and to present new ideas, solutions and recommendations for, and commit to, a course of action.

As such, the Pacific delegates along with their SIDS peers have developed project proposals as well as undertaken a range of Master Classes and capacity building sessions to be able to fundraise and implement their projects while building their skillsets in advocacy, communications and strategy development.

“I think the organisers did a really good job at making in making us feel empowered and created an environment where we feel heard,” said Tamarua Marsters of the Cook Islands.

“We, as youth, now have a stronger understanding in that what's happening today will come to fruition in the future.”

The sessions have included inter-generations discussion forums bringing together youth delegates, Ministers and other high-level officials to engage and exchange ideas as to how youth can be included on critical issues.  A Sustainable Cultural Fashion Show was also held which saw youth reuse old or recyclable materials to make a wearable piece of art; and a special evening event called Inspire Me saw the sharing of life experiences including those related to the impacts of climate change.

Overall, this Summit has resulted in SIDS Youth mobilsed as Agents of Change, with stronger interregional bonds networks.

“The summit itself has been more than just tabling problems and finding solutions. It's been about the networking, sharing real life experiences and exchanging lessons learnt with colleagues from other parts of the world who are in the same boat as all of us youth and so I encourage youth within my region,” said Tamarua.

“Young people everywhere - don't feel afraid. Don't feel like you aren’t being heard because you have a voice that is being listened to and there are other people in the same boat as you and they definitely want to support you.”

Empowered by the theme of the SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit - “Small Islands, Big Dreams: Children and Youth for SIDS Resilience”, these children and youth are ready to make a positive impact for all our futures.

“It’s crucial for the SIDS Youth voice to be heard because we are the future. We need to have a say in how our future is shaped and we’ve come up with projects and thought about policies that will help mould our future,” said Stanislaus.

“Our future is in our hands.  It’s important we work together to design creative ways to address the issues we, and our next generation, will be facing.”

The SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit was held from 24 – 26 May 2024.  In total over 100 delegates participated in the event, this is inclusive of technical experts and parents and guardians, of which 60 are children and youth.  Designed and facilitated by SIDS youth, this was supported by UNICEF Pacific, UNFPA Pacific and UNDESA.

The SIDS4 conference is held from 27 to 30 May 2024. It is preceded by the SIDS Children and Youth Action Summit from 24 – 26 May, the SIDS Gender Equality Forum on 26 May, the SIDS Global Business Network Forum from 25 – 26 May and the SIDS4 Private Sector Roundtable on 28 May, 2024.

For more information please visit https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/sids2024.

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