Trinidad and Tobago was host last week to representatives of Caribbean nations, regional and international organisations, as well as civil society, which participated in the Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 10-year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA), in preparation for next year's International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to be held in Mauritius.

The review has been mandated by the General Assembly of the UN to be carried out in light of the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which recognized that SIDS are a special case both for environment and development and that, although they continue to make headway towards sustainable development, are increasingly constrained by the interplay of adverse factors in the current international environment. The review will be no small task, considering the complex and arduous negotiations that took place in Jo'burg.

As internationally recognized, SIDS also include low-lying coastal countries that share similar sustainable development challenges, including small population, lack of resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, excessive dependence on international trade and vulnerability to global developments. In addition, they suffer from lack of economies of scale, high transportation and communication costs, and costly public administration and infrastructure. As a counterpart, the UN has recognized that SIDS are also the custodians of large areas of the world's oceans and significant biodiversity resources.

This wide definition means that both the insular and the mainland states of the Greater Caribbean have a stake in the SIDS programme of action; and that cooperation across the entire regional space is vital.

SIDS continue to make strenuous efforts to mobilize domestic resources for sustainable development. Those efforts, however, need to be supplemented by external resources, which should be provided without any condition, in order to effectively address their development requirements. Unfortunately, the trend over the last ten years has been for these resources to dwindle, as recognised both at WSSD and at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development. Also in this context, the increased relevance of South-South cooperation in the current international economic climate cannot be underestimated.

The Outcome of the Johannesburg Summit is of particular relevance to all the organisations and agencies currently working in the region of the Greater Caribbean, as it went to great pains to underline the essential role of regional and sub-regional organisations in strengthening the three pillars (economic, social, environmental) of sustainable development. WSSD, in stressing the value of regional cooperation, also pointed out that measures to strengthen institutional arrangements on sustainable development, must include increasing effectiveness and efficiency through limiting overlap and duplication of activities of international organizations, based on their mandates and comparative advantages.

Aside from benefiting from the excellent and very comprehensive presentations made by all the delegations, at least one participant could not help but be struck by the bewildering complexity, overlap and duplication of initiatives in the areas of trade, transport, sustainable tourism, natural disasters, etc. that are currently being undertaken in respect of SIDS in our region. Given the dearth of international resources for developing countries, by competing in the same "pool", regional organisations only ensure that the strongest "swimmers" win.

A regional mechanism must be sought to address this circumstance. If, in demanding cooperation from the international community on the basis of the recognised "common but differentiated responsibilities" for sustainable development between developed and developing nations, we neutralise the resources through dilution, regional bodies will once again come under fire in Mauritius.