By Aabigayle McIntosh

Following Antigua and Barbuda ‘s historic hosting of the Fourth International Conference of Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) last month there is a call for a plaque or something similar to be placed at the American University of Antigua (AUA) to mark the significance of the occasion.

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AUA Vernon Solomon suggested it during a state media interview.

“It’s historic across the region, it’s historic for Antigua, it’s historic for AUA and it is something we will never forget and I use that not in a negative fashion but literally in the sense that we will remember the experience, remember how it helped SIDS across the globe develop, as well as how it helped Antigua and Barbuda developed,” Solomon said.

Under the overarching theme of “Charting the course toward resilient prosperity”, the Conference was aimed at assessing the ability of SIDS to achieve sustainable development, including the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

It resulted in an intergovernmental agreed, focused, forward-looking and action-oriented political outcome document.

The document; Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) lays out the “SIDS story” by recalling the past three SIDS conferences and taking stock of progress made and challenges encountered over the last three decades.

It notes that even though SIDS were struck by two “once in a generation” crises – the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, they have become global leaders on issues such as climate change, financial system reform, plastic pollution, and ocean governance

Negotiated during the preparatory process at UN Headquarters in New York, US, the document was adopted by acclamation without further discussion.