First meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) of
the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
GOVERNMENT OF BARBADOS INTERVENTION
Thank you Co-Chair.
We first wish to associate ourselves with the statement made on behalf of G77 and
China.
The building of a Green Economy in the Barbadian context is rooted in the
country’s National Strategic Plan and more recently in its medium term planning
framework.
The Green Economic policy thrust is a reaffirmation of Barbados’ commitment to
mainstreaming the national sustainable development principles. Those are
economic efficiency, equity, conservation of natural resources, participation, and
quality of life.
It emphasizes the need for an integrated approach to production, distribution,
consumption and waste assimilation. Further, the Green Economy reflects the
vulnerabilities of our country as a small island developing state as the basis for
strategic investment choice. It focuses on building Barbados’ human capacity, our
country’s greatest resource, while facilitating export market development for
indigenous services.
The framework further articulates objectives and strategies in the areas of natural
resources management, land use planning, water resources, energy, transport, and
disaster management.
At its core, the supporting economic and fiscal instruments aim to develop and
support a resilient and competitive small and medium sized enterprise culture;
promote value-added avenues in agriculture; establish sustainability as the standard
in the building and construction, tourism and retail sectors. The intent is to
promote new public and privates sector investments as a means of mainstreaming
SIDS-relevant environmentally sound technologies, heighten corporate social and
environmental responsibility and accountability, as well as embed sustainability in
technical, vocational, academic and professional capacity building systems thereby
promoting new career pathways and job opportunities for Barbadians.
Mr. Chairman, the Government’s sharpened focus on community engagement in
public policy via the establishment of Constituency Councils provides a new
pathway to ensure the Green Economy tackles poverty in a direct manner. This
mechanism is essential for a bottom-up approach to designing sustainable local
economic development strategies that create new employment windows. The
policy is therefore timely as we seek to, in our SIDS context, to navigate the
current parallel global crises of our time.
The Barbadian Green Economic model therefore embraces partnerships among
societal stakeholders and promotes convergence of the three pillars of sustainable
development.
At the global level, what is required is the policy space for countries to interpret
and design their own approach to building green economies in the context of
sustainable development. It requires further, delivery of the agreed to means of
implementation if we are to truly recapture the spirit of Rio. South-South
cooperation and the Bali Strategic Plan must not be confined as a buzz word in our
many deliberations, but both must be enabled to truly resonate with the peoples in
the developing world.
Last Mr. Chairman, in Rio, full recognition was given to SIDS as special category
of countries within the UN architecture. No doubt the inclusion in Agenda 21 of
17(G) on the Sustainable Development of SIDS was indeed a landmark
achievement. This was followed in the convening of the First UN Conference on
the Sustainable Development of SIDS held in Barbados in April/May 1994. As
we prepare for the High Level review on the MSI/BPOA, it is critical that the
outcomes of this September’s forum connects to the current Rio+20 Preparatory
process, and equally important, that the development of Green Economic models
provide a viable policy modality for achieving sustainable development in small
island developing states.
I thank you Mr. Chairman.
