It’s a classic case of lending from the front. On Friday, Prime Minister Gaston
Browne made a pledge of one month’s salary (estimated at US$5,000.00) to
towards funding for the Small Islands Developing States Fourth (SIDS4)
conference that takes place here in late May this year.
PM Browne made the pledge at a Partnership Roundtable on Friday where he
provided an update on the status of the planning for the conference as well as an
update on the overall cost of the undertaking as well as the funding that has been
pledged so far.
He told the conference that SIDS4 will costs approximately US$7 million to host
and that so far approximately US$4 million has been pledged. There therefore is a
funding gap of US$3 million.
The purpose of the roundtable which attracted participation from several
governments and funding agencies, was to encourage them to pledge to the hosting
of the conference if they had not done so before as well as to encourage those who
pledged before to follow through with their commitments.
PM Browne also used his position as a co-chair of the event to urge some
participants, especially those representing friendly governments or financial
institutions to make a pledge as the government was fully committed to doing
everything possible to ensure the success of the conference.
It was against this background, and as a demonstration of his personal commitment
to the success of the conference as well as to serve as an example to those in
attendance or those in the general community to follow his lead and to make
whatever commitments they can to the conference.
He explained that one reason why hosting the conference was expensive had to do
with the fact that the country did not have the facilities to host such an event.
Therefore, at the urging of the government, the American University of Antigua,
has decided to build a new conference facility that will be completed in time for
the conference.
The government is providing the infrastructural works necessary for the project.
These include roads, parking, internet services and other such facilities.
The prime minister pointed out that the conference will add to the capacity of the
nation to host similar events in the future thus enabling it to compete for this very
lucrative segment of the tourism market.
Countries contributed to date:
United Kingdom
New Zealand
Italy
Republic of Korea
The People’s Republic of China
Canada
Qatar
Kuwait
Dominican Republic
Firm pledges: Germany, Norway, Denmark, Ireland.
Other project support for activities connected to the forum provided by the UN
system:
• UNICEF will provide support to the youth project.
• UN Women will provide support to the Gender Equality Forum
• OHRLLS will provide support to the Business forum
• UNOPS has provided support to the mission in New York to facilitate the
management of the project from the mission.
