Abstract
The international relations of global environmental change present SIDS with particular challenges of co-ordination and capacity development. The paper will address the role played by regional intergovernmental organisations and regional international non-governmental organisations as well as one international organisation in coordinating and promoting sustainable development in SIDS, especially in supporting SIDS in international negotiations and in capacity analysis and development for sustainability. Particular attention will be paid to anglophone Caribbean states of the Commonwealth, and to the roles played by CARICOM and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS); the Commonwealth itself; sub-regional organisations such as the OECS Environment and Sustainable Development Unit and international environmental groups in the Region such as CANARI and the Caribbean Conservation Association (CCA).
The paper will present the first round of findings from a project to analyse and develop capacity for sustainable development of SIDS. It will focus on national domestic environmental policy capacity and environmental foreign policy capacity in a selection of states - St. Lucia, Belize, St. Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago - and the role of the above-mentioned institutions in relation to the development of these capacities. The latter will include analysis of the role of the Commonwealth Secretariat supporting the work of the Ministerial level Commonwealth Consultative Group on Environment (CCGE) and of the Commonwealth Foundation in strengthening the role of civil society organisations. It will explore the expectations and the realities of CARICOM~ and ACS support for sustainable development initiatives, as well as the sub-regional initiative of the OECS ESDU, and the regional NGOs, CANARI and the CCA, in an attempt to identify the key players in the anglophone Caribbean and to evaluate their relative effectiveness.
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