H.E. Ambassador Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr. Pa'olelei Luteru, Permanent Representative of Samoa to the United Nations has been appointed by the President of the UN General Assembly as Co-Chair for Steering Committee on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Partnerships along with H.E. Mr Francisco Duarte Lopes, Permanent Representative of Portuagal to the UN.
The Framework, formally established in December 2015 by General Assembly resolution 70/202, consist of 1) a member States driven Steering Committee on SIDS Partnerships 2) the organization of an annual action-oriented and results-focused Global Multi stakeholder SIDS Partnership Dialogue, 3) a standardized partnership reporting process of all stakeholders and 4) the organization of regional and 5) national SIDS partnership dialogues with support from the United Nations system and the international community.
The SIDS Partnership Framework – to date's the only intergovernmental framework devoted to reviewing and monitoring partnerships - has ensured that SIDS issues have remained high on the UN’s agenda, and provided a broad multi-stakeholder platform for reviewing progress of SIDS partnerships, sharing of good practices and lessons learned among all relevant stakeholders, and for launching new initiatives devoted to SIDS. Since the Conference in 2014, sixteen (16) new partnerships have been registered in the SIDS partnership database. In addition, 209 voluntary commitments from The Ocean Conference are directly related to Small Island Developing States.
The Steering Committee of the SIDS Partnership Framework has guided the organization of several Global Multi-stakeholder SIDS Partnership Dialogues since the establishment of the SIDS Partnership Framework. The framework has also produced the establishment of the SIDS partnership reporting template, and a publication on SIDS partnerships. Efforts have also been made to promote the engagement of the private sector in the implementation of the SAMOA Pathway and the achievement of the SDGs in SIDS. UN-OHRLLS, in partnership with the Government of Samoa and the Samoa Chamber of Commerce, convened a Private Sector Partnerships Forum in the margins of SIDS Conference in 2014. A key outcome of the Forum was the establishment of the SIDS Global Business Network (SIDS-GBN) which aims to provide an important bridge to enable closer private sector ties between the three SIDS regions but also with the international business community.