Executive Summary
Small Islands Voice focuses on small island developing states and islands with other affiliations in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific regions. This initiative, started in 2002, aims to combine new information and communication technologies with print, radio, television and other media, in order to promote the effective participation of the general public in sustainable island development and in the 2004 review of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Programme of Action and its follow-up.

Six islands played an active role in Small Islands Voice in 2002: St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, San Andres Archipelago in the Caribbean; Seychelles in the Indian Ocean; Cook Islands and Palau in the Pacific. Activities in the islands include opinion surveys, meetings and workshops, debates, radio talk shows, interactive displays, and newsletters. Inter-regional activities include two internet-based discussion fora, one for the general public and one for youth, inter-regional conference calls, and an inter-regional workshop held in Palau in November 2002.

The internet is being used to link the regions together. An internet-based forum was developed to connect the general public in the three regions in a discussion on key issues in the environment-development arena. This internet-based forum links up with local newspapers so the debate can reach a wider audience; and the potential exists to further extend the reach of this forum using community radio and television. A similar forum focusing on secondary school students is proving successful and has potential as a distance learning tool. Limited and costly internet access in small islands is a serious constraint to such initiatives; however, the islands involved are developing innovative ways of overcoming these constraints, such as negotiating special rates with internet service providers and at internet cafes.

The general public's concerns, emerging from the activities in the islands and the internet-based fora, range from an increase in crime and violence in St Kitts and Nevis to the tension resulting from large numbers of foreign workers in Seychelles and Palau. While work has just started, it appears that the general public's concerns relate, for the most part, to social, cultural and economic topics and to a lesser extent to natural environmental issues. This is interesting since the six priority actions adopted by SIDS in 1999 relate mainly to climate change, natural disasters and natural resources.

Future plans focus on two main areas. Firstly, the debate taking place in the islands will be expanded and intensified as capacity and infrastructure in new communication technologies and traditional media are strengthened. This will involve national and inter-regional activities. Secondly the concerns of the general public will be channelled towards the international level, particularly the review of the SIDS Programme of Action, which will culminate in a meeting in Mauritius in 2004. Preliminary plans for 2004–2005 focus on turning the talk into action, so that civil society, including youth, play a vocal and effective role in ensuring small island sustainable development.

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