St. Maarten to attend regional conference

PHILIPSBURG–St. Maarten is amongst the Caribbean countries that will be represented at Caribbean Action 2030 Regional Conference, which will be held in Kingston, Jamaica, from June 28 to June 30.

St. Maarten is attending at the invitation of the Jamaican Government. Senior Project Manager at the St. Maarten Government’s Department of Interior and Kingdom Relations Andrea Ortega-Oudhoff will represent the country at the Conference. She will be joined by Tom Woods, a United Nations (UN) appointed projects leader, presently assisting the St. Maarten Government.

The Conference is being hosted by the Jamaican Government in partnership with the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the UN which is funding the event.

Action 2030 is a regional conference for countries that are signatories of the UNs Multi-country Sustainable Development Framework (UNMSDF) for the Caribbean region.

At the conference government representatives from the Caribbean will deliberate in plenary, panel discussions and solutions workshops and will be joined by delegates from civil society, academia, youth and non-governmental organisations.

More than 30 local, regional and international academics and experts in their field are expected to present papers highlighting research, national experiences and opportunities in implementing the UNs long-term Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the region at the forum.

The objective of the meet is to reaffirm the commitment amongst countries in the Caribbean region through a partnership framework, which would promote cooperation and coordination in achieving the SDGs, Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities for Action (S.A.M.O.A pathway), the Paris Agreement on climate change and Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development.

These are all aimed at strengthening regional policies in support of the preservation of so-called global public goods, which are essential to all countries, people, and generations. Examples of global public goods are clean air and drinking water.

The three-day meeting wants to step up intergovernmental cooperation to advance its cause, supported by the UNs Multi-country Sustainable Development Framework (MSDF) that has been agreed between Caribbean governments and UN partners as one appropriate platform for the coordination and focus of further efforts.

Countries worldwide have agreed on a series of bold measures to overhaul global finance practices and generate investments for tackling a range of economic, social and environmental challenge. That commitment was made at the UNs Third International Conference on Financing for Development held in Addis Ababa in 2015.

In support of implementation of the sustainable development goals, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda contains more than 100 concrete measures. Importantly, it addresses all sources of finance.

At the Conference, participants look forward to a final report with recommendations for policy implementation and follow-up.

Recognising that this will require long-term commitment and partnerships, the conference will look, for instance, at the establishment of a regional online platform that takes due consideration of existing efforts in the region and that will enable the academic community, civil society and policy makers to engage in ongoing dialogue on the basis of evidence-based research, open data and exchange of good policy practice.

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/67241-st-maarten-to-attend-regional-conference

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