Quality Education

There are countless islands dotted all around the world’s oceans lakes and rivers. They vary enormously in size climate and in flora and fauna. Some islands such as the beautifully wooded Bled Island in Slovenia or the remote and barren Skellig Michael off the coast of Ireland now famous as a Star Wars location are small. Others such as Greenland or New Guinea are massive. Some islands such as Manhattan in New York or the tiny Santa Cruz del Islote off the coast of Colombia are crowded and densely populated. In contrast the northern islands of Greenland Baffin or Victoria barely support human life and are very sparsely populated. Yet others such as the Pitcairns best known as the haven to the mutineers of the HMS Bounty or Easter island home to the enigmatic moai are some of the most remote islands in the world. Singapore on the other hand lies less than 2 km south of Malaysia and is well connected by bridges and causeways. Manhattan and Long Island too are close to the mainland and very well connected. Some islands like the Aleutian Islands in Alaska are frozen all year round whereas the Seychelles or Fiji are tropical. Spanning the oceans of the world islands hold a rich variety of linguistic and cultural history. For example across the Caribbean islands cultural influences from indigenous groups Africa Asia North America and Europe can all be found.

SIDS are highly vulnerable to economic shocks and are dependent on trade. They are also challenged by remoteness from trading partners and dependence on a few markets for imports and exports. Therefore SIDS have also been identified as one of the groups that will be disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts.

Small Island Developing States as the name suggests are small. Indeed taken individually SIDS barely register on most common metrics whether geographic economic or social. For the purposes of this analysis however rather than thinking of SIDS as many disparate states they are presented as an amalgamation – as ‘one country’. In other words what if for the sake of comparison the SIDS were a single country rather than a set of states? From this perspective SIDS very often cease to be small or peripheral players from a global perspective. Depending on the metric selected the country ‘SIDS’ frequently ranks above average compared with other countries. In fact in some spheres the country ‘SIDS’ becomes a world leader.

Welcome to the 2021 edition of the UNCTAD Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures. This edition is dedicated to small island developing States or SIDS. The report is part of UNCTAD’s analytical work to measure the challenges of SIDS related to economic smallness their productive capacities geographical remoteness and transport costs environmental and climate vulnerabilities as well as the role of social and human development in SIDS.

We face an existential choice: continue on an unsustainable path or radically change course. To continue on the current path is to accept unconscionable inequalities and exploitation the spiralling of multiple forms of violence the erosion of social cohesion and human freedoms continued environmental destruction and dangerous and perhaps catastrophic biodiversity loss. To continue on the current path is to fail to anticipate and address the risks that accompany the technological and digital transformations of our societies.

Les rapports suivants ont été reçus en réponse à un appel ouvert à organiser des séminaires et des groupes de travail destinés à identifier les principaux défis et opportunités et fournir des contributions et des recommandations à la Commission internationale sur Les futurs de l’éducation.

The future of our planet must be locally and democratically envisioned. It is only through collective and individual actions that harness our rich diversity of peoples and cultures that the futures we want can be realized.

L’enseignant ne dispose pas nécessairement d’un accès privilégié à la sage vérité. Comme ses élèves il est en train de devenir ce qu’il devrait être.