 So, with this short instructions and a few words on the etiquette on Zoom, we get started off on the first-side event. And it's my pleasure to welcome Ms. Yang Jun-Yao, sub-regional coordinator for FAO of the sub-regional office in Appian, Samoa for the Pacific. Over to you, Ms. Yang. Good afternoon and good evening. As introduced by Shweta, my name is Yang Jun-Yao, and I'm the FAO sub-regional coordinator for the Pacific Islands. It's my great pleasure to welcome you all to this side event titled SEAS Solutions Platform, Knowledge Sharing to Accelerate Achievements of the SDGs, Samoa Pathway, and the Food Systems Summit Goals. With the COVID-19 adding on top of the unique challenges that the SEAS confront, I feel we decided to create the SEAS Solutions Platform in 2021 by the senior management team in HQ as well as the decentralized offices, including the sub-regional office in the Pacific. So the aim of the creation of the platform is to facilitate to the knowledge sharing and accelerate progress for achieving the SDGs, the Samoa Pathway, and the Food Systems Summit goals for the SEAS. To launch the platform and also to start facilitating the knowledge sharing among the SEAS, I feel in partnership with the government of Fiji as co-host and the International Telecommunication Union as co-partner, organized the first SEAS Solutions Forum on 30 and 31 August last year, 2021. The objectives of this side event are therefore to brief the APRC audience about the outcomes of this very successful solutions forum in 2021 and also to engage the regional stakeholders on whether implementation of the forum's recommendations and also share knowledge on good innovation and the digital agricultural practices suitable for the SEAS among the APRC participants. So though with the very packed objectives as introduced above, we have only one hour with the full agenda of speakers, panelists, and also we have the session to hear the audience if you have questions to address to the panelists and also the speakers. To start set to the context, so please let me ask the Secretary of Trade to play the short video. Shweta, back to you please. Small island developing states are characterized by remoteness, small and dispersed populations and economies as well as vulnerability to natural disasters linked to climate change. They depend on imported foods and tourism and have a high incidence of non-communicable diseases. The impacts of COVID-19 are intensifying these challenges and rolling back the gains that were made in achieving the sustainable development goals in these countries. It is within this context FAO created the SEAS Solutions Platform. The aim of the platform is to facilitate knowledge sharing and accelerate progress for achieving SDGs, specifically those related to agri-food systems, nutrition and the environment. The platform was launched during the SID Solutions Forum that was organized by FAO in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union and the Government of Fiji as a co-host. The forum that was held on the 30th and 31st of August 2021 welcomed 1,600 people who attended either virtually or physically in Apia, Samoa. 12 key action points were formulated based on the rich discussions of the two-day forum. They cover all of the most urgent steps that will lead to scaling up and replicating identified 2021 SID Solutions to support the implementation of the Agreements of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thank you, Secretary. Now I have the pleasure to invite Dr. Chu Dong-yu, I feel Director-General to deliver our welcome statement. Director-General, the floor is yours. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, this event is especially important for me as it will highlight the centrality of innovation science and technology for the positive transformation agri-food system to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable. This event was built on the achievement of the SID Solutions Forum here in 2021 which launched the SID Solutions platform that will be at the center of today's discussion. There was a strong sign of solidarity from non-SIDs, governments, and development partners who attended the forum, and we needed to capitalize on that moment. The SID Solutions platform is an important tool because it helps us address the common challenges such as remoteness, small and dispersed geographies, population, and economies, high exposure and vulnerabilities to natural disaster due to the impact of the climate crisis, dependence on the input in the food and the tourism, and a higher incidence of non-communicable disease. These challenges have become even more complex due to the pandemic, and they can only be effectively addressed by the harnesses science, technology, and innovation. We need a science to identify synergies and trade-offs and advance evidence-based policy making. Dear colleagues, strengthening the science policy interface is critical. This event provides an opportunity to share experience and exchange ideas on how increased innovation and digitalization can have the seeds and the rest of the world achieve the multiple and cross-cutting targets of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The Samoa Passway framework for action and the UN Food Assistance Summit follow-up action. The SID Solutions platform promotes new technologies and also facilitates knowledge sharing on social, institutional, policy, and financial innovation. It is about new ways of thinking and collaborating. To reach an impact at a scale, we must develop new and tangible partnerships, including ways to serve as societies and the private sector, collectively we can and we must do more to place science and innovation firmly as a center of our decisions and actions for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, a better life for all living on behind. I wish you a productive event and thank you. Thank you, Director General. I now have the great pleasure to invite the Honorable Mahendra Reddy, the Minister for Agriculture, Water Waste, and Environment, Fiji, to deliver the keynote statement. Honorable Minister, the floor is yours. Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to extend my thanks to the organizers for inviting Fiji to speak at this important side event on the SID Solutions platform, knowledge sharing to accelerate the achievement of SDGs, Samoa Pathway, and Food Systems Summit goals. The challenges and gaps as well as the opportunities and solutions related to boosting innovation and digitalization are numerous and are often times co-shared, especially between small island developing states or SIDs. As my Prime Minister noted during the forums, SIDs are different chapters of the same book. This was the very reason behind launching the SID solution platform back in August 2021. The government of Fiji was very pleased to co-host the launch of this important forum together with FAO, and we are happy to continue being part of various discussions organized around SID solutions, discusses like this one. As I mentioned, SIDs members share a number of the same challenges. Amongst them are remoteness, small and dispersed geographies and economies, vulnerability to natural disasters, dependence on imported foods and tourism, and a high incidence of non-communicable diseases. The impact of COVID-19 has magnified these challenges in many SIDs countries around the world. However, the pandemic has also pushed us to accelerate the development and adoption of digital technology. For example, in Fiji, data usage has spiked by 300% since the start of the pandemic. We should take advantage of this momentum to transform the way we produce, consume and trade our food. The time has come to start leveraging the digitalization of agri-food systems to support COVID-19 recovery as well as improve food and nutrition security and resilient societies. These efforts can also help us make agriculture more attractive to younger farmers. They can also reduce food waste and boost the deployment of climate-smart agriculture practices. The SID solution platform is here to do just that. The platform opens a new frontier of cooperation between countries for sharing innovations and digitalization to support SIDs. A lot has been achieved, but we do not plan to stop here. There is much work to be done. First of all, we need more partner countries to join our efforts. The more countries we have under SID solution umbrella, the richer our discussions, collaborations and outcomes will be. Secondly, we need international financial institutions, more vertical donors and donor countries to demonstrate solidarity and back up this incredibly important work. Without financial and technical support from our long-standing donors, the SID solutions goals will be impossible to achieve. And finally, we need to act. We have identified pilot solutions and in-depth conversions around the next steps and opportunities. Now is it time to act and scale up the solutions and ideas by supporting our innovators to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, the Samoa pathway and the food system summit dialogue goals. At the core of all these three points are partnerships and collaboration. I am certain that SIDs will be able to recover from the pandemic, build sustainable, clean food systems and continue to strengthen climate resilience to deliver economic prosperity. But SIDs cannot do it alone. We need strong partnerships, resourcing and financing that is fast deploying and affordable and accessible. Only through strong and durable partnerships, innovation and digitalization, SIDs can modernize agri-food systems and rural economies to ensure food and nutritional security. All crucial for delivering on the pledges made under various frameworks like the SDG, the Samoa pathway and the 2021 Food Systems Summit. Thank you. Thank you very much for your excellency for these very inspiring words. So I am now inviting Wahontama, I feel Deputy Director General to introduce the high-level results and follow-up actions concluded from the SID Solutions Forum. Deputy Director General Wahont, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Chiang Jun. Dear Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you are hearing me well. I would like to welcome you warmly to this important APRC SIDE event. As mentioned by the Director General, today we are building on the goals, ideas and outcomes of the SIDS Solutions Forum. For us, it's a flagship event. We organized it in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union and with the Government of SIDS as a co-host in August, as you will recall, August 2021. It was recalled in the introduction that about 1,600 people from various countries attended the forum, either virtually or physically, in Apia, Samoa. Nine head of states and governments, 20 ministers from SIDS, as well as all the high-level representatives from the countries, international organizations and UN organizations, including the AFI Director General, were there. Important to note that ministerial representation from non-SIDS countries at the forum, for example, China, Ireland, demonstrated a strong solidarity and partnership between SIDS and the rest of the world in advancing a shared development agenda in the SIDS. The forum gathered and showcased 11 SIDS solution innovators, women and youth leaders, parliament agents, policymakers, UN and development partner officials, researchers, farmers and fishers. The take-home message was very clear. We need to incentivize and support locally-grown solutions of innovation and digitalization that can accelerate the achievement of the SDGs and the Samoa pathway, while mitigating the impact of the COVID pandemic to build back better. As a key result of the forum, FAO launched the SIDS solution platform, which has already begun to facilitate knowledge sharing not only between the SIDS, but also with other countries with similar challenges. The forum participants agreed on several recommendations. They were summarized in 12 key practical and precise action points that will guide the way forward while developing homegrown SIDS solution. So let me take a deeper dive into these crucial action points in order to set the scene for this session. The first action point calls for harnessing the power of information and communication technology in order to build effective and resilient agriput systems to enable farmers, fishers and artisans of all genders and age to gain the full benefit of development. The second and third points note the importance of strengthening ICT infrastructure with special emphasis on the agriculture and fishery sectors, as well as supporting the development and implementation of what we call e-agriculture strategies linked to national ICT strategies. The fourth point calls on partners to support, promote, scale up and replicate homegrown SIDS solution as well as provide tangible, long-term assistance, including a Pacific startup package. The fifth and sixth points call for support to the leadership of women and youth in the use of digital agri-food system technologies, including building financial and digital literacy. The seventh and eighth points refer to the promotion and scaling up of the SIDS solution platform itself and pledge to submit it to UNDSA and the key SID partners to support the implementation of the Samoa pathway and the SDGs. Point nine and ten call for investing in partnership and knowledge-sharing alliances, including through SouthSouth and Triangular Corporation to catalyze and scale up SIDS solutions identified in 2021. Under the eleventh point, the participants call for support to the application of the multidimensional vulnerability index, the one that is currently being developed in line with the Samoa pathway to allow the inclusion of many income-based criteria to assess eligibility for concessionary finance. Finally, point 12 calls for the establishment of structured and targeted regional financing appropriate for the SIDS. In his opening remark at the forum, a few directors general assured members that the platform is for results and that the forum will not be the usual one of events. Let me give you a few examples. On one February 2022 through its liaison office in Brussels, Geneva and New York, FAO kicked off a series of events touted as the FAO Global SIDS Solution Dialogue. These dialogues on AgriFood Systems Transformation will run for the next two years. The event drew global attention to not only the challenges that SID confront but also the local innovation and creativity that can be leveraged in SIDs to catalyze AgriFood Systems. This one February event was attended by more than 253 people, including the participation of permanent representation, government officials, intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, NGOs, academics, and all the partners based in Brussels, Geneva, New York, Rome and around the world. The SIDS Solution Dialogue series is part of FAO's continued commitment and effort to ensure SIDs remain high on the agenda in Brussels, Geneva, Rome, New York and beyond. I should also share that drawing on the South-South and Trivandular Corporation modality, FAO secured an agreement with the government of Korea to facilitate the training of Pacific SID farmers and producers in AgriFood Systems Value Addition. Under this agreement, Pacific SIDs farmers and producers will travel to Korea in 2022 to exchange and learn from Korean farmers. FAO and the ITU are leading a partnership with ILO, UNOPS, UNESCO and UNICEF to implement a $6 million project for accelerating STG achievement through digital transformation in Cook Islands, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, New and Tokalau. The two-year project starts on the 1st of May and the budget is largely a combined sum from UN joint STG fund and FAO, Technical Cooperation Program, our TCP program fund. FAO is continuing to identify and profile more solutions of innovation in SIDs as a tool for knowledge sharing. We are organizing an AgriInnovation and Digitalization Bootcamp in 2022 to nurture and scale up at least two solutions in each Pacific SIDs. We have invested in replicating the Maikanahap nutrition education tool from Fiji to Tonga and we are partnering with the University of the South Pacific to scale up the locally produced hot hair dryer for producing potato and cassava chips in Solomon Islands. We have also invested in improving the functionality of existing digital solutions in Fiji, Samoa and Solomon Islands by addressing the gender divide. Again, all these are just a few examples of what FAO will continue to do by using its TCP funds to attract partnerships and investment to support the shared agenda of SIDs through the SID Solutions Platform. As mentioned at the forum, SIDs speak a common language. Today it was mentioned the common book with different chapters, a common book of shared experience and challenges. Innovation is our beacon of light in overcoming these challenges effectively and collaboratively. Whether you are a panelist or an attendee of today's event, keep these valuable and concrete action points in mind. I wish you a very productive session. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Shila Hontama, for taking your time to take us through about these 12 recommendations that were concluded from the SID Solutions Forum. And also you introduced those follow-up actions that FAO have already taken and also will take in the coming years to implement these follow-up actions from FAO's end. And I think this has been highlighted by you but also by the DG by saying that the SID Solutions Forum is not one ad hoc event, but rather is a kickoff of the serious actions that FAO will be partnering with the different stakeholders to promote the SID Solutions in the coming years and also further to support the countries to achieve the SDGs but also the some more pathway. So with this really insightful introductions and the presentations from your end. Thank you so much for this. And as colleagues you see from the program of the SID events, we are going to have a panel discussion following this opening remarks from the FAO DG Fiji Minister as well as FAO DDG. And for the panel discussion, I am going to invite my colleague, Joseph, to facilitate the next session. So, Joseph, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Zanjan. Excellencies, honorable government officials, distinguished guests and colleagues. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on your current location. My name is Joseph Nieman and I'm the Nutrition and Food Systems Officer for FAO in the Pacific Islands. In this role, I support the technical work on a disease solutions platform. It is therefore my honor and pleasure to facilitate this panel discussion by replacing Mrs. Simone Marinesco, the UN resident coordinator for the Samoa-based resident coordinator's office, who is currently traveling. The focus of the final discussion today is partnership and financing for accelerating implementation of the forum's recommendations and ensuring that they contribute to the SDGs, the Samoa pathway, and the Food Systems Summit Dialogue Goals. Now, please allow me to welcome and introduce our distinguished panelists, Mrs. Benoan Boske, Regional Director of Asia and the Pacific World Bank, Mrs. Fiona Lane, Director of Agricultural Development and Food Security Section, Climate Financing and Programming Branch, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mrs. Shelley C. Borridge, President, Samoa Women's Association of Grores and Managing Director of Bawa'ola, Benila. And lastly, his Excellency, Dr. Walton Webster, Chair of the Association of Small Island States and also Permanent Representatives, Representative of Atingua and Barbuda to the United Nations. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased now to turn to our distinguished guests to offer some different perspectives. If I may, I would like to call on Mr. Benoan Boske. Regional Director Asia and the Pacific for the World Bank. Mr. Boske, from the perspective of the World Bank, what are your insights on the subject of discussion for this panel, which is partnership and financing for accelerating implementation of the forum's recommendations and assurance that they contribute to the SDGs, the Samoa pathway, and the recently developed global food systems summit dialogue goals. Mr. Benoan, you have the floor. Thank you very much, Mr. Nyema and good day to all the participants, Excellencies and colleagues. Thanks very much for the opportunity to share a few insights with the group gathered here for this important side event. I will, because of lack of time, I will go straight to the point and tell you a little bit about what the World Bank Group does to promote financing innovations and digitalization in Pacific Island countries. First, in terms of financing innovations, I'd like to highlight two initiatives that we support at the World Bank Group. The first one is productive agri-business partnerships and value chain development. This entails public-private partnerships, which are an effective model for expanding smallholder access to services and markets and agri-business development in the cocoa and coffee sectors in particular. This comes along with capacity building in order to address gaps in information and know-how, both technical and market-related information, for example, new technologies and improve the planting materials. As well, we support producer organizations and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to commercialize products in a number of key value chains, cocoa, coconut, coffee, spices, small livestock, fish, honey, and to promote diversification to assist the mitigation of shocks and risks. In addition to these productive agri-business partnerships, we also foster an issue matching grants for increasing on-farm productivity and improving access to markets. Farmers are able to increase on-farm productivity and fisherfolk improve the management of their fishery resources. That also enhance the linkage between their production and the markets. Obviously, these initiatives, in terms of financing, are typically coupled with broader measures, in particular strengthening national institutions for crop and livestock, or, as the case may be, enhancing the management of the region's shared oceanic and coastal fisheries. Then the second set of experiences that I wanted to quickly share with you has to do with digitalization. Here, I would like to mention e-vouchers and e-monitoring. The e-vouchers first, we are piloting in Samoa. They're the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock was able to disperse matching grants to a number of approved farmers using this new e-voucher system. What we see as a result of using this e-voucher system, farmers are now able to purchase goods, equipment, and materials from a pre-approved list of eligible items through an online system. This reduces transaction costs, it increases flexibility, as well as transparency and accountability. It's a very useful mechanism that is tested now in a range of situations around the world. Finally, when it comes to e-monitoring, as well as e-reporting, this is something that we now support in eight Pacific Island, as well as the Regional Fisheries Forum Agency. It basically puts Pacific Island countries on the par with the most advanced fisheries management systems used in North America or Europe. What happens there is that as part of obtaining access to fishing rights, the vessels that are authorized to operate are equipped with video cameras and sensors to monitor and record fishing activities that will make it possible for the regulators to verify the fishing logbooks, which by themselves are not reliable. What we see in terms of impacts is that there is now a much higher transparency, a possibility to penalize non-responsible fishing vessels because the countries are able to detect under-reporting of catch or misreporting of by-catch. Over time, this e-monitoring supports improved data for better management of the fishery stocks themselves, and we hope that this is also going to give countries an idea of how tuna stocks respond to climate change because they migrate, as we know, away from the equator. As well, this e-monitoring and e-reporting system facilitates data exchange among regional management and governance bodies, which is critical for the shared management arrangement that Pacific Island countries have adopted. Thank you very much for your attention. If there is a need for further information about these initiatives, my colleagues and I would be happy to indeed oblige. So thank you very much, and we'll listen to the next speaker. Thank you, Mr. Binua. I'm quite sure colleagues, community groups, but also governments will be interested in what you've said because you've spoken about the World Bank, its support to both land-based and marine-based value chains, which is important for community groups, but also I think in terms of governments knowing that Pacific Island countries are surrounded by a lot of water and fish, and with huge exclusive economic zones that they cannot control. So you're offering on the bank support in terms of regulating capacity building for controlling illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing activities will be quite an issue of interest to governments. Without delaying, I will try to move on to a different perspective, and that is from the vantage point of governments, especially governments that are very active in seats. For this reason, I will invite Ms. Fiona Lane, director of agricultural development and food security section, climate financing and programming branch, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, and trade. Ms. Lane, you have the floor. And hello to distinguished guests and colleagues. Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in this panel on these very important topics. As I've been introduced on with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and trade, as a development partner in agriculture and food security in the Pacific, we are very much guided by the priorities of the Pacific. And these have been outlined through the Samoa pathway, national and regional dialogues that occurred ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit, and more regularly in the two yearly meetings of the Pacific ministers of agriculture and forestry. And so we take our lead from those forums. And if I reflect on the recent Pacific heads of ag and forestry meeting, very clear priorities, increasing food and nutrition security, building resilience to the impacts of climate change, enhancing biosecurity, promoting value adding and downstream processing, and improving livelihoods and contributing to economic growth in the Pacific Island region. So it's a challenging question as to how to mobilize the necessary resources and partnerships to catalyze and scale up in order to deliver on those specific priorities. And that has been very much what the SIDS solution platform has been looking at, and what I'll reflect on now, that sort of issue of how you catalyze partnerships, how you mobilize resources. It doesn't have a straightforward answer. And sharing knowledge through the SIDS platform is one way to assist. But every country is different, of course, and every community is different. But what is the same, I think, is that scale up requires many different partners to work together. Farmers, governments, the private sector, NGOs, researchers, and ourselves as development donors. We're very pleased to be building a number of partnerships in agricultural-related areas. And I'll give you just a couple of examples so that you can sort of get a sense of what we do from the Australian perspective. I think as Director General Chu mentioned, the private sector is so very important to achieve scale up and scale up with innovative solutions. We're a long-term funder of an initiative called the Market Development Facility which operates in a number of countries, including Fiji. It's very much a partnership model, and it looks for opportunities to support private sector actors to adopt new practices. And if I give you a tangible example of that, acidic soil is a widespread problem in sugarcane-producing countries, including Fiji. And you can manage acidic soils through the application of lime. And so through our Market Development Facility, we drew upon some research that was done by the Australian Centre of International Agriculture Research. So we had a solid evidence base for how to apply this product. And then working with the industry with potential suppliers and distributors of lime. And then with farmers, we basically worked up through our Market Development Facility, a sort of partnership that could source this product, this lime, this additive, distribute it through a network of hardware stores, and then engage with farmers so they understood the product and were able to apply it. So thereby we went from something that was a sort of research finding into something that was a scaled solution that could be accessed by thousands of farmers. I think the other issue to reflect upon is the importance of exports for the Pacific. Pacific countries are developing very unique high-value products, cacao, vanilla, coffee. And these export pathways are certainly challenging, challenging to build and challenging to maintain. And Shelley, who's our next speaker, I think we'll touch upon that. But again, we've looked to build some long-term support through our Pacific Horticulture and Market Access scheme that Australia and New Zealand funds to help exporters in many different locations across the Pacific to build and maintain those pathways, again, so we can go to scale. Of course, every situation is different, as I mentioned, and it may not always be a private sector partner that can take things to scale. It may well be an NGO or a community-based organisation. And we've had some great success with cacao. So one in particular, live and learn who we work with in Tuvalu to scale up the production of fresh projects and in a water and soil-limited environment such as Tuvalu. So I might very much aware of time draw things to a close, but I guess in using partnerships are key to catalyzing and scaling up investment. And we're very pleased to continue to work with our partners in the Pacific to do that. Thank you very much. Ms. Lin, I think our innovators will be quite intrigued listening to you. I should recall that the FEO Director-General in 2021, when he unveiled the Sea Solutions platform, he made it very clear that the goal is to facilitate knowledge sharing, to allow us also to identify innovative solutions and replicate them. And I see that, Fiona, you did talk about replicating solutions. I should remind the audience that this is very important because in Solomon Islands, we did identify a solution by an ordinary farmer, a businessman, if you want, a small private sector who created a hot air dryer device that produces potato chips. Now, this innovation is very important because it's within a context where you have no communicable diseases, partly because people eat food that is saturated with a lot of saturated fat. So hearing about how to replicate solutions is very important because this gentleman would like to expand this initiative. And for us, we see these kind of people as private sector. So thank you very much, Fiona. Now, I will move on to our next speaker, who is actually from the, if you want, the private sector, but she's also an innovator. And she will be speaking, sharing a lot of perspectives from that vantage point of the local innovators. And she is Mrs. Shirley Burch, who is the president of the Samoa Women's Association of Girls, but she's also the innovator of the Samoa Vanilla Initiative. Mrs. Burch, I give you the floor, please. Thank you, Joseph. Excellencies, honorable officials and esteemed panelists. I extend warm greetings to you all from my beautiful country, Samoa. It is certainly an honor to be the nominated representative of a CID civil society organization for this first site event today. My name is Shirley Burch, and this is my third year as president for the Samoa Women's Association of Growers, otherwise known as SWAG. I'm also the founder and owner of the sole organic vanilla farm in Samoa called Vaula Vanilla. SWAG was established in just under four years ago from the need for closing the gap for women to access information and resources for women growers and farmers in Samoa. This NGO provides women growers and farmers with opportunities for business, networking, training and education, accessing local and international markets and socializing in a supportive open environment to share traditional and environmentally safe solutions to modern-day agricultural needs. Due to the economic stresses caused by COVID in Samoa, more previously employed women are turning to micro-business ventures in the informal space. Pop-up markets, new market spaces that are available on Saturdays, roadside vendors, and increased activity on online market platforms has helped support struggling families and female-headed households. It is estimated 70% of stalls are managed and staffed by women. SWAG Saturday markets offer our membership and casual vendors a safe environment to sell their produce, baking and handicrafts. SWAG helps to promote vendors through our Facebook page with just over 6,000 followers, giving many of these vendors an opportunity to sell their produce in and outside of Samoa. Between 75 to 90% of vendors working at Pacific market places are women, and their earnings often make up a significant portion of the incomes of many lower-income households. Within the context of today's discussion topic, I'd like to focus on what was noted from the 2021 SID Solutions Forum. If I may recap just a couple of statements that I had made within the innovative statement back then, we asked where to now? We wanted to see tangible results. We also said, because we are small, we require long-term support and assistance. When we talk about financing for innovatives and SIDs, let us remember that it's not just about technical support and peer-to-peer learning. We need financial support too. Not having the financial tangible resources and for some of us, open payment and gateways to utilize digital technology as a means of additional financial income is a major challenge and a big roadblock for e-commerce entrepreneurs. The SID Solutions platform can be an opportunity for Australia, the World Bank and other major stakeholders to support innovatives, and if I may highlight a couple of some of the leader statements that were made at the 2021 SID Solutions Forum, the Hon. Fiji Prime Minister, Hon. Joe Bainamurama said, no innovation can be too small to make a difference. The Cook Island Prime Minister, Hon. Mark Brown said, turning ideas into results requires commitment with partners. And our very own Samoa Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, our Hon. Lauli Pulatauval, noted that family farming is a sector in which women and youth play significant roles and it's important in Samoa and other SIDs. He reminded us that rural women face greater constraints than men in accessing technologies, markets and employment opportunities. And he called for the use of the SID Solutions platform to support farmers and fishers, including women and youth. As an NGO, we are always out there doing the call to action. So, farmers and innovatives and SIDs are private sector business owners and entrepreneurs trying to make a living too. We need to be mindful that it's not just about producing food and what we eat. Whether we are farmers or growers, we are all entrepreneurs. When we sell what we produce, we are in business. We need to be also reminded of the 12 key action points that were recommended by the Solutions Forum. And they are important and urgent. And three of them that I believe need immediate action. Number one is support, promote, scale up and replicate home-grown SID solutions as well as provide tangible, long-term assistance, including a Pacific startup package. Number two, build financial and digital literacy and support women and youth to transition into the formal financial ecosystem, especially the digital economy. And number three, establish structured and targeted regional financing appropriate for SIDs, as well as a pool of regional experts on accessing financing, including concessional financing. As we said at the forum, the inaugural SIDs innovators for this platform are committed to supporting each other by sharing skills, knowledge and the continuation of networking whenever and wherever we are able. We continue to ask our governments, FAO and UN agencies and other development partners for their support, such as technical assistance, networking and mentoring opportunities, peer-to-peer learning, access to sustainable markets and access to financing, including reduced excise taxes. We need government support to help us expand and replicate in other Pacific and SIDs nations, should there be interest in our innovations. And I reiterate once more, we require long-term support because we are small. In closing, I would like to share some pertinent points that I took away from Samoa's International Women's Day event celebrated yesterday, and which I believe are also relevant to the needs of the SIDs innovators and entrepreneurs too. A one-size-fits-all approach is not necessarily the right solution. There is a need to continue proactive and interactive communication with the innovators and entrepreneurs, and it needs to be constant. The financial and technical support needs to be designed to meet the needs and the challenges of the innovator. Our needs may change due to the changing environment in which we live, and therefore so too will the needs of the type of financial and technical support change. We ask our stakeholders and our leaders to be open and receptive to these changes. Action is needed now. It is not just about saying there is a commitment. Real commitment is when the action is implemented. In their honourable excellence season delegates, I conclude. Thank you very much, Shelley. As you were speaking, I was receiving several texts from a lot of innovators in the community, and they said you should keep speaking for the next one hour. Unfortunately, I said to them, we can't, time isn't enough. But thank you very much. Now, I will go to the next speaker, and that's the honourable Dr. Walton Webson, the chair of AOSIS and the permanent representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations. Honourable, you have the floor. Thank you. It is a pleasure for me to join this meeting on the sidelines of the regional conference for Asia-Pacific to highlight some of the key findings from the SIN solution for us. As you are aware, genuine and job partnership are the catalysts of this small party, and SINs have greatly benefited from South-South and Triangular Corporation in advancing our development aspirations. We hope to build on this momentum and see new actions and commitments emerging through these dialogues, which are enriched through regional experiences and lessons. First and foremost, to overcome the capacity barriers that SINs face in harnessing innovative solutions and digitalisation, we urgently need scaled up financing to create more enabling environments, including establishment of necessary infrastructure. The quantum of resources that are currently available are insufficient to meet the evolving needs of small and underdeveloped states, especially when faced with the global challenges such as climate change and the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also need adequate and predictable channels of funding which can be accessed without additional restrictions for states, noting of course the current rules governing access to public finance are less than ideal. Development support should primarily be directed to the most vulnerable countries to ensure that they are not left behind, and the current GDP per capita income criteria utilized by the IFIs consistently exclude numerous SINs. In this context, we wish to highlight a recommendation from the forum to support the application of the multi-dimensional vulnerability index, which is currently being developed and considered by member states. This will be a key political milestone for us that could shape a new and more favourable development trajectory for SINs during this decade of action. Another important takeaway from the forum is to maintain focus on areas where there are persistent gaps, slow progress and implementation. As we are almost halfway through the implementation of the 2030 agenda and reaching the end of the mandate of this small pathway, there are a number of challenges that inhibits and even set back the lack of resilience to external shocks. That is a common denominator that must be addressed to preserve and advance the gains we have made in a cross-cutting manner. It is also important to consider co-benefits and long-term impacts of envisioned initiatives to ensure meaningful and sustainable results which include enhanced resilience of SINs. Last but not least, it is important for us to be able to keep track of the progress made through partnership that emerged from these initiatives in a holistic manner. Efforts must also be made to ensure complementarity and avoid duplications to best utilise the very scarce or limited resources we have available. In this regard, it is important to note synergies with existing partnership under the SIDS partnership framework as well as other relevant initiatives such as the Global Action Forum on Food Security and Nutrition in SIDS by the FAO. Distinguished colleagues, Excellencies, before concluding, I would like to extend the sincere gratitude of EOSIS to the FAO for their continued close collaboration with SIDS and the leadership in extending the outreach of the SIDS solution platform. Through the discussions such as these, we hope to generate further concrete actions to facilitate implementation of the recommendations in the years ahead. I thank you. Thank you very much, sir, and to the preceding speakers. So at this point in time, let me thank all of the speakers, the panelists for this very, very rich discussion. It was a pleasure to have you join us during this event. I should quickly recall that the SIDS solutions platform was created to facilitate knowledge exchange and by inviting all of you here today, for example, the World Bank spoke about supporting public and private partnership. Australia talked about their willingness, involvement in supporting the replication, scale-up of solutions. And, surely from the private sector, clearly spoke on behalf of innovators in terms of what they would like to see to scale up important solutions that they have developed. With this, I want to conclude that we have the opportunity or the platform to do exactly what it was created for, which is to facilitate the cross-pollination of information. So thank you very much, and I should let you know that the SIDS solutions platform is always up online, and we are available always to facilitate information that will be useful and benefit the community. At this point in time, I will pass the microphone on to Ms. Zangian. Ms. Yao, you have the floor. Thank you very much, Joseph, for your moderation to the panel discussion. I also want to thank all the panelists for your excellent deliberations. I think the composition of today's speakers already showed that our commitment to support the SIDS countries to scale up for the innovations and also the digital agriculture practices, but also shows a kind of good composition of the partners from the UN agencies like FEO, international financing institutions like World Bank and also others, but also the donor countries and also the participating countries, as well as the CSOs and also the private sector. So without such a kind of partnership to engage all these concerns, stakeholders, I don't think we can make our journey successful. So with this, I want to thank you again very much for your participation after this event, but let me give the floor to the FEO regional representative and also assistant director general, Zhongying Kim, to deliver the closing remarks of this SID event. So with this, I add up for my responsibility as the master moderator for this SID event. I thank you again. So Zhongying, Mr. Kim, the floor is yours. Thank you, Zhang Zhong. Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Waterways and the Environment of FIGI, distinguished panelists and excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank you very much for very dynamic and thought-provoking discussion today. I think we have heard very clearly from the opening remark of the director general of FEO and the remark by the Minutes of FIGI and to the panel discussions with our esteemed partners, the importance of partnership and financing for accelerating the implementation of recommendations from the CIS Solution Forum. These recommendations and the outcome of CIS Solution Forum will eventually contribute to the SDGs, the summer pathways and the full system summit goals. I think it is very important for us to organize discussion at this 36th session of regional conference for Asia and Pacific. As so many countries and the international actors are at present and engaged in various discussions in this conference, the efforts and achievements of CIS must be heard loud and clear across the region. This event was a great opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the outcome of the CIS Solution Forum last year and the key results and outcome to take deep dive into the way forward. And it is indeed comes at a very important time in following our UN full system summit in view of agri-full system transformation as we discussed yesterday. What we are seeing in Pacific CIS is an increase in the development of innovative and locally grown digital tools. These applications are opening up of new horizon from increasing competitiveness in the building resilient agriculture and food systems and combating the ever-threatening climate change. This event specifically is an opportunity to once again draw global attention to not only the challenges that CIS confront, but also the local capacity and innovation and creativity that exist already in CIS, which can be catalyzed the agri-full system in positive way. The theme of this conference highlights our strong belief that innovation and digitalization offer opportunities for improving food production and trade and we can help to achieve food and nutrition security for CIS as we are observing in other parts of the world. I want to emphasize that agri-full systems agenda and catalyzing it through innovation and digitalization in CIS is agenda for all of us. The government of CIS, private sector, development partners, international financial institution, and others must come together to make an impact. It's on collective efforts. I'm therefore very happy that Australia and World Bank are totally engaged over this agenda. I'm excited about the next steps and I'm especially looking forward to seeing more innovative solutions from CIS that will be identified and replicated this year under the umbrella of CIS solution platform. Again, I want to thank you for your active engagement and I wish you another wonderful side events just behind this. Thank you very much. Thank you JJ. I think with this I could declare that this side event is successfully cleansed. I thank you very much again and also wish you would stay with us for the next side event.