 Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Ankeleka Hakuwe. I am the director of the Office of Small Island Development States, East Development countries, and Landlocked Development countries at FAO and it is my pleasure to be your moderator today and to welcome you to the fourth SID Solutions Dialogue. I would like to extend my appreciation to the ambassadors of the representative of Bahamas, Kabovedji, the Republic of Fiji and Samoa and to the representatives of the permanent missions of Antigua Barbuda, Barbados, the cooperative Republic of Guyana, the Republic of Naur, Trinidad and Tobago and also the United States for joining us today in person in Geneva. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the permanent representative of Samoa for his presence in our liaison office in New York as well as the permanent representatives of Solomon Islands who is joining us from Brussels. We began this dialogue series in February last year as a joint effort between the FAO liaison offices in Geneva, Brussels and New York with the Office of Small Island Development States, East Development countries and Landlocked Development countries. We have already had three dialogues and the outcomes of the SID Solutions Forum, building resilience of SIDs agri-food systems and the state of fisheries and agriculture in SIDs. Today we will discuss the outcomes of the UNF CCC 27 and its implications for SIDs. With around 65 million inhabitants, SIDs account for only one percent of CO2 emissions and yet are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change posing an existential threat. Fisheries, tourism and agriculture contribute significantly to economy sectors whose vulnerability and agility is making it more challenging for them to produce sufficient food to meet their population needs. We have put together an exciting program for you. We will begin with opening remarks from His Excellency Fatou Minava Oopoulou, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island Development SID, AYOSIS Ambassador Permanent Representative of Samoa to the United Nations and His Excellency Kouni Mose, Ambassador and Head of the Mission of Solomon Islands to the European Union. Next, we will move to our panel speakers, a hearing from Zitimi Old Thada, Deputy Director of the Office of Climate Change, Bioliversity and Environment at FAO, who will provide an overview of COP 27 outcomes relevant to agri-food systems, food security and nutrition and their implication for SIDs. He will be followed by Mr. Akila Lanji Gulab, Assistant Director of the Food and Agricultural Research Extension Institute of Mauritius. Mr. Gulab will offer his reflections on what Mauritius is doing to combat climate change in the agri-food sector and how the COP 27 decisions can support Mauritius efforts. We will then move to Mr. Zachary Phillips, fellow 2022 of the Alliance of Small Island Development States, AYOSIS from Antigua and Barbuda, who will share with us critical areas of climate action support for SIDs, building on his experience and advancing their interests. Last but not least, we will hear from Ms. Christine Müller, Policy Officer of the European Commission, Directorate for Climate Action DG Klima and Responsible for Climate Finance in the European Commission in Brussels. Ms. Müller will reflect on the role of the European Union in enhancing climate finance and ensuring the effective implementation of the new decisions with a focus on SIDs. We will then have 35 minutes for questions and answers. Participants in the room would ask you to kindly raise your hands to request the floor and those of us in Zoom, or those of you in Zoom, I should say, kindly place your questions in the question and answer module. Last but not least, to conclude our event today, we will hear from Marielena Semejo, Deputy Director General at FAO, and Ms. Semejo will help us summarize some of the key takeaways from the presentations, the Q&A, and offer her insights on the topics discussed. Before we begin, allow me to provide some housekeeping, grouping rules, and information for today's session. The webinar will last approximately 90 minutes and will be recorded. Finally, keep your microphones muted if you are joining us online, and we encourage you to please post your questions in the Q&A module, and we will do our best to address them during the question and answer session. And with that, I now welcome you once again to the Ford SID Solutions Dialogue, and we'll pass the floor to His Excellency Patu Minava, Olufulu, Ambassador and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island Developing States. Excellency, you have the floor. Thank you very much, Angelique, and can I say good afternoon, good morning, wherever you are. Excellencies and colleagues, it's a real pleasure for me to join you today for this Ford SIDS solution dialogue organized by FAO. Let me also thank FAO for the invitation to AOSIS to be part of this conversation today. I think it's an extremely important process, and hopefully this will also contribute to the upcoming Ford SIDS conference next year that will be held in Antigua and Barbuda. As you are all aware, global events including COVID-19, the dead crisis, and the escalating impact of climate change have placed small island development states in a very precarious situation, more so than before. And as we strive to achieve the lofty aspiration that we have all set for ourselves in various international frameworks with the objective of leaving no one behind, it is important to put those furthest behind first. According to the latest IPCC report, widespread loss and damage from slow onset events, such as reductions in water availability, agricultural production, and fisheries yields, disease spread, economic damages, class year retreat, and sea level rise are already happening and affecting vulnerable communities such as SIDS disproportionately. While we have contributed the least to the problem, we still need to respond to the impact, which reduces the availability of financial resources for development and impedes national economic growth. In this context, we welcome the strong outcome from COP 27, particularly the decision to explore funding arrangement for responding to loss and damages associated with the adverse effects of climate change. As you are all aware, this is a historic achievement that culminated through decades of advocacy by small island development states. During 2023, the transition committee must operate in a smart, effective, and efficient manner that gives, at a minimum, the required momentum for operationalizing the UNF Triple C's new and distinct loss and damage fund by COP 28. Some of you will be aware that the first meeting of the transition committee was held at the end of last month, but they dealt primarily with procedural issues, and they have not really gone into the meet or the greater details of their terms of reference. I think we all support the work of the TC, but I think given time constraints, they have to have their report ready by COP 28. This is going to be a huge task, and we wish them well. The Schaumal-Shake Joint Program, Work on Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security, is another important outcome for safeguarding food security and addressing the particular vulnerability of food production systems through the adverse impacts of climate change. We must look at meaningfully and effective ways to translate the recommendations from the workshop under the coronavirus joint work into concrete and urgent action. Indeed, during this decade of action, it is important to explore practical solutions that complement strategies aimed at long-term resilience. In doing so, we must draw from lessons learned and scale up best practices and new and new emerging opportunities. This is even more crucial as we are now looking towards a head towards the Fourth International Conference on SIDS to take place in Antiqua and Papua next year. Through dialogue and partnership during the next year, we hope to secure some strong deliverable at the Fourth Conference that will move things forward at the pace that is required. I encourage all stakeholders from the international community to engage in the preparatory process, including the regional and interregional preparatory meetings to advance this critical discussion ahead of the conference. Before I conclude, I would like to thank the FAO once again for their continuous support of SIDS in advancing our priorities, including through the SIDS solution platform. As we embark on a more ambitious development journey next year, we hope to strengthen our collaborative efforts, particularly in the areas of sustainable ocean management, fisheries, food security and nutrition. I look forward to the rich discussion ahead today and I thank you all for being here this afternoon, this morning. Thank you and faftai to the lover. Excellent. See, thank you for these opening remarks on behalf of the EOSIS, which I won't intend to summarize because I will not do them justice, but I did stress that to leave no one behind, we have to focus on those most behind and that here is the most vulnerable such as SIDS. We look forward to tapping into opportunities to strengthen our collaboration through the SIDS solutions platform and also in the lead up to COP 28 and the 2024 SIDS conference. I will now pass the floor to his Excellency Moses Kuni-Mosey, ambassador and head of medicine, the Sullivan Islands to the European Union for his opening remarks. Excellency, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Adam Moderator. Excellencies, esteemed colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon from Brussels. Thank you FAO for organizing these global SIDS solutions dialogue and for inviting me to make this brief opening remark. I will focus on two levels. First, I will be providing a global perspective from the organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, the OACPS, and secondly a regional perspective from the Blue Pacific, where I come from. I was privileged to have chaired the OACPS SIDS Forum for the last 12 months and it is a consultative and subsidiary organ of the OACPS and brings together the 39 SIDS of the 79 members of the OACPS to determine and coalesce around common priorities and interests, including the need for stronger climate action. For OACPS SIDS, food security is a key priority, especially as countries grapple with the ongoing climate crisis and now the impacts of the Ukraine war on global food, fertilizer and food and fuel supplies. In multiple ways, climate change is a major driver of food insecurity in OACPS SIDS, undermining efforts to improve access to sufficient safe and nutritious food. To respond, the OACPS has completed a feasibility study for a food systems transformation mechanism and efforts are underway to consult members and partners to establish a food systems transformation mechanism appropriate for the OACPS and also to inform the global food agenda. This initiative is complemented by the OACPS strategy plan of action on Fisheries and Aquaculture 2030. Furthermore, a key priority of the OACPS SIDS Forum is to assist its members to access climate finance. A resource mobilization conference is planned for OACPS SIDS in 2023. In preparation for this event, the OACPS SIDS Forum is developing an OACPS multi-dimensional vulnerability and resilience index, an OACPS state of climate finance access report and OACPS NBC's FAT SIDS. Excellencies and colleagues, if I may now turn to offer some specific regional perspectives. Pacific peoples continue to grapple with increasing levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, with rising incidences of adults suffering obesity and malnutrition cited as the key risk factor for the burden of non-communicable diseases. For example, our children's nutritional status is a major concern, with both extremes of malnutrition, of moderate to severe wasting and moderate to severe overweight manifested in children under five years of age. To put this into context, first, while 52-70% of Pacific peoples depend on agriculture or associated activities for their livelihoods, agricultural productivity has been steadily has seen steady decline due to climate change impacts, land degradation and biodiversity loss. Secondly, coupled to this, 50 to 90% of our population are highly dependent on coastal fisheries and resources for healthy food protein, micronutrients and livelihoods. But these resources are also experiencing significant decline due to climate change impacts and harvesting pressures. And thirdly, Pacific seeds extreme isolation from markets presents additional challenges to ensuring cost-efficient trade in goods and services that underpin our food systems. So how can we address these challenges? Firstly, OACPS seeds, which includes all Pacific seeds, require increased support for building resilience. Timely access to scaled up climate finance and targeted development assistance, that is programmatic in and commensurate with the country systems is needed. Secondly, interdisciplinary approaches to the development of more sustainable, inclusive and resilient solutions to seeds for insecurity challenges must be given high priority due to the interconnectedness and inextricable links between food and the global climate by diversity, energy and financial crisis. Thirdly, seeds health, livelihoods and food system outcomes are heavily influenced by global trade systems and local food environments impacting overall food and nutrition security. A combination of improved food governments, education programs and incentives for sustainable and healthy food can help transition diets. Investment in food safety infrastructure and legislation to facilitate access of seeds food producers to markets is also needed. Finally, as we approach the review of the Samoa pathway, we should reflect and reimagine the new development approaches to address food insecurity and genuine and durable partnerships. I hope today's dialogue should inform regional and intra-regional preparations for the Fourth International Seeds Conference to take place in Antigua and Barbuda in 2024. Thank you very much. That's it, particularly for briefing us on the situation of Pacific SIDS as well as providing some thoughts on how to address the major challenges faced by Pacific SIDS as well as briefing us on the efforts of the OACPS to transform agri-food systems and for resource mobilization. It has given us much food for thought. We now turn to Zituni Oldada, Deputy Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment at FAO. Zituni, could you please share with us how agri-food systems were reflected in the COP 27 decisions and the initiatives and what these may mean for SIDS? Over to you, Zituni. Thank you very much Angelica and greetings, excellencies and their colleagues and everyone joining us for this webinar. And thank you to my colleagues from the offices of Geneva, Dominique Bourgeon on the Office of Brussels, Rashel Al-Khafeji, and also the Office in New York, Choud Guangzu. Thank you for this initiative and series of webinars that allow us to share our work and achievements with FAO members and other colleagues at large and really appreciate your feedback in working together and continuing on this agenda. I'll take you through some of the achievements that we made at COP 27 and the relevance to SIDS in particular. So we'll take you through these in the next few minutes and if you could just confirm that you can see my slides, Angelica. Can you see my slides? We can see this sound. No, you can, you should put it full screen. Yes, full screen is what you are needed. We can see the slides, you just put it on view. Okay, I've got them on full screen. Somehow it's not working. Let me start again. Hopefully it would work. Please start an apology for this. Okay, just bear with me. Okay, I'm trying again. Let's see if this will work this time. So I'm clicking on full screen. Any better? No, we can see them but not full screen, but it's fine. You can go ahead. Okay, let me kick off. Something is happening in the systems not allowing me to do that. Apologies. So there has been a number of achievements relevant to SIDS and let me just start by talking about the big picture and based on what excellence is talked about in terms of the interconnectedness as well. Just to say that at this stage and not just at COP 27 but really beyond that, what we're looking for is the solutions to the climate crisis in particular and the solutions means that looking at the food and agriculture, we don't talk just about the emissions from the sectors and also the various impacts on the environment and nature, but we want to turn that around to talk more about how we can make agri-food systems an integral part of the solution to the climate crisis. We're talking about the transformation of agri-food systems to make them more efficient and inclusive and sustainable and also resilient to the impact of climate change. So our vision in FAO is very clear that we want to achieve this transformation of agri-food systems in order to achieve better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life for everyone leaving no one behind. So our engagement in COP 27 is really based on advocacy in promoting this solution. Apologies my slides are blocked so I can't move them unfortunately. I don't know why. If you can enable content, there's a yellow warning and if you say enable content, it should let you go ahead. It's not responding. Let me try again. Apologies about this. I don't know what happened. Apologies about this but let me just go through it. Apologies you can't see the slides. As I was saying, the advocacy really what we want to promote is the agri-food systems to be part of the solution that we were aiming for and the fact that we had the number of initiatives that we successfully launched with the presidency in Egypt and these cover a wide range of food and agricultural related initiatives particularly ones related to food and agriculture and also water on nutrition and on weight. Apologies about this. I really want to show you this slide but somehow my system is blocked. So this achievement has been made in COP 27 and we're following that up and particularly with regard to the relevance to the SIDS. So we have been providing input and support both and policy support for SIDS countries and that's in relation to the coronavirus joint work on agriculture that recognize the importance of agriculture in tackling the impact of climate change and also the follow-up to that which is the Sharm-Sheikh four-year work program that talks more about the implementation and in relation to that we have also been working on the initiatives that relate to the transformation of agri-food systems particularly the fast initiative that we launched at COP 27 and this is going to also provide an opportunity in supporting countries at large but more specifically SIDS that will be also included in the technical and the policy support and also support for access to finance. So these are some of the initiatives that came out there. In terms of the negotiations you know one of the key outcome that we've been waiting for for for many years is the issue of loss and damage and we're very pleased to see progress on that in seeing the loss and damage fund being recognized and agreed and now the arrangements are being put in place in achieving that. So this is really another element that puts the relevance of small island developing states in the context of the fight against climate change and going forward there are a number of opportunities I would say in putting in a SIDS really at the center in what we're trying to achieve in terms of support. This has been recognized for many years that we want to give priorities to the most vulnerable countries and communities and I think in the current climate that's recognized recognition is increasing because of the impact that we are seeing of climate change and an evolution in terms of the support I mentioned the loss and damage but also the recognition of adaptation. We've been focusing a lot on mitigation and reducing emissions but now we are at the stage where also the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognizes the fact that we need to give more importance to adaptation including the financing for adaptation and this is particularly relevant to SIDS because we have no choice now but to adapt to the impact of climate change. We need to reduce emissions we need to remove excess emissions from the atmosphere but we also need to adapt and build resilience to the impact of climate change. So going forward there are a number of opportunities that also provide a space if you like and you know the journey they're moving the slides it's not necessarily going in line with what you're saying. Yes unfortunately I said we can see the presentation now. So just say what slides you are on. Apologies I can't move it from here. No but we can we the power point is moving now so just tell us which slides you are on. Excellent okay so I'm in the slide before last and unfortunately I can't see it here but it's good that you can see so someone is moving them. Excellent so okay thank you very much for telling me yeah this is the one opportunity for engaging if you go back you go back that's the one thank you. So for this one I want to highlight two two initiatives in particular the Samoa pathway which is the small island developing state accelerated modalities of action pathways you can see there and we have been engaging this in supporting SIDS through you know the policy advice and various tools and analysis that we provide for technical assistance and the more recent one is the initiative called PLACA which is a platform for climate action in agriculture and this is particularly for supporting countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean region and if you move to the next slide so here what I want to highlight again is in terms of not just the next steps but really the the opportunities going forward in terms of opportunities that can provide us to engage even more and support the SIDS countries and you can see in the list here some of the events coming up particularly the agricultural innovation mission for climate summit that would be held in in Washington at the early the first week of May also the the next UNFCCC intercession in Bonn that will provide opportunities in building up from the outcome of COP 27 and preparing for COP 28 and the COP 28 itself obviously that will allow us to continue the momentum that we achieved at the last COP and do more on food and agriculture and food security in in general and I want to mention also class the the number of summits that are taking place this year you know the climate action summit being held in Nairobi but also the UN climate ambition summit in New York in September and in terms of of implementation as FAO and the support that we we we provide and I will finish with this point we have a number of strategies and I want to mention three in particular the strategy on climate change the strategy for mainstreaming biodiversity and the strategy for science technology science and innovation and all these have action plans where we spelled out you know the activities that we're going to carry out to support countries and we see this as another opportunity for us to to support countries and particularly SIDS so just to sum up there are a number of opportunities that we are very pleased about in terms of the overview support to to SIDS countries and we really look forward to to continue and with this with this in collaboration with a number of partners in supporting more the countries in the SIDS regions so apologies again for the slight indecision that didn't work and I hope that you know my intervention provided some element that you're looking for in highlighting the outcomes of COP 27 and the relevance to SIDS thank you again Angelica and back to you thank you Zituni for excellent insight on the outcomes of COP 27 into the key areas of focus to further catalyze climate actions one of the key takeaways from your from your speeches that the climate vulnerability of SIDS and as you're aware FAO has made a concerted effort to prioritize these countries in this respect I'm pleased to announce that China has committed to provide us five million dollars to support SIDS to accelerate the transformation of their agri-suit systems to build sustainable and resilient livelihoods through the FAO South through the FAO China South South Cooperation Trust Fund this trust fund aims to support developing countries to achieve sustainable agri-food systems transformation and to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 agenda especially STG-1 and STG-2 we hope that the activities developed with this funding will be transformative and moreover a catalytic drawing additional funding support for SIDS and therefore FAO looks forward to our continued collaboration with SIDS governments and all partners to build a better future for all I would now like to bring you to our next speaker Mr Akili Lanji Gulab I'm sorry if I have pronounced that incorrectly and as we've heard from previous speakers SIDS are highly vulnerable to climate change and the resulting sea level rise it is therefore imperative that SIDS adapt to these changes which are having increasingly devastating impacts on the key socioeconomic sectors Mr Gulab could you please share with us what Mauritius is doing to combat climate change in the agri-food sector and how the decisions of COP 27 may support these efforts okay thank you very much moderator excellencies and everyone good morning good afternoon and good morning wherever you are thank you very much the FAO team for giving me this opportunity to share what you are doing here and what could be the support required so I mean we are going to the next slide on the level of the presentation repeat here we'll be going on SIDS and climate change impact the support and expectation what are the adaptive measures in the pollution context that we are doing and some indication way forward how we can benefit from the decision taken at the COP 27 so next slide please so small island development state we all know the situation but what is very important to retain is that SIDS are very particularly variable to impact of climate change and Mauritius is among one of them and next slide please so the consequence of the climate change we have the rise in temperature rise in sea level change in the rainfall pattern and intensity the impact is we have highest include intensity flood excessive rainfall drought condition or better of pest and disease and as such this lead to severe losses in production productivity and ultimately impact on the food and nutrition security for the inhabitants next slide please the external shocks also has a great influence on the potential of SIDS among including Mauritius to reach a reasonable level of self-sufficiency so therefore sustainable agriculture food production food security program as well as international trade are very critical for us people to meet the SDGs the target set especially SDG 2 and probably this can be achieved by enhancing the capacity for storage the reduction of food loss and food waste sometimes these can reach up to 35 to 40 percent of what is being produced strengthening of market information system addressing land degradation biodiversity and even agroforestry which can be a source of mean of production and especially digitalization in the sector we are talking about modernizing the agriculture production primary production being an enterprise so we need to move towards the modern era so now let's consider the case of Mauritius next slide please situated in the southwest Indian Ocean we are some 2400 kilometers on the east coast of the mainland Africa so we are particularly vulnerable to cyclone and we actually have some 10 to 12 cyclone annually so the last one that we have and visited our region is cyclone Freddy Freddy is known to be a record-breaking cyclone which is one of the most energetic one the longest live cyclone and many of us will recall the damage caused and the casualties caused to countries such as Madagascar and Mozambique where we have more than 1000 casualties and 500 people missing so in addition to cyclone where we have considerable damage to our production both for crop and we have regularly hit with flash floods occasional drought SNDC outbreak which is associated with the rise in temperature and those calamities causes solar erosion and meeting of nutrients that we have and seeds like Mauritius we have very limited arable land so we cannot move that we our soil being depleted and degraded so what are we doing here next slide please so to improve our food system we have enhanced our research activities and development for varieties that are to the local condition varieties that are heat delivered and varieties that can be cultivated both in open field and in greenhouses we have shifted our production towards protected culture and grant being provided for farmers to shift towards protected culture and starting in 2000 we had some 10 greenhouses and presently we have more one more than 1000 and covering some 70 hectares representing some 1% of the cultivable area but the production constitute some 10 to 15 percent on the total production in Mauritius we are focusing on minimizing the use of chemical because highly dependent of chemicals being imported abroad and of fluctuation in price also so we are moving towards the PM agroecology nature based solution and recently we are embarking on a project for the use of seaweed to be used as an alternative for fertilizers in the livestock sector we are promoting the use of local fodder instead of the importing animal feed and also embarking on a project to see how other sources of protein can be found to animal feed on the other side water is being scarce so we are favoring water saving techniques for irrigation promoting the minimization of food loss and food waste along the value chain as such we are promoting post-harvest technologies and giving opportunities for people to do agro processing with incubation and training so that we can increase the shelf life of the products we are also promoting import substitution agriculture and product of being imported such as rice and wheat so we are promoting commodities such as pulses beans and other starchy food like sweet potatoes cassava and edels so on the other side we are also promoting digitalization for the sector and one important aspect is the empowerment of farmers so we have a formaturing tool being consolidated and we have also the authorities have provided a certain number of grants and loads at the interest rate which is quite low and the grant are 50 percent of the investment for those who embark on certain projects and to a certain ceiling on the right side of the other screen you'll find there is a list of certain grants that the government provides to the farmers so let's move to the next slide we can see a glimpse of what we have been doing and the protected cultivation prevent from the flash floods a temperature where they have the control environment in the greenhouses and also it minimizes the entrance of pests and diseases so that we use less chemicals we also have the water saving technique it's either using a gravity fed irrigation system or we can have solar water being associated with the irrigation this term is given the irrigation of one variety which has been locally bred for the tolerance to heat conditions so next slide please following the discussion and decision at the COP 27 regarding food security related to seeds we think that the FAO can provide together with the funds that have been made provision for to assist in case of loss and damage and for sure every year we'll have this kind of loss and damage associated with the climate change and natural calamities and also we believe that capacity building is very important to be more resilient in terms both technical and financial that is through agencies mainly through the value change of the food system boosting local production using indigenous knowledge and also some hand space knowledge is to promote the local production and also to provide support to countries to national level information system in agriculture and also we believe that the support can be focused on soil health soil fertility without a good health and fertility which have been degraded cannot produce optimally so we need to restore and regenerate the soil and also being very being situated in the tropical condition the pest and disease load is going high so the management is very important think that further development in the digital sector or digitalization of the sector is very important for modernization facilitated marketing and trading also to see how we can involve policy and decision makers in promoting resilience in the production and food system along all the value chain so the action of the FAO is not limited only at national level we can have regional integration also inclusive economy and inclusive the situation at regional level where neighboring countries can assist and promote how we can at least become more resilient to external shocks and natural calamities next slide please so we know that the current food crisis has its unique challenges requiring a food system approach that is correct and recognize the need for mutually reinforcing complementary effort across geographies over the short medium and long term thank you very much is now to you moderator thank you for your intervention mr. Love and for sharing concrete and innovative actions that Mauritius is taking to adapt their food systems to climate change which could serve as examples for other SIDS and thank you also for some of your advice on how FAO could strengthen collaboration with Mauritius and other SIDS we now move to our next speaker mr. Zachary Phillips who most recently participated in the Alliance of Small Island Developing States AOSIS Fellowship spending a year working on supporting the interests of SIDS in the areas of climate ocean governance and sustainable development mr. Phillips during your tenure you were assigned to follow the loss of damage and sea level rise on behalf of AOSIS in your experience what are the critical areas for climate ocean governance and aquatic food systems to support SIDS how can we ensure loss and damage mechanisms where SIDS can actually intentionally access and benefit from global support thank you so much thank you so much madam moderator and thank you to the FAO for inviting me and allowing me to give my perspectives and contribute to this discussion which I think is really important as we head towards our next SIDS conference in Antigone Barbuda next year in relation to the question next slide please we've been asked well I've been asked to look at key key areas of support for climate change and ocean but I think it's really important before we look at the areas of support we must contextualize why we need that support so next slide it is important and many SIDS will know that in our various international arenas we keep harping on the special circumstances of SIDS and this is not for strategy or not for lack of another way in which to negotiate this is because this is our real experience as it relates to food security as it relates to climate change as it relates to ocean governance and it is because of these characteristics that we need the supports in certain specific ways so SIDS are generally classified according to size remoteness limited supply of national resources and limited supply of human resources and vulnerability to economic and natural shocks apologies so given the time constraints I won't go into too much detail especially since the audience is mostly made up of persons from SIDS but I do think it's important to go over these individual characteristics to set a bit of a cushion for discussing the COP 27 outcomes so next slide please looking at the characteristic of size as we know many SIDS do not have vast expanses of land so specifically particularly with food production it is mostly medium and small-scale agricultural production that happens on land we notes however that there are to every small island SID there is an equal and greater large ocean that we have control over however the large ocean space comes with certain difficulties in managing because of our low limited resources whether it be human capacity whether it be technology or whether it be our expanse of the actual ocean size next slide a good example would be the island of seychelles which if I'm not mistaken has an ocean space that is larger than the country of France so despite the fact that seychelles may be termed as a small island and its population may not be of the capacity of for example the nation of France there is a vast expanse that seychelles has the potential to tap into but tapping into that potential has to be done within the context of the resources that are available to them and the same can be said for many different small island states around the world next slide thus in relation to size a solution that is critical or any critical solutions that come out of these negotiations must focus on support that deals with small and medium-scale farming practices rather than re-emphasizing or repeating large-scale production practices that may work in countries that have vast expanses but cannot work given the unique situation of sids our critical support must be tailored to us as it relates to ocean governance as well the food security concerns aquaculture any any management of the ocean governance must take into account that the ocean expanse largely exceeds in most cases the land expanse and most times the human resource capability as well so we do need assistance to govern our oceans in order to accurately secure or start production in a way that will better secure food for the citizens within and I also take time to note at this point that any assistance in relation to ocean governance or ocean food production will have to take into account that there may be implications as it relates to rising sea levels ocean acidification or the effects which is still largely unknown of marine plastic pollution within the oceans next slide remoteness as as many of my colleagues who have already presented noted a large difficulty of sids is our distance from global markets so that applies not only supply chains as it relates to the actual provision of food itself but it also affects relief aid assistance and support when it is unfortunately that we are affected by adverse effects of climate change for example the after the aftermath of a hurricane or a severe flood the situation might be that the nearest support which is a five hour plane flight away or which is the case in many small island states it is a five hour plane flight to the main island and then a three hour boat ride to the specific smaller island which may be affected so these are critical issues that must be taken into account when we're looking at solutions going forward another issue with we thank you Zach would ask you to please try to wrap up the because we're running short on time apologies okay thank you no problem all right so with next slide please sorry right so as it relates to remoteness solutions for sids have to specifically combat this characteristic by focusing on resilience resilience helps to mitigate over dependency that remoteness currently creates within a sids characteristic next slide with limited resources i've grouped natural and and human resources into one discussion because the same applies to both our resources are limited and because of our limited resources there is a difficulty with the capacity that we have to respond whether it be to climate action or to food security and in this scenario next slide the capacity building that must be done must must balance the fact that there is a wide range of approaches that need to be taken care of as it relates to the resources that are available to sids but also in response to loss and damage effects there is a situation that an entirety 100 percent of our resources usually go into relief where in no other situation whether it be landlocked states is that the case our entire GDP must be redirected now to rebuild and to get back to a state of where we were before the events happened and noting again that these events are happening more frequently it is quite difficult for sids to continue in this cycle of rebuilding next slide vulnerability as i've said before all of those characteristics beforehand they interplay with each other and create a very vulnerable effect on all small island developing states i'd also like to note quickly noting time that debt is an integral factor in this vulnerability as well as it stands right now most of the support whether it be once it's not classed as humanitarian it is classed as development assistance or climate finance and unfortunately for a lot of sids being classified as a high income country we are unable to get concessional loans which would mean that for antique and barbuda for example the night before hurricane irma hit in 2017 we were a high income country and the day after we were no income country because all of our gdp all of our resources were situated in rebuilding what was damaged next slide right so in relation to a solution here our request or or feature that must be critically looked upon is the provision of sustainable a sustainable solution for adequate additional adequate and predictable climate financing and i'll just quickly with the last half minutes go over the cop 27 response if the moderates is okay with that next slide we were we this is you know we're a little bit over time with the with the presentation so if you can just say a quick quick line and then we can we can close and go to the next center all right thank you very much my quick line on cop 27 response is that the funding arrangements must be specific to the requirements of sids it should be pragmatic so that we do not go back to a project based approach it should be fit for purpose so that we can actually respond to what issues that sids themselves say that they are having difficulties with the response and finance should be provided in a timely predictable and reliable manner and ultimately moving is very importantly it should be grant based so that we do not fall into a continually system of death cycles thank you thank you very much Zachary for sharing these relevant insights on the negotiations and its implications for sids for mentioning that we need to tailor support and what key elements need to be included in that support as well as having to take into account certain important issues such as the remoteness of sids and the vulnerability which makes sometimes the GDP does not capture this vulnerability and calling us to look in also to the issues of financing to conclude the panelists section i'm very pleased to welcome our final speaker miss Christine Müller policy officer of the european commission director general for climate action digital and responsible for climate finance in the european commission miss Müller could you please tell us more about the european commission's role in enhancing finance and ensuring the effective implementation of the new decisions and how is the european commission's climate action addressing the specific needs of sids thank you angelica and excellency colleagues it is my honor and pleasure to participate in this fourth sids solutions dialogue and to respond to your questions angelica the role of the european commission is proportional to our responsibility experience and capacity and it is multi-layered cooperation with partner countries is the key lever to raise climate ambition globally here our core mission is to build trust and comprehension for a better life in all parts of the 1.5 degree world meeting local needs and fitting local contexts putting those communities first that have so far been left behind this is critical for enabling always higher and more concrete and effective ambition over time by all partners including the advantage that more and tailor made result oriented solutions of support climate finance can be put in place to realize the envisaged changes in 2021 the UN its member states contributed 23 billion euros in public international climate finance making up almost one third of the total amount provided that year this makes us the largest provider in the world and we continue to work with other countries included those that should do much more to increase their contributions however we are also fully aware that our development aid alone is not enough to tackle the challenges of climate change and achieve the goal set out in the paris agreement increasing private investment is absolutely crucial and to reach the paris goals the efforts needed to build adequate measures for the necessary mitigation and adaptation action is at such large scale that we must rely on a range of instruments in order to contribute adequately to these efforts to support and accelerate the global transition to a climate neutral and sustainable economy the international platform on sustainable finance has identified a growing array of transition related guidance and protocols aiming to define and direct the space since 2020 the UN china initiated under the platform mentioned before a working group on taxonomies to conduct an assessment of existing taxonomies for environmentally sustainable investments addressing commonalities and differences and respective approaches and outcomes the common ground taxonomy aims to be used to improve the comparability and future interoperability of taxonomies in this way further facilitating and enhancing international climate finance including finance also for sits changes at macro level are necessary as well cop 27 has been the most vocal cop in calling for reforming the global financial architecture to scale up low carbon and climate resilient investments it highlighted that delivering the needed funding will require a transformation of the financial system including a reform of the motor development banks to better serve climate and development goals making the cooperation platforms among these banks truly operational can bring synergies and save time and money their ability on risk and price discovery can be more helpful to the investors and their global convening power and advocacy will continue to bring private and public actors together we also welcome the objective of the bridge town initiative to mobilize more finance globally to address climate challenges more comprehensively the global financing pact summit in June will give us another opportunity to work together developed and developing countries strong and vulnerable across sectors and geographies and to jointly consider the challenges it is crucial to apply the summit's emerging findings and ideas to the largest possible contributor space to work together developed and developing countries and to call for contributions from all of those that can afford it the European Commission is fully engaged to allow for an effective implementation of the new decisions taken at cop 27 including to align financial flows with the 1.5 degree objective changing the incentives for domestic and foreign investors require coordinated and determined action across the public and private sector to catalyze private investors public authorities will need to focus on creating the right enabling policies environments providing financing and risk mitigation setting standards and and guidelines multilateral development banks will also have an important role in those developments by developing innovative approaches tailored to local needs but also by supporting capacity building and knowledge sharing with regard to agriculture and food we are engaged to cooperate to work out the concrete contents of the four-year joint work on climate action for agriculture and food security building on the outcome of the corny via joint work on agriculture and duly integrating the new agriculture and food related initiatives launched at cop 27 by the Egyptian presidency we believe that f.a.o action planning on climate biodiversity and innovation should well mirror the four-year joint work under the U.N.F.C.F.C.C.C. and with Syversa and that together we should use the f.a.o hosted U.N. food systems summit coordination how the July 2023 global stock tanking moment in Rome notably to make further strong cases for building climate resilient food systems also in sits such cases should give priority to have the most vulnerable address local nutritional needs and climate adaptation needs first and then work out and implement solutions to change the supporting local land use and food system patterns tailor-made climate finance would be an essential part of the picture eventually the plucker platform for climate action and agriculture mentioned by Zituni also the f.a.o hand-in-hand geospatial information system could facilitate the setup and implementation of pilot project to test the application for example of the new food system transformation mechanism introduced here into our discussion by the house's chair before such approach could give preference to concrete ugly food climate action examples as they were discussed here in our dialogue before could also be interesting for implementing projects under the south-south cooperation trust fund other funds mentioned before small island developing states are indeed particularly vulnerable to climate risks and therefore again we very much welcome the precious pledge by China announced before we welcome today's dialogue in view of paving the way for further future cooperation including on climate resilient food systems thank you all and back to you Angelica thank you very much miss newton for the insights it's particularly encouraging to hear how this important topic is for the european commission and about the investments that are being made to support since climate action and also like to thank you for highlighting the opportunities that we may have with the food system stock taking moment the hands in hand the plaque up to support since so now we've heard from all our speakers and it's now time to hear from you the floor is open for a quicker question and answer panel as I said earlier we will accept questions from the floor in Geneva New York as well as from online participants if you are online please use the q&a model not the chat box to get us started and break the ice we have his excellency duke danivaanu permanent representative of the republic of fiji excellency you have the floor thank you Angelica and thank you FAO for convening this dialogue looking at seeds solution and let me also acknowledge and express appreciation to all the panelists and the speakers the ambassador of samoa in new york and the ambassador of salmon islands in in belgium i think one of the key things that's come out very strongly to me in this in this dialogue is the challenges that that seeds face um and the high high vulnerability in particular that we experience and how do we respond to that uh and what uh the means by which we can effectively address those challenges which are ongoing and ongoing meaning year to year and i think that's been highlighted in all of the presentations uh i mean it's putting a jeopardy all the needs categorizations that we have come to know of middle income countries high income countries and i think that point has been mentioned uh the fact of ldc graduation you graduate this year and next year you you may as well be back to ldc status uh all these needs uh categories that we have designed and devised are now increasingly being challenged if not redundant and what should be the response of the global community uh to this ongoing uh systemic uh um challenges that we as small island developing states uh face now we've talked about partnership and i think that's one of the solutions that we clearly have uh in our arsenal um particularly in terms of providing financial contributions and i hadn't known about the contribution from from china towards feo uh in support of seeds which we welcome and appreciate and i think the support of e u and other partners in in this respect very much appreciated and and welcome but also um the work that the multilateral development uh banks and financial institutions are vital in addressing uh this uh systemic challenges that we face and we we acknowledge the work that barbados prime minister and others are doing in this regard and i think those uh should continue and particularly gain more traction in the climate change space uh in particular uh but in other forums and uh recently seen the meetings in uh washington dc but the actual work uh being done by feo i think is commendable in supporting seeds uh to address the impacts the adverse impacts of climate change and particularly focusing on the agree uh food systems for our countries and i think those uh should really continue to assist us in uh building resilience but in addressing some of the challenges but i think this definitely needs a lot more uh thorough uh dialogue to to see how we can assist our countries because these cycles of cyclone they don't stop and they are becoming worse and worse thank you very much excellent see uh and uh thank you for your comments um i will now uh give the floor to miss allison saint rice the first of the permanent mission of trinidad and to be able to do my missions to new earth and for 20 moderators and the day to everyone and thanks as well to all involved in the organization of this important interaction and for the extension of an invitation to make brief remarks uh my delegation we wish to thank the distinguished speakers for their informative and insightful contributions which really provide a sound platform for rich dialogue on the implications of the cop 27 outcomes for the agri-food systems of sits on the loss and damage fund we look forward to its effective implementation and we also take this opportunity to highlight this important outcome from cop 27 regarding which a osis and caracom demonstrated persistence and astute leadership as a country situated in a region where extreme weather events and natural disasters decimated our agriculture sectors and economies as a whole we recognize the importance of effective and accessible climate finance as well as imperative to improve our approaches as a global community to questions related to that for us it would be important for cop 28 to deliver where cop 27 fell short especially as relates to predictable and high ambition support and global cooperation for implementation efforts as an nfidc a small and vulnerable economy and a small island developing state problematically classified by the existing international financial architecture as a high income economy food insecurity remains a key challenge that is of high priority between none of the legal and inordinately high food import bill remains a source of concern and this is why alongside other caracal member states we are pursuing in unist the regional effort to reduce our regional food import bill by 25% by 2025 including by prioritizing certain crops and products including poultry, citizen meats and niche vegetables as we do so we continue to situate our food security efforts within the broader framework of efforts to address challenges relating to non-communicable diseases and is on which Trinidad and Tobigo and Caracum have long based the spotlight. We have also we also joined other caracal member states in embracing and affirming the viability of the Bridgestone initiative in recognition of the imperative to revamp the international financial architecture so that it is better positioned to effectively address challenges of vulnerable developing countries including cities. As we seek to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen our economy and to sustainably feed our population the question of access to grant and concessional financing remains a key one for us and a moderate time thank you. Thank you very much Ms. Price I now give the floor to Mr. Ines Dwayne for Secretary of Permanent Mission of our data. Mr. Dwayne you have the floor. Okay thank you thank you. Excellencies and esteemed guests that afternoon I will be brief with my comments. Allow me to first apologize for the absence of Ambassador Wilson who wanted to be here was currently out of Geneva on official duty and therefore could not attend. We recognize and give special thanks to the FAO and relevant players in sponsoring the city's solutions dialogue. This seeks to adequately assess and address the issues facing the city's seats. As we sit here I listen to the wonderful presentations and stimulating discussions. We heard critical elements mentioned to ensure our food security going forward. As we know that our culture has not been shielded from climate related issues. In Barbados the necessity to analyze and address factors such as the environmental degradation of our soils, decreasing rainfall in essential periods of the year, coupled with constant threat of rising sea levels and salt water infiltrating our aquifers has made decreased access to freshwater or farmers for seasonal crops and livestock. Specific attention is being placed on achieving resilience for the agricultural sector to climate change and increasing capacity in our culture. We also see the relevance to connect our cultural and tourism sectors in small islands are working with those small farmers to ensure quality, reliability of supply and new market opportunities. We all know cities are currently faced with factors such as adverse debt, the graduation of our economies, limited access to pertinent resources and revenue streams. At this stage we see the adjusting resources and flexibilities that the international level will serve to assist in meeting those requirements to accelerate progress and safeguarding our greener economies. At the international level the British Initiative led by Prime Minister the Honourable William Maudy is a collaborative effort that seeks to provide a set of ideas to address what needs to be done to mitigate issues of the climate and deal with the damage and climate vulnerable economies more sustainable while treating to the current impact of loss and damage. In closing, let's continue to support those initiatives that can work to save the world for future generations and maintain these types of dialogues as organized by the FAO of issues facing states. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Dwayne for your comments. I now give the floor to Mr. Colin Luckey, Second Secretary of the Prime Minister of Guyana. Thank you very much Madam Maudy. Good afternoon, excellent colleagues. I must say thank you to the presenters. I think the contribution, the discussion was insightful and Madam Maudy, I'll just pause the time. So I just want to share that Guyana welcomes the decision to establish the loss and damage response fund from the recently concluded UN Climate Conference, COP 27. And one of the things I would want to highlight that financing for sustainable development and climate and climate security feature is paramount importance. There is need for increased climate mitigation funding for small island development states and low-lying states, low-lying coastal states like Guyana, because these countries, they are clear vulnerabilities to climate change. I just want to quickly share that in an effort to continue mitigating climate change impacts, Guyana is pursuing a low-carbon development strategy, which aims at creating a model for value ecosystem services and sustainably developing and managing the blue economy, investment in climate energy and stimulated low-carbon growth, protecting against climate change and biodiversity loss, alignment with global climate and biodiversity goals. Finally, I would just want to share that Guyana has long been a global leader in the fight against climate change. This remains even though we are now as a new oil producer and our new realities increase our ability to fully understand the challenges the international community must address, including aligning the need for climate and energy security, balancing food security with maintaining the world's forest. And at the core of everything we do is to ensure that we act in solidarity with developing countries, especially states, who progress on our priorities, especially around climate finance. I think I'll stop there. Thank you very much. I now give the floor to Ms. Joanie Hartman, the Secretary of Permit Mission of the Republic of America. Hello, and good afternoon everyone. So now we welcome Zephyr's initiative to develop food and agriculture systems, resilient to the impacts of climate change in both adaptation and mitigation measures. This is particularly pertinent as our countries simultaneously recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. It has fractured the global supply chain, impacting detrimentally on the islands that are highly dependent on food imports. To reduce reliance on food imports and address the issue of food security and improved nutrition, the Nauru government has committed to restructure its system to increase domestic food production. It is therefore timely that we start the conversation on adaptation and mitigation measures to build resilient food systems. To conclude, I take this opportunity to report the United Nations Food Systems Summit and the global commitment to launch new solutions to transform food systems by 2030, specifically to reactivate the Nauru is committed, get Nauru is committed to promoting a nutrition and climate resilient agriculture and freeze-trace sector that supports livelihood. Nauru therefore looks forward to further collaboration with the organization and others. Thank you very much, Ms. Hartman, and thank you to everybody for your comments. Unfortunately, time flies as we're having fun as they say, and we have coming to the end of this dialogue. But before closing, it is my pleasure to hand the floor over to Marilena Semedo, the VC Director General for closing remarks. Marilena, over to you. Thank you, Angelica, and good morning, good afternoon to all. Let me start by thanking our presenters today. Ambassador Kupulu, I'm sorry if I misspell your name, representative from Samoa to the United Nations. Ambassador Moses Mose from Salomon Islands. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium. We have also Mr. Grulov, we have Zachary, we have Mrs. Christine Muller, and all the comments coming from the distinguished ambassadors in the room. Also, I would like to thank my colleagues from FAO office in New York, Geneva, Brussels. You are also Zittuni, he was a panelist, and to you, Angelica, for facilitating this event. It's really a pleasure to me, as several of you, I am also from small island development states. I am from Cape Bird, and is really something in my heart because I share the same conditionalities that you share with us today. I know and I can measure what you are talking about regarding the size of seas, the remoteness, the vulnerabilities, and I think we talk all the same language. But I would like also to congratulate all of us for this dynamic session. This session highlighted the particular and unique vulnerability of the smaller island states in the face of climate change. And also, it has been said that AUCP is working on a multi-dimensional index that I think will capture all the vulnerabilities and all the specificities of seeds and will help us move from the GDP to really what are the realities of the small island development states. And we also heard how climate change is affecting agri-food system, food security, and nutrition, food safety, is compromising livelihoods, economic growth, the islands themselves, and the future prospects. And it was mentioned how in the islands we have the food insecurity, diversity, how it's affecting the NDCs, and how we really need to be resilient to external shocks and natural calamities. We also mentioned that we are small in land, but we are also large ocean space. But this also brings at a challenge the governance of the oceans, the rising of the sea levels, and how we can better exploit what can come from the seas. And it was referred for the ocean food production and FAO, we are working now on the aquatic foods. And we hope that the aquatic foods will provide better food security to the islands. We also heard how coastal erosion, more frequent and extreme water and wave impacts are contributing to food, water insecurity, and soil erosion. And how agriculture sectors had been hit hardest in terms of climate disasters impact. And this we look, if you look at the figures of the statistics between 2008 and 2018, climate disasters in the Caribbean seeds are evaluated in 8.7 billion. And the Pacific seeds across Oceania, 108 million was the dollar. Can you imagine if you have invested this amount in development, what it could mean change the reality in the seeds? I think it's not a surprise to all of us that the message that resonated loudly during this dialogue is the urgent need for investment in capacity building, in adaptation strategies, enhanced support to transform seed agri-food systems to become more resilient, but also the need to have a more interdisciplinary approach. The need to improve also the food governance, how we can have this transition to healthy foods and the transition diets, how we can deal with the market, the market information, how we can link the seeds producers to the market and to the international trade, how we can reduce the food losses and waste, and how we can reimagine the food security in the leadway to San Vicente and Barbuda. We also mentioned the specific funding that was announced today under the FAO and China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund, which I consider is timely and the high priority that FAO plays on the transformation of agri-food system. It also has been said that this fund we hope it will be catalytic to bring more funds, but the question of partnership, financing, investment was mentioned by the majority of our panelists and the comments coming from our participants. The need to have a more predictable climate finance to address loss and damage, how we can better catalyze private investment, what will be the enabling policies, how we can develop the multilateral development bonds, how we can tailor-made climate finance, and I would like also to thank the European Union here for our support to the seeds work in FAO, the ACPS, and also generally, and we hope we can continue to work with European Commission in this very strong partnership. Today's discussion also provided an opportunity for seeds to share experience, exchange ideas, and how the outcomes of COP 27, particularly the ones related to food and agriculture, such as the Sharma-Shek joint work on implementation on the climate action on agriculture and food security. As I mentioned, the loss and damage agreement and the Egyptian Presidency Food and Sustainable Transformation Initiative, how they can support this transformation we aim for the seeds. We hope through the FAST we'll be able to mobilize new and more sustainable finance. We will be able to develop global and regional initiatives, network, coalition, including the small island development states, accelerated modalities of FACTION pathway, the Samoa pathway, but I think more than that, how we can work together to bring innovative solution to the next meeting on the seeds in Antiqua and Barbuda. FAO, we stand here to work with you to a better preparation of the meeting to come up with solutions and to speak at one voice. It has been said that we need voices from the seeds and this is also mentioned, the Prime Minister of Barbados has been one of the speakers on the have been one of the voice of seeds in the international arena. We have much more and how we can put together those voices to speak as one regarding the seeds challenge we face and we hope we'll be able to bring this to Antiqua and Barbuda. We also partner to support seeds to access technical assistance to the Santiago network and helping develop and implement the Sharmal shake joint work on the climate action on agriculture and food security. Also, I hope and I strongly believe that today's conversation will help us in the lead to COP28 in UAE and to bring those ideas, those solutions and the seeds voice to maybe more strategic and more multi-dimensional as it has been said to the COP27. Let's continue working together. I think FAO can have a role on this OECP OASIS. All those organizations, let's work together and to have very strong messages and cases to bring to COP28. And let me conclude thanking you again for your presentation. Count on FAO. It has been a successful, this fourth seed solution meeting and let's make it your solution, your meeting and help us to scale up what we are doing, the success, having in the seeds, but more than that our vulnerability and the need to bring our measure because as it has been said GDP is no longer a measure for seeds. It's so volatile and from one day to another that we need to change the way we deal, we speak and we measure our success and also our failures. Thank you again and hope you will be able to meet again before the new challenge and the new meetings you are having. Thank you, Angelica and over to you. Thank you, Marielena, for those inspiring closing remarks. To conclude this meeting, I wish to thank everyone online and also those of you in person in Geneva, New York. And of course, thank you very much to our distinguished speakers for your participation and for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. There's been a number of questions in the Q&A chat box, which unfortunately we run over time, but we will be addressing them in writing soon. Lastly, have a nice rest of your day or evening depending wherever in the world you may be. Thank you. Thank you, Marielena. Thank you.