The headlines from the islands of the kingdom announce daily squabbles, discuss household issues, and micro challenges, rarely addressing the macro needs.
But on Monday, a meeting between the island Prime Ministers — Aruba, Curacao, St Martin, together with the Secretary General of the United Nations, and the Dutch Prime Minister took place virtually.
I bet you are interested to know what the adults talked about, in the annual international forum.
They touched some very important subjects concerning the kingdom, among others the challenge of reaching the United Nation Sustainable Development Goal, by 2030.
From sdgs.un.org: “The 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals, was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. It provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.”
That’s a positive move, the SDGs should be added to our daily conversations.
The adults also talked about the tense situation on the border between Russia and Ukraine, something we hardly give a thought to. However, it is a threat to life as we know it, albeit distant.
They also talked about climate change and the necessity to work out a plan together, to minimize its impact on the islands, lastly they talked about the aftermath of COVID-19, here.
As reported in local media outlets Aruba has asked for some more support in handling the Venezuelan challenge, during the meeting. That hot potato has a great effect on Aruba in terms of illegal landings and immigration, in view of the fact that Aruba is a small island with scarce resources. The internal situation in Venezuela created a humanitarian, economic, and political crisis, which spills over the border to affect Aruba and Curacao.
The forum also asked the United Nations to pay attention to the consequences of climate change on the islands, and called each country to look at its individual need, in order to mitigate rising temperatures, more severe hurricanes and other catastrophes unleashed as a result of global pollution, caused by larger developed nations. While no fault of the islands, they suffer as collateral damage.
On the subject of COVID-19, the islands reiterated the great impact the pandemic had on tourism and travel. Aruba is currently participating in a study to determine its Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, assessing the data, based on measures other than GDP.
The islands are aiming to develop methods to guide and mitigate disastrous events, and measure them in more than just one dimension.
Additionally, the islands asked for more information from the kingdom on a Voluntary National Review that is being conducted right now, kingdom-wide, in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Results will be revealed during a political forum next month with the hope to define all challenges, in order to remedy them.
I have to say, the Dutch bureaucrats always have interesting projects in the fire.
MinPres used her favorite word, fruitful, to describe the meeting, and mentioned that the islands received praise from the UN Secretary General, on how well they handled crisis after crisis. He also praised their commitment to the SDGs. Amen
