Commonwealth Secretariat meeting 6-7 July London Sustaining development in small states

1. Commonwealth Secretariat meeting 6-7 July London Sustaining development in small states Promoting small states growth and development in the global economy Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states: J L Roberts JLR

3. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts • Past Eras for Policy and Action on SD • 1970s Raising awareness • 1980s Global Treaties • 1990s Legislation and national commitments • 2000s Strategies, Goals, Grand projects 2010s New Era for what?

4. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts From Crisis to rescue • G20 Pledges of support • UN Review of IFI structures and functions • World Bank rescue packages • For 2009, the bank supported 767 projects to promote economic growth, fight poverty, and assist private businesses… The ‘Unholy Trinity’ (IMF, WB,WTO)(Richard Peet) still in business preserving the status quo ante

5. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Into a new era? • Gemeinschaft or community • Gesellschaft or association (concepts in social theory (from the German sociologists Ferdinand Tonnies and Max Weber) Taking us forward into a fresh framework for sustainable development?

6. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts • Community: individuals, family, kinship, neighbourhood, village – common culture and mores • Association: commercial company, professional group, state, federation- corporate objectives, division of labour, specialisation, business management

7. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Partners Partnerships Associates Colleagues Accomplices Players in a side Companions in a dance or Strengthening to a hole in a ship’s deck for a capstan What is the best narrative for us?

8. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts • Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP) • Technical progress which promotes marginal productivity to increase for the same levels of factors of production • This approach to economic development threatens the outstanding natural assets in Small and island states when it values such natural wealth at zero.

9. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) Seeks to redress the environmental impact of development by • Prevention and mitigation measures • Valuing natural resources explicitly in the system of social welfare accounts. .

10. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts People of small States Low ecological footprint High on the Happy Planet Index Smallness means close to government Remoteness a protective shield But without awareness and drive, highly vulnerable to ecosystem collapse. The lost Dodo: a metaphor for the perils of inaction.

11. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts ‘Man aspires to the stars. But if he can only get his sewage and refuse distributed and utilized in an orderly fashion, he will be doing well.’ Roy Bridger On Progress in The Times A heap of trash that's twice the size of Texas, 80% plastic, and weighs 3.5 million tons. Trapped in a circular course by winds and currents The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

12. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Centres of Excellence Islands and Small States Institute at the Foundation for International Studies, the Malta University Centre Gozo, Malta. Education & training Consultation and expert networks Information Analysis Publications R & D Professor Briguglio leading an international meeting

13. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts • European Commission’s new form of enhanced General budget support called "MDG Contract” • First version -€225 million to the Government of Zambia for a 6 year period (2009-2014): to • Support poverty-focused public programmes • Accelerate progress towards MDGs. • Focus health and education

14. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Clinical Economics The Jeffrey Sachs Ruhiira Partnership Millennium Villages projects ‘Challenge to pessimists and sceptics.’ Guardian – Trial villages in sub-Saharan Africa – • Objective: Achieve MDGs by 2015 on US$110 per person per year (30 cents per day) over five-years

15. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Sachs’ Millennium Village Project three year results Income levels rising: malnutrition falling School enrolment up: Gender improvements Maternal mortality reduced Malaria incidence halved: Better communications and inter-village trade

16. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts The development narrative sound bite Spat! • Think globally act locally: UN policy (Att. Rene Dubos) • Think globally act nationally: International aid through macro-economic budget support programmes • Act locally think globally: Jeffrey Sachs clinical economics in the millennium village project

17. Sachs on development with people in villages Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Clinical economics ‘Development economics needs an overhaul to be more like modern medicine, a profession of rigor, insight and practicality.’ ‘The end of poverty must start in the villages’ ‘The poor are ready to act..individually and collectively …through networks of mutual accountability and networks of financing’ Community with Associations

18. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts South-South Clusters Michael Porter and Paul Krugman cluster model Singapore science park with World Bank, AfDB, IES Business clusters Sectoral clusters Knowledge clusters Supply services clusters UN CSD thematic cluster linkages in SD

19. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts • Variable geometry for technical support • North-south • South-south • South-north

20. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts CARICOM: partnership through Associations Over 50 major development Associations • Climate change • Disasters • Coastal and marine • Land use • Transport • Science and technology • Justice • R&D • Management and finance

21. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Professional model • Evidence base, theory and guidelines of best practice • Syllabus for basic and continuing education • Professional body for training, exams & discipline • Monitoring and evaluation • R&D • The top professional surgeon scrubbed in the operating theatre: the inverted hierarchy of evidence-based science.

22. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts Areas for new professional partnerships • Climate change • Disaster management • Freshwater • Land use • Tourism • Biodiversity • Technology transfer • Economics for development & green accounting

23. Exploring new sources of partnerships for small states J L Roberts • Community: senior partner in development • IFI south oriented architecture • Companions in a dance not accomplices • From DSP to NEP • Small is beautiful and ecologically light footed • Centres of excellence for evidence based SD • Getting the sewage and refuse sorted • New professions for SD to get on with the job • Variable geometry for SD with the South-north links