SIDS in context

Introduction

Welcome to the 2021 edition of the UNCTAD Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures. This edition is dedicated to small island developing Statessmall island developing States (SIDS) were recognized as a distinct group of developing countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.
More information on UNCTAD official page. or SIDSsmall island developing States (SIDS) were recognized as a distinct group of developing countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.
More information on UNCTAD official page.. The report is part of UNCTAD’s analytical work to measure the challenges of SIDS related to economic smallness, their productive capacities, geographical remoteness and transport costs, environmental and climate vulnerabilities as well as the role of social and human development in SIDS.

In this report we begin with the official list of SIDS designated by the -—
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—- for the LDCsLeast developed countries (LDCs) are low-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development. They are highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and have low levels of human assets -—
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—-., LLDCsLandlocked least developed countries (LLDC) and the SIDS. From a statistical perspective, presenting and analyzing SIDS is not a straightforward task – there is no universally agreed definition of what constitutes a SIDS and as a consequence there are a number of SIDS classifications (see What makes a SIDS a SIDS).

Including both sovereign states and territories in the classification presents pragmatic problems, such as, data availability, but also difficulties for comparative analyses. For this reason, the twenty non-UN Member States are not included in the analyses. Even the UN member SIDS (38) list contains challenges from a comparative perspective also as some SIDS are not islands or not small.

Any analysis of a group of economies will inevitably fail to do complete justice to the differences between its members. This is especially true of the economies, spread around the globe, that in one way or another fit the description of SIDS. They share many strengths and challenges, but they all face their unique circumstances and deserve their own analysis. This report attempts to highlight the economic, environmental and social situation of SIDS by focusing on a subset of SIDS that share all four descriptions of being small, island, developing and state. The take home messages of this analysis carry over to those SIDS that are relatively big, have land borders with other economies, are more developed or are not considered states. A comprehensive discussion of this choice is presented in What makes a SIDS a SIDS, where an analytical list of SIDS is presented for statistical purposes. This analytical list is also used throughout the report to reflect more closely the challenges typically faced by SIDS. All 38 UN Member States are presented in the Country profiles.

The report begins with an analytical overview in If SIDS were a country which illustrates the aggregate contribution of the SIDS to the world. Thereafter the report is organized in four thematic sections:

• Trade
• Economy
• Environment
• Social

The Country profiles present a wide variety of economic, maritime transport, population, international trade, environmental and ICTInformation and communications technology (ICT) indicators and a number of interactive graphs and infographics for each country.

Acknowledgements

This report is a collaborative effort of UNCTAD statisticians and economists with substantive inputs from the UNWTOUnited Nations World Tourism Organization Department of Statistics led by Hernán Epstein and inputs from Clara Van der pol and Leandry Moreno (see Tourism) and the UNIDOUnited Nations Industrial Development Organization Statistics Division led by Fernando Cantu-Bazaldua (see Sustainable industrialisation).

The report was developed by the UNCTAD Development Statistics and Information Branch, led by Steve MacFeely. The following staff of the Branch prepared the statistics, analysis and design: Sana Al-Jadir, Nour Barnat, Sonia Blachier, Sanja Blazevic, Ekaterina Chernova, Yoann Chaine, Richard Chalverat, Flavine Creppy, David Cristallo, Denis Gervalle, Victoria Goudeva, Onno Hoffmeister, Daniel Hopp, Ildephonse Mbabazizimana, Bojan Nastav, Anu Peltola, Valentina Rivas Godoy, Amandine Rushenguziminega, Benny Salo and Anton Sudzik.

The following UNCTAD experts contributed to the drafting of the report with statistics and analysis across divisions: Regina Asariotis, Diana Barrowclough, Rachid Bouhia, Claudia Contreras, Mussie Delelegn, David Vivas Eugui, Yihong Gong, Jan Hoffmann, Moritz Meire-Ewert, Alberto Munisso and Luisa Rodriguez. The report also benefited from the review by several national and international experts.