Small island states workshop on democratic governance
Delegates propose development strategies

The 39 participants of the Indian Ocean workshop on democratic governance and sustainable development in small island countries (SIDS) have compiled their recommendations.

According to project leader, Mathew Servina, the delegates, who met at the Seychelles Institute of Management (SIM) recently, came up with 15 main proposals.

According to Mr Servina, who is the president of Cefrad (Centre For Rights and Development), the participants, who came from Mauritius, Seychelles and Rodrigues as well as from Chagos refugee groups in Mauritius and Seychelles, said there is need to empower civil society for greater and more effective participation in the economic growth process.

The 39, who included local representatives of the UNESCO-supported Small Island Voice (SIV) Initiative, also said that island populations should be empowered so that they may be able to collaborate more effectively with their governments and the private sector to ensure national progress. "This can be done through ongoing dialogue and consultation, and also through development education and sensitisation," they said.

"The is need to place more emphasis on the gender dimension of the future plan of action for small islands developing states," Mr Servina quoted them as saying, adding that the need was identified to give a more meaningful place to small businesses in the SIDS plan of action, more particularly in the context of eco-tourism.

"All development partners, stake-holders and players should be made clearly aware of the contribution and responsibility of the media to ensure sustainable development," the workshop's secretariat said in a communiqué, calling for efforts to ensure equality of all the partners for a genuine and effective partnership for sustainable development. "Clear distinction needs to be made between 'education' to prepare a human being 'for life' and 'profession,' which enables us to take a 'role for life,'" they said.

Mr Servina said there is need for a more intensive programme to support the empowerment of women for them to more effectively participate in economic growth and political processes.

"All development partners need to recognise professional ethics as an essential factor for leadership accountability and democratic governance," he went on to say, adding that there is need for civil society to collaborate with other development partners and stakeholders to ascertain the reality of the HIV-Aids situation in the Indian Ocean.

The workshop participants also proposed an exercise in the various islands to assess the effectiveness of approaches so far used to handle the AIDS epidemic.

"There is need for a strong civil society plan of action for democratic governance to be presented to the proposed Barbados meeting due in Mauritius soon," they said.

Regarding the future of the displaced Chagos community, the workshop participants expressed the strong view that the Indian Ocean community, particularly the civil society, should give due recognition to the legitimacy of the struggle of the Chagossian people, and should also assist them to build a solid lobby strategy on the regional and international scene.

Seychelles Nation, 13 February 2004