Strengthening partnerships for SIDS: A renewed commitment through the ABAS Agenda

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development affirms that partnerships are essential to delivering lasting results—particularly for small island developing States (SIDS), whose development needs are both unique and urgent. The SIDS Partnership Framework, established following the 2014 SAMOA Pathway and anchored in A/RES/70/202, remains a cornerstone for mobilizing, monitoring, and advancing genuine and durable partnerships for SIDS.

The Framework operates through three interlinked components: the UN Steering Committee on Partnerships for SIDS, the SIDS Partnership Reporting and Monitoring Mechanism, and the Global Multi-Stakeholder SIDS Partnership Dialogue. Together, they enhance coherence, visibility, and accountability across the SIDS partnership landscape.

An important complement to this architecture is the SIDS Partnerships Award. Launched in 2021 to recognize and reward excellence in genuine, durable partnerships for SIDS, the award also aims to inspire the replication and scaling of impactful initiatives that advance sustainable development in SIDS.

The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS), adopted last year, reinforces the SIDS Partnership Framework and calls for its strengthening. It recognizes the Framework as a vital platform for catalyzing and tracking action and urges its institutional reinforcement to support ABAS implementation. ABAS also calls for broader engagement, increased support, and innovative approaches to scale up impact.

In April 2025, the UN Steering Committee on Partnerships for SIDS—co-chaired by Latvia and the Maldives—adopted a forward-looking set of recommendations, developed in close consultation with Member States and stakeholders. Emphasizing alignment with national priorities, improved reporting, data utilization, and enhanced UN coordination, the recommendations will be transmitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly for its consideration at its 80th session.

As custodian of the Framework, UN DESA remains strongly committed to its revitalization and will continue to foster coordination and engagement—ensuring it serves as a key driver of partnership-based implementation of ABAS and the 2030 Agenda, and delivers transformative results that leave no one behind.

For more information: Small Island Developing States Partnership Framework

Photo credit: Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR