African Island States and SIDS call for a new social compact for resilience at the World Social Summit

Doha, Qatar - 4 November 2025 (ECA) - Island nations and their partners gathered for the High-Level Dialogue on the Social Benefits of Resilience Investment for African Island States and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at the World Social Summit 2025 (WSSD2), presenting a unified vision: resilience investment is social investment.

Co-hosted by the African Island States Climate Commission (AISCC) and ECA, the event spotlighted how resilience investments are not merely adaptation tools, but transformative levers for social inclusion, community empowerment, and sustainable development.

Opening the session, Azali Assoumani, President of the Union of the Comoros, called for global recognition of island states' strategic potential. "We advocate for a new financial compact - a Blue Pact - founded on the recognition of our vulnerabilities and specific characteristics as big ocean states. The global financial architecture must integrate small islands as a specific category. In Moroni, we gave birth to hope: the Moroni Declaration for Ocean and Climate Action. In Doha, let us turn that hope into a fulfilled promise - a Doha Pact for Small Island States - a pact of solidarity, innovation, and climate justice."

President Assoumani revealed a proposal for an African Island Blue Fund co-financing high-impact ocean projects and reaffirmed the Great Blue Wall Initiative, targeting two million blue jobs and benefiting over seventy million people by 2030.

In his remarks, Surangel S. Whipps Jr., President of Palau reinforced the urgent need for equitable access to climate financing and inclusion of SIDS in global decision-making. "We call for effective and durable partnerships and scaled-up climate finance that adequately recognize the context of SIDS, and respect regional and national policy coordination mechanisms and systems."

President Whipps called for the full integration of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) into multilateral institutions and reaffirmed the importance of ocean-based solutions and SIDS leadership. Palau which is currently the Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), is committed to advance the SIDS agenda and the international community's pledge to ensure that no one is left behind.

ECA Deputy Executive Secretary,Hanan Morsy, reaffirmed that resilience investment is integral to inclusive development. "We must treat climate investment not as a fiscal or financial burden or as a cost to defer, but as the most urgent and high-return growth opportunity of our time."

"ECA is proud of its partnership with the AISCC through the RESIslands Initiative, which seeks to strengthen institutional and technical capacities and promote locally-led, socially inclusive resilience across all nine AISCC member states. This partnership embodies a new paradigm-one that connects climate resilience, social inclusion, and sustainable economic transformation in a mutually reinforcing way. We look forward to continuing this partnership-turning resilience into opportunity, for people, for planet, and for progress", she concluded.

Maria Inacia Co Mendes Sanha, Minister of Women, Family and Social Security of Guinea-Bissau, called for a new pact for social investment and spoke of resilience in terms of dignity, governance and social protection. "For Guinea-Bissau, resilience is synonymous with sovereignty - the capacity to face the unpredictable without losing dignity, to plan for the future while standing firm in the present, and to transform adversity into opportunity."

She called on partners to support the operationalization of the Guinea-Bissau Pathway for African Island States. "Development is only meaningful when it is inclusive - and no nation can prosper while its most vulnerable citizens remain invisible. It is time to transform aid into alliance, and dependence into progressive autonomy. No one must be left behind - neither by the tides of the ocean nor by the storms of destiny", she added.

Resilience as Social and Economic Priority

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade of Mauritius,Dhananjay Ramful, emphasized resilience investments that combine social benefit with economic strategy. "Resilience investment is both a development and social priority. It safeguards communities, improves quality of life, and fulfils our commitments as a SIDS. Social protection is one of the tools to enable climate change adaptation. It addresses the root causes of vulnerability by preventing poverty and reducing inequality."

Minister Ramful pointed to Mauritius's investments in green jobs, coastal rehabilitation, renewable energy, and called for operationalizing the Fund to Respond to Loss and Damage. "SIDS receive less concessional finance than other developing economies. Over 40 percent are grappling with unsustainable levels of debt, severely constraining their ability to invest in resilience and social development."

Lídia Lima de Melo, State Secretary for Social Inclusion of Cabo Verde, affirmed her nation's commitment to integrated, inclusive development in a high-vulnerability context. "We have made substantial and priority investments in the development of our human capital. Strengthening national resilience is essential to remain on the path of sustainable development. Social protection now covers over 62 percent of the population in Cabo Verde." She highlighted the country's legal and institutional frameworks for crisis response and the importance of partner cooperation and diaspora solidarity.

The Dialogue also featured contributions from the Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives of Maldives and Timor-Leste to the United Nations, who echoed the shared message that resilience investments must yield tangible social outcomes-empowering communities, advancing gender equality, and strengthening inclusive governance-while being fully integrated into national climate and development strategies.

In its concluding segment, the session reaffirmed a collective commitment to advance the operationalization of the Regional Co-Investment Platform for Climate Finance and Blue Economy, including the African Island Blue Fund, to expand the RESIslands Initiative beyond the African region to other SIDS, to ensure that the policy recommendations arising from this Dialogue inform the World Social Summit's final declaration, and to accelerate implementation of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS). Participants also underlined the need to deepen South-South cooperation and peer learning among island nations as a means to translate resilience strategies into shared progress and solidarity.

As part of the WSSD2, delegates urged the adoption of a "Doha Pact" to forge a new social compact for resilience, emphasizing that it should be understood not only as a shield against future crises, but also as a catalyst for social transformation-a unifying force that rebuilds trust, reinforces global solidarity, and redefines development pathways for island nations and the world.

Issued by:Communications SectionEconomic Commission for AfricaPO Box 3001Addis AbabaEthiopiaTel: +251 11 551 5826E-mail: [email protected]