UN Hosts 2025 SIDS Partnership Dialogue: Advancing Data-Driven Action for Resilient Prosperity
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On 12 December 2025, global leaders, policymakers, and development partners gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the 2025 Global Multi-Stakeholder SIDS Partnership Dialogue. Organized by the Permanent Missions of the Maldives and Latvia, together with United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), the Dialogue marked a pivotal moment for advancing the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS).
One year after its adoption at SIDS4 in 2024, ABAS now serves as a renewed ten-year roadmap for resilient prosperity across Small Island Developing States. The plan emphasizes partnerships grounded in trust, transparency, whole-of-government and whole-of-society collaboration, and the mobilization of human, financial, digital, and technological resources.
PVBLIC Foundation’s Executive Chairman, Sergio Fernandez de Córdova, joined a panel moderated by Ambassador Ilana V. Seid, Permanent Representative of Palau to the UN and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. Panelists included leaders from the United Nations Capital Development Fund, CANARI, and MGCY SIDS, who examined how digital innovation, data systems, and communications can expand the partnerships ecosystem under ABAS.
In his keynote address, Ambassador Walton Webson, Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the UN, framed ABAS as a decisive break from past approaches:
“The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda is not a rhetorical exercise. It is a mandate to move from commitments to measurable, accountable action.” —Ambassador Walton Webson, Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda
He emphasized that ABAS must be judged by tangible outcomes that improve resilience, livelihoods, and economic stability across SIDS. Ambassador Webson highlighted the establishment of the SIDS Centre of Excellence as a technical anchor of ABAS and the importance of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for ensuring transparency and accountability:
“Institutions now exist. The systems exist. The accountability mechanisms exist. What is required now is coordinated and sustained implementation.”
Building on this, Sergio Fernandez de Córdova, Executive Chairman of PVBLIC Foundation, reinforced the central message that ABAS requires measurable, accountable action:
“ABAS is not a rhetorical exercise; it is a mandate to move from commitments to measurable, accountable action.”
Sergio emphasized that delivering on this mandate requires systems that are “operational, trusted, and scalable,” enabling governments, the private sector, philanthropy, academia, and multilateral partners to collaborate on equal footing. He also pointed to the SIDS Global Data Hub as one of the most transformative tools available to SIDS today. As a core component of the SIDS Centre of Excellence, the Hub is designed around principles of sovereign data ownership, institutional capacity, and regional interoperability. It enables SIDS to generate knowledge, policy intelligence, and innovation rather than relying on fragmented external expertise. This integrated architecture provides real-time, policy-relevant data, strengthens national planning, supports SDG and ABAS monitoring, and unifies environmental, social, economic, and Beyond GDP datasets.
Building the Enabling Environment for Partnerships
Opening remarks from UN DESA and UN-OHRLLS leadership reinforced that ABAS represents a system-level shift in how partnerships for SIDS are conceived and executed. UN DESA emphasized that partnerships should be structured, aligned, and capable of scaling across sectors and regions:
“The ambition of ABAS requires partnerships that are coordinated, accountable, and embedded within national and regional systems, not operating in parallel to them.”
UN-OHRLLS representatives stressed the need for sustained international support and innovative approaches to mobilize finance, technology, and capacity:
“ABAS challenges the international community to move beyond fragmented interventions and toward integrated support that reflects the realities SIDS face every day.”
The Co-Chairs of the Steering Committee on Partnerships for SIDS, representing Maldives and Latvia, highlighted trust, alignment, and transparency as foundational principles for partnerships under ABAS.
Panel and Moderation: A Whole-of-Society Approach
The multi-stakeholder panel was moderated by Ambassador Ilana V. Seid, Permanent Representative of Palau to the UN and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). She emphasized that ABAS cannot be delivered through traditional government-to-government cooperation alone:
“Delivering the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda requires whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches that bring together governments, the private sector, civil society, and youth.”
After Sergio’s initial remarks, Ambassador Seid recognized the importance of PVBLIC’s work for SIDS. She highlighted that the digital transformation enabled by the Hub is critical for small economies with high barriers in traditional sectors and emphasized the need to view partnerships as systems rather than transactions. Ambassador Seid also noted that the new ABAS Monitoring and Evaluation Framework will provide the data necessary for faster, evidence-based implementation, reinforcing that “what we don’t measure, we don’t value.”
Finance, Capacity, Innovation, and Data Systems
Panelists from development finance institutions, civil society, and the private sector highlighted persistent financing gaps and capacity challenges for SIDS. Key insights included:
Financing does not flow at scale where data is fragmented and coordination is limited.
Inclusive partnerships must ensure that communities and youth are partners, not just beneficiaries.
Sergio situated his remarks within this broader framing, emphasizing the SIDS Global Data Hub as a transformative tool:
“At PVBLIC Foundation, we approach partnerships as systems rather than transactions.”
“The SIDS Global Data Hub ensures that SIDS are not merely recipients of global expertise, but generators of knowledge, policy intelligence, and innovation.”
“By connecting national, regional, and global datasets into a unified architecture, fragmented reporting is replaced with a single trusted evidence base.”
In this segment, Sergio identified one catalytic action to accelerate ABAS implementation across all SIDS: a collective commitment to interoperable national data systems connected through the SIDS Global Data Hub. This unified data foundation strengthens financing strategies, supports more effective negotiations with development partners, increases transparency, and helps mobilize investment aligned with national priorities. It also enables governments to design financial instruments that reflect the full value of natural capital, ecosystems, and resilience assets. He also highlighted the role of strategic communications: visibility grounded in credible, real-time data becomes a catalyst for investment and action, enabling SIDS to attract new partners and resources.
Beyond GDP: Measuring What Matters
Several speakers addressed the limitations of GDP-based metrics in capturing the realities of SIDS economies. The Dialogue emphasized Beyond GDP approaches that integrate environmental, social, and natural capital into policy and financing decisions:
“Nature must be recognized as a productive asset that generates measurable economic and social value.”
This perspective reinforces the need for multidimensional vulnerability and resilience frameworks that allow SIDS to articulate their value proposition to investors and development partners. The dialogue reaffirmed that the institutions and systems envisioned under ABAS are now in place, and the next step is to scale them.
From Dialogue to Delivery
The 2025 Global Multi-Stakeholder SIDS Partnership Dialogue underscored that ABAS has entered its execution phase. Frameworks have been adopted, institutions are operational, and accountability mechanisms are in place.
PVBLIC Foundation remains committed to supporting small island developing states through data-driven partnerships that expand access to information, strengthen governance, and unlock new pathways for resilient and inclusive development.