Can small islands rely on

The United Nations

By lan Williams

a r./"vt TTvrrv i T t • j tvt • , islands have scored one' owngoal and a draw At the UN itself the Pacific was

represented on the stmember

mission for Sustainable Development by Vanuatu, which won the position through its vigorous advocacy of the AOSIS position. This year, according to diplomats, Vanuatu would certainly have become one of the vice-presidents, giving it a very good position to influence the agenda and to progress items of interest to the Pacific and the other Small Island states. However, other diplomats

told PIM that the new ambassador of Vanuatu did not attend a single meeting of the two-week-long session. Needless to electing a newcomer as vice president, but - there waS n ° SU PP° rt * f ° r nommatm g an em P t y chair - Happily his colleagues report that Ravou-Akii is now playing a much more active role in other fields, and was a lead negotiator in Washington for the talks on the composition of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Indeed Pacific diplomats seem confident that with the arrival of the new Papua New Guinea ambassador, Utula Utuoc Samana, who

presented his credentials to the secretary general in May, there is now full and effective team working.

A. the GEF talks in Washington, the ls i an d s tried to get representation as small islands ' The GEF is now the custodian of the only funds available from all the big promises of the mdustri ahsed nations. As reported in the M^ay issue of PIM there was a successful compromise on the differences between the donor and developing nations over the composition of the governing board, However, that left unresolved the ques tion of the distribution of the developing world’s seats.