Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 22
Fourth Report - The UK Small Island Developing States Strategy
Published 1 May 2024
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee UK Small Island Developing States Strategy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
In its approach to SIDS, the FCDO should ensure that the gendered impacts of SIDS’ environmental and developmental challenges are identified and addressed, and that UK support for SIDS is designed and implemented in a way that considers the impact of any interventions on women and girls. It should: (Paragraph 69) a) ensure that the FCDO’s bilateral aid programmes with SIDS, as well as centrally managed programmes, are on track to meet the commitment, outlined in the White Paper, that 80% of bilateral aid programmes have a focus on gender by 2030; b) support SIDS in collecting gender-disaggregated data to map the differential impact of development challenges and policy interventions on women and girls; c) make the promotion of gender equality an explicit, discrete investment criterion of the Blue Planet Fund. 44 The UK Small Island Developing States Strategy Oceans
From: International Development Committee, Fourth Report - The UK Small Island Developing States Strategy (HC 476), 1 May 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 January 2025 (deadline 1 July 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's response marks recommendations as "Agree", "Partly Agree", "Disagree" or "No longer relevant/Overtaken", including agreement on Green Climate Fund access, a "Disagree" on new Loss and Damage Fund pledges, and a commitment to submit a progress report as part of a SIDS Strategy refresh.
- On Green Climate Fund access, the response marks "Agree" and says the UK "remains focused on the GCF achieving the commitments set out in its 2024–27 Strategic Plan, including enhancing the speed and simplicity of access to the Fund".
- On new Loss and Damage Fund pledges the response says "Disagree", stating that the UK "will consider whether to contribute further funds once progress has been made on an operating model and resource allocation".
- On multi-year programmes ("Partly Agree"), the response says they "will always be subject to financial allocations within the Spending Review context", and agreements with partners "must feature break clauses" where they span different periods.
- On maritime baselines ("Partly Agree"), the UK "has changed its position to accept" that baselines under UNCLOS "may remain fixed in law", and says it is "considering" the Pacific Islands Forum statehood declaration "in detail".