Small island developing states (SIDS) form a distinctive group. Spread across the Atlantic,
Pacific, and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, each island
possesses its own unique characteristics, but they all share similar challenges to their development.
This was the conclusion of the United Nations General Assembly in 2001 when
it recognized
that within the context of the challenges of development, small island developing States can
experience specific problems arising from small size, remoteness, geographical dispersion,
vulnerability to natural disasters, fragile ecosystems, constraints on transport and communication,
isolation from markets, vulnerability to exogenous economic and financial shocks, limited
internal markets, lack of natural resources, limited freshwater supply, heavy dependence
on imports and limited commodities, depletion of non-renewable resources and migration.