The urgency of finding solutions to the most pressing development challenges of our times has increased as the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the global momentum in recent years toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And small island developing states (SIDS), with their physical remoteness, restricted land and resources and dependence on trade and tourism, are experiencing growing hardship caused by closed borders and plummeting economies.

Boosting food security and better nutrition, which falls under SDG 2, is a priority in the current crisis and imperative to succeeding more widely to raise living standards and economic growth. By 2019, the year before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Pacific Islands had made few advances on this goal. Now, the sub-region will be the focus of a high level virtual international conference, the SIDS Solutions Forum, 30-31 August.