Digitalization and innovation - an important way forward for SIDS on the road to 2030
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) need to achieve sustainable development in the face of significant long-term and rapid on-set changes that they increasingly face. The impact of COVID-19 has magnified these challenges in many SIDS countries around the world.
Digital technologies are transforming agri-food systems. While this is an important development everywhere, it is of great importance to remote areas such as SIDS. The expansion of mobile technologies, remote-sensing services and distributed computing are already improving smallholders’ access to information, inputs and markets, increasing production and productivity, streamlining supply chains and reducing operational costs.
Robotics, together with artificial intelligence (AI), are examples of how digital innovation support farmers in the management of herds and crops. Digital innovation holds the potential to unlock employment opportunities, bridge the rural divide and empower youth and women to access information, technology and markets.
Sharing these rapidly evolving digital innovations will accelerate progress toward achieving the SDGs in SIDS. The SIDS Solutions platform will help to incubate, promote, scale up and replicate locally grown ideas to accelerate the achievement of agriculture, food, nutrition, environment and health.
Locally-grown SIDS Solutions
Long Distance Vanilla – Samoa
Passionate organic vanilla producer, Shelly Burich from Samoa shows how online technology helped her business recover from the impacts of COVID-19.
My Kana - Fiji
Designed and developed in Fiji, My Kana is a mobile app that promotes healthy living by calculating the nutritional make-up of food eaten and recorded by the user.
Samoa Women’s Association of Growers (SWAG) - Samoa
The Samoa Women’s Association of Growers (SWAG) is a grassroots organization helping Samoan women growers and farmers to network, learn, and socialize in an environment that is open and supportive.
SISSTEM - ARUBA
To solve pressing challenges for Small Island States, the University of Aruba, located in the Caribbean, aims to nurture the next generation of innovators, educators, researchers and leaders.
Education
SISSTEM-Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Aruba)
Farming information
Pest management (Fiji)
E-commerce/supply chains
Cyber food (Fiji)
Food processing
Improving local value chains (Samoa)
E-commerce and supply chains:
Samoa Women's Association of Growers (SWAG)
Agriculture
Protected cropping system (Fiji)
Health and nutrition
QR code contact tracing system (Cook Islands)
Food processing
Processing centres (Fiji)
E-commerce/supply chains
Smallholders adapting (Cook Islands)
Agriculture/e-commerce
Sustainable farming (Fiji)
Agriculture
Taro breeding (Fiji)
Agriculture
Transforming agricultural value chains (Cook Islands)
Farming information
Plant doctor (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga)
Agriculture
Pacific Online Organic Policy Tool Kit
Farming information
Plant health clinics (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga) – Pacific Community
Data collection
Real-time data platform (Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga)
E-commerce and supply chains
Long distance vanilla (Samoa)
Health and nutrition
Friendly food consumption app (Fiji)
Food processing
Hot air dryer (Solomon Islands)
Farming information
Agriculture, content and tools (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands)
