On Tuesday 14 July they will present their case separately to the European Union's Commissioner for Development, Joao de Deus Pinheiro and the Vice-President of the Commission, Sir Leon Brittan. They will also hold talks with the Secretary-General of the ACP countries, Ng'andu Magande, before returning to London to brief British and Commonwealth leaders and officials, including British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. The Commonwealth's special concern for small states stems from the fact that 32 of its 54 member countries are classified as small states. This Commonwealth Ministerial Mission on Small States was constituted by Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku in response to a mandate from the Edinburgh Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1997. The mission mandate is to advocate the need for greater flows of resources and for the special and differential treatment of these countries in the international system.
Small states face particular threats from economic shocks and natural disasters.
Despite many of these countries having relatively high incomes, in developing country terms, their capacity to deal with these shocks and their frequency is limited. Further, such shocks affect a greater proportion of the population of small states and have a significantly larger economic impact. In Washington on 10 July, the Ministers will urge the World Bank to establish a task force to address these concerns. It should examine ways of ensuring that IFIs fully recognise the economic, environmental, political and social dimensions of the vulnerability of small states and that these perspectives are integrated into the development of programmes for small states. The Ministers will call for the development of strategies to promote the greater mobilisation of resources from IFIs and other development partners to assist small economies to improve their competitiveness.