When considering what the future may look like for SIDS, several more transformative agendas emerged. These included:
- From advocacy to solutions: The core problems facing SIDS have been documented for decades; the task now is to build and scale SIDS‑led institutions and mechanisms to tackle structural vulnerabilities.
- Greater SIDS self-sufficiency: Through SIDS-SIDS cooperation, with a focus on diversification and de-extractivisation, to allow SIDS to dictate their own sustainable development futures.
- Centering SIDS in global institutions: SIDS shaping key institutions, and increasing influence in global decision making.
- Stronger cross-regional collaboration: Focusing particularly on greater knowledge sharing and cooperation, through strengthened and potentially new institutions.
- A sense of urgency: The importance of significant and urgent action by SIDS as overshoot and tipping points approach.
Referred to by some as the ‘Davos for Small Island Developing States’, one outcome of the SIDS Future Forum was clear: the SIDS ‘special case’ for sustained development is under threat and needs defending. The State of SIDS Report 2026 will provide the evidence to do so, with greater clarity and focus, thanks to these discussions at Wilton Park. It will emphasise the need for improving resource flows to SIDS for the protection of global public goods; rectifying some of the most damaging pathologies of global extractivism; maximising opportunities presented by new technologies and AI; and enhancing cross-regional collaboration.
As one participant noted, the SIDS Future Forum, held at Wilton Park, follows “a tradition of listening as much as speaking, of valuing substance over spectacle, and of trusting that progress often comes not from grand declarations, but from sustained, thoughtful engagement.”
Eliorah Malifa and Kira-Lee Gmeiner
Wilton Park | February 2026
In partnership with
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Notes
Wilton Park reports are brief summaries of the main points and conclusions of a
conference. The reports reflect rapporteurs’ personal interpretations of the proceedings.
As such they do not constitute any institutional policy of Wilton Park nor do they
necessarily represent the views of the rapporteur. Wilton Park reports and any
recommendations contained therein are for participants and are not a statement of policy
for Wilton Park, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) or His
Majesty’s Government nor any participating governments.
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