This was a theme picked up by Nicholas Cox, who is deputy permanent representative of Barbados, the UN, describing how his country, through the Bridgetown Initiative, is leading the debate on better financing for SIDS and vulnerable countries.

There is so much to learn and impart from the Bridgetown Initiative, and it's been really heartwarming to see how much it's been taken up by the international community as there is a greater understanding of the special needs of small island developing states, the special needs for financing, concessional financing, accessing monies that can assist our development over the long term at affordable rates as opposed to market rates, which we are really not able to track our development with.

Small island developing states like Barbados are on the front lines of natural disasters.

In just a couple of hours, a, a whole year's worth of GDP could be eradicated.

The Bridgetown Initiative places specific focus on issues like this and comes up with several innovative ideas on how to assist small island developing states, and we've seen a great deal of traction since its introduction via its different iterations that have a long-term impact on small island developing states like Barbados.

One example is a greater understanding by international development banks, international finance institutions on the needs and requirements of states like Barbados having more access to concessional finance, while at the same time, we have been, many of us graduated from official development assistance, so we need to find other means to finance our development, which is very difficult under normal circumstances.

Bridgetown Initiative has brought a great deal of attention to these issues.