About IRIS Initiative:

• India along with Australia, the UK and Small Island developing states (SIDS) launched the IRIS (Infrastructure for Resilient Island States) initiative.
• The IRIS initiative is aimed at creating a coalition for putting in place infrastructure that can withstand disasters and lessen economic losses in island nations.
• Australia, India and the UK have committed an initial funding of $10 million.
• According to a World Bank report titled ‘Climate and Disaster Resilient Transport in Small Island Developing States’, SIDS countries are highly susceptible to economic losses due to disasters, with average annual losses ranging from 1% to 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
• UN Global Assessment Report (2017) observes that SIDS countries account for two-thirds of the countries in the world that suffer the highest relative losses due to disasters.
• IRIS Initiative has been launched to support the capacity building to meet the needs of SIDS countries.

Small Island developing states (SIDS):

• SIDS is a distinct group of 38 UN Member States and 20 Non-UN Members/Associate Members of UN regional commissions that face unique social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities.
• Factors like small population size, remoteness from international markets, high transportation costs, vulnerability to exogenous economic shocks and fragile land and marine ecosystems make SIDS particularly vulnerable to biodiversity loss and climate change because they lack economic alternatives.
• Most SIDS are situated in the Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean (Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia) and there are a few in Indian Ocean (Bahrain, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Singapore) and Atlantic Ocean (Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome).

Source: ForumIAS