Led by the Presidents of Palau and Seychelles, the Prime Minister of Grenada and the Premier of the British Virgin Islands, the Global Island Partnership promotes action to build resilient and sustainable island communities by inspiring leadership, catalyzing commitments and facilitating collaboration. It is a partnership for all islands, regardless of size or political status, to take greater action to conserve and sustainably utilize invaluable island natural resources that support people, culture and livelihoods around the world.

The Global Island Partnership 2030 Goals: 1. Inspire leadership and catalyze commitments to address critical island issues2. Accelerate implementation of sustainable island commitments3. Ensure a sustainable partnership to achieve the 2030 StrategyThe 2020 Priorities are: 1. Ensure GLISPA is a financially sustainable partnership to achieve its 2030 Strategy2. Launch one new high-level and visionary sustainable island commitment each year3. Accelerate implementation of sustainable island commitments launched and strengthened through GLISPA4. Kick start one high impact demonstration activity from each of: - Innovative financing for a blue/green economy in islands (Support island efforts toward innovative financing through improving connectivity/cohesive direction toward broader goals, changing the narrative around financing; Mobilize island leadership for innovative new tools including debt swaps and the Island Resilience Challenge; Identify innovative financing bright spots (including on access to financing, project pipeline, political will, project design and public private partnerships amongst others) and share these through annual meetings)- Sustainable Coastal Fisheries (Identify and catalyze national level commitments from islands; Create a menu of options for islands to adopt sustainable coastal fisheries that is innovative and which contributes to community sustainability) - Building Resilience (Ecosystem Based Adaptation/Disaster Risk Reduction): Identify early leadership, bright spots and lessons learned from islands on EBA/DRR; Support island leadership on EBA/DRR including through integrating EBA/DRR into existing commitments and mobilizing new commitments)

The Global Island Partnership is a unique network of island leaders working to inspire each other to greater action. The Partnership showcases island commitments, such as the Aloha+ Challenge and Micronesia Challenge, as bright spots on the international stage to inspire new leadership and encourage investment to scale and replicate what works. For example, the Micronesia Challenge launched in 2006, led to similar large scale commitments being announced in the Caribbean, Hawaii and Western Indian Ocean. In 2015, Seychelles launched the world's first debt for adaptation swap to finance climate change adaptation and marine spatial planning goals as part of their Blue Economy vision. The debt swap is a high-impact initiative that was supported by The Nature Conservancy, Seychelles and GLISPA and is now being adapted by other countries through GLISPA and TNC.

The Global Island Partnership is a solution-focused and impactful partnership able to mobilize significant action through its Members and broader participant network. Review our Impact Dashboard https://impact.glispa.org. In 2016, the year GLISPA celebrates a decade of collective impact on islands, the Partnership launched its 2030 Strategy. The Strategy design and implementation is led by a dedicated and passionate Steering Committee comprised of the GLISPA Members. Each Member contributes USD5,000 annually to support a sustainable partnership capable of delivering on the 2030 Strategy. An Executive Committee, a subgroup of the Steering Committee, provides oversight on governance and sustainability matters and is convened by the Steering Committee Chair, Palau’s US Ambassador, Hersey Kyota. The Steering Committee meets bi-annually: once by web conference as well as through an annual in-person meeting in October. The Global Island Partnership is a collaborative and inclusive partnership open to any entity committed to promoting action to build resilient and sustainable island communities. Participants are generally individuals, governments, agencies and organizations that want to work together toward common goals for islands. Participants are not required to pay a member fee and are welcome to join working groups such as on innovative financing in blue and green economies, sustainable coastal fisheries as well as building resilience through ecosystem-based adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Interested individuals and entities are welcome to engage in working group and can be invited by the Chair to attend the annual Steering Committee as an observer. It is expected that observers will become members after their 2nd Steering Committee meeting. The Global Island Partnership is recognized as a mechanism for advancing the conservation of island biodiversity Decision IX/21, CBD COP9 (2008) and Decision XI/15, CBD COP11 (2012) further invites Parties to engage with GLISPA as an effective partner to support conservation of island biodiversity; as a best practice partnership by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, 2010); as a success factor in preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). In 2014, the President of Palau was named Champion of the Earth for policy leadership nationally and globally as a GLISPA Leader.

GLISPA Members: Palau, Seychelles, Grenada, British Virgin Islands, Association for Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTA), Conservation International, County of Hawai’i, Municipality of Cozumel, Global Environment Facility, GEF Small Grants Programme implemented by UNDP, Hawai’i Green Growth, Indian Ocean Commission, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Italy, Micronesia Conservation Trust, Okeanos - Foundation for the Sea, Pacifico Foundation, Pacific Island Development Forum (PIDF), PRECOVERY Labs, Rare, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Seasteading Institute, Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity, State of Hawai’i, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, The Nature Conservancy and Waitt Foundation, Waitt Institute and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). GLISPA Supporters: European Commission and U.S. State Department. GLISPA Friends: More than 30+ friends support strategy implementation including Governments, NGOs/IGO, Island Entities and private sector and philanthropists. See the GLISPA Impact Dashboard https://impact.glispa.org.