A Joint Human Security Programme in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has made available to the region the new High-Level Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change which was presented at the OECS second Immigration Council of Ministers Meeting held in April in Dominica.  

The Ministerial Declaration has been endorsed so far by seven of the nine OECS Members and Associate Members. Through this Declaration, OECS Members and Associate members have reaffirmed their commitment to take action to mitigate climate change impact as well as to address human mobility relating to environmental degradation. 

Eastern Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) are recurrently exposed to climate related hazards the impact of which is increasingly resulting in both internal and cross border displacement. These impacts threaten the human security of at-risk populations in the region limiting efforts to enable vulnerable people to live free from fear, free from want and actualize the opportunity to live in dignity.   

Leveraging the multistakeholder, comprehensive and people-centered principles central to the human security approach in realizing this high-level Ministerial Declaration is very timely to strengthen advocacy by OECS SIDS towards political and socioeconomic support to protect at-risk populations. Here we present some of the experiences and good practices in the OECS using the human security approach.   Putting People First: The Human Security Approach.