As the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Conference was held in Samoa this week, it is important to reflect on the unique development challenges that some of these small island nations around the world contend with.

Many support small populations that face multiple threats; one of the foremost being climate change which has lead to changing weather patterns such as drought and heavier and more frequent rainfall. National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from the Pacific to the Caribbean, to the Indian Ocean, are eyewitnesses to the humanitarian impacts of these changes.

Every day our volunteers are working in local communities where people are losing their livelihoods and food sources because of flooding, or shrinking water resources. Some are concerned that rising sea levels may render them homeless, others are feeling the impacts of too much rain coupled with soaring temperatures which are driving new threats — vector-borne communicable diseases, such as dengue and malaria.