How BGI Drives Change

BGI aims to reduce ecosystem degradation and accelerate nature-positive development in Small Island Developing States by integrating nature-based solutions into the sectors that underpin economic growth and community wellbeing. Founded on UNDP’s whole-of government and whole-of-society approach, BGI Country Projects focus on three critical sectors—food systems, including fisheries and aquaculture; tourism; and urban systems—where nature-positive development will deliver significant environmental, social, and economic benefits for the whole of the island. Recognising the dependency of island economies on ecosystems, BGI supports systems change both within and across its three priority sectors.

BGI’s work shows how incorporating the value of nature into policy, planning, and investment decisions can help countries achieve sustainable development objectives while meeting commitments under multilateral environmental agreements. By promoting innovative and scalable nature-based solutions, the programme addresses key SIDS priorities, including food security, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, pollution reduction, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Transformation is driven through three mutually reinforcing levers:

1. integrating nature into development, planning, and fiscal policies;
2. implementing nature-positive and nature-based solutions at scale;
3. amplifying impact through collective action, knowledge exchange, learning, coordination, and the replication of successful approaches across SIDS.