The historic Rio Earth Conference brought sustainable development to the global political agenda. As part of this process and in recognition of the peculiar vulnerabilities and challenges faced by Small Island Developing States (SIDS) a separate program, the Barbados Program of Action (BPOA) and its subsequent successor, the Mauritius Strategy of Implementation (MSI), was developed. This approach was envisaged as a separate commitment strategy specifically for Small Island Developing States to effectively address sustainable development issues. As part of the reporting requirements under these two strategies as well as to asses their progress, countries are expected to conduct internal and regional assessments prior to the 2014 SIDS Conference to determine how the first conference and other subsequent processes have influenced their development agenda.