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Written by more than 50 experts who are each covering the country or region from which they hail, the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 provides more country-level information than ever before. The trends and developments in science, technology and innovation policy and governance between 2009 and mid-2015 described here provide essential baseline information on the concerns and priorities of countries that will orient the implementation and drive the assessment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the years to come.

Twenty years down the road from the Barbados Programme of Action (1994) and ten years after the Mauritius Strategy (2004), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are in Apia, Samoa to take stock and define future priorities at the Third International Conference on SIDS, from 1 to 4 September. This Conference carries strategic stakes and will help to shape a stronger, new global sustainable development agenda beyond 2015. It must recognise the importance of SIDS in providing early-warning to the planet as a whole - as custodians of vast ocean spaces that are essential for food security, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and cultural diversity.

UNESCO's ethical and intellectual mandate and its role in standard setting and policy advocacy - combined with on-the- ground action projects and capacity-building initiatives of various kinds - provide it with special responsibilities as well as opportunities in respect to the alleviation of poverty. And more particularly in contributing to the first of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), that of eradicating poverty, especially the halving of extreme poverty by 2015.

Despite its extraordinary cultural and biological diversity and richness, the Pacific is recognised by the World Heritage Committee as one of the most under-represented regions on the World Heritage List. Moreover, the Pacific region requires special assistance for the more effective implementation of the World Heritage Convention, as it faces special challenges related to its unique geographical, cultural and social characteristics.