The United Nations Programme of Action on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, popularly referred to as the Barbados Program of Action (BPOA), is a policy document that both: comprehensively addresses the economic, environmental, and social developmental vulnerabilities facing islands; and outlines a strategy that seeks to mitigate those vulnerabilities.
The need for an islands specific conference was highlighted some two years prior at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro where 179 governments voted to adopt Agenda 21.
The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed to at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit 2002) affirmed UN commitment to 'full implementation' of Agenda 21, alongside achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the BPOA, and other international agreements.
Upon receipt of the recommendation, the General Assembly of the UN passed Resolutions 57/262 and 58/213, which mandated an International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States to take place.
What emerged from it was a reorganising of the Programs "priority areas" and an entrenched commitment to the notion that economic growth would ultimately contribute to sustainable development.