The British Virgin Islands (BVI) has reaffirmed support for Brazil’s initiative to seek international adoption of its voluntarily adopted Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 18 ‘Ethnic and Racial Equality,’ which comes as multilateral discussions are beginning on the post-2030 sustainable development framework and future of the SDGs.
The renewed pledge was made at a recent technical meeting on “SDG 18 and the Promotion of Ethnic and Racial Equality” organised by the Federative Republic of Brazil’s Ministry of Racial Equality.
BVI Special Envoy Mr. Benito Wheatley who participated virtually, was among several stakeholders that included governments, religious institutions, NGOs, and grassroots organisations who attended the technical meeting and form a part of the SDG 18 network.
In his official remarks, Mr. Wheatley commended Brazil for its voluntary adoption of SDG 18 and subsequent initiative to seek its international adoption. According to the Special Envoy,
“The BVI has remained steadfast in our support of Brazil’s SDG 18, which has been consistently reflected in our engagement at UN multilateral fora within the ECLAC system, including the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development and the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ethnic and racial equality should be a foundational principle of sustainable development. The BVI and other Small Island Developing States, continue to make the case for equity in global development on this basis. There is an international responsibility to ensure all people can fairly participate in, and benefit from, the sustainable development of their societies and countries.”
The BVI’s backing for SDG 18 builds on a high-level BVI-Brazil meeting on sustainable development in the Brazilian capital Brasilia between Mr. Wheatley and senior Brazilian officials who included Mr. Igor Trabuco, Head of the International Advisory Department at the Brazil Ministry of Racial Equality; Mrs. Tatiana Dias Silva, Director of Evaluation, Monitoring, and Information Management at the Brazil Ministry of Racial Equality; Mr. Thiago Gehre, Executive Director of the Brazil National Commission on Sustainable Development Goals; Ms. Patrícia Carvalho, Officer at the Brazil National Commission on Sustainable Development Goals; and Mr. Gustavo Westman, Special Advisor for International Affairs in the Office of the President. The high-level meeting took place in the margins of UN ECLAC’s Second Parliamentary Summit on Climate Change and Just Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean in October 2026 in which Brazil serves as Co-Chair and BVI as a Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Observatory of Climate Change and Just Transition (OPCC).
The SDG 18 technical meeting took place in the margins of ECLAC’s recently concluded Sixth Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean held in Montevideo, Uruguay.
