The Maldives is strengthening its ability to maintain essential services and protect communities from external shocks, with support from development partners and international financial institutions.As a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) that is highly dependent on imported fuel, the Maldives is particularly exposed to changes in global energy markets and other external developments. Fuel is essential for electricity generation, water production, transport and the movement of goods and services across the country.Against this backdrop, development partners are supporting efforts to help ensure that essential services can continue to reach communities across the Maldives.ADB Approves US$50 Million Emergency Assistance Loan for Energy Security in MaldivesIn August, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a US$50 million concessional loan for the Maldives to support critical fuel imports. The financing will help sustain electricity and water supplies, as well as food and health-care logistics, inter-island transport of people and cargo, and waste management.This new loan, provided through ADB's ordinary capital resources, carries highly favourable financing terms, including a 1.0 percent annual interest rate and a 40-year repayment period, including a 10-year grace period.Building resilience through partnershipThe latest financing builds on earlier support from international financial institutions. Together, this brings the total support to at least US$90 million to help the Maldives maintain essential services, including electricity, water and critical transport and logistics.For communities across the Maldives, maintaining reliable access to electricity, drinking water, transport, food and health-related logistics is central to ensuring that people can continue to access the services they depend on every day.This continued support also highlights the importance of strong development partnerships in strengthening the Maldives' resilience and supporting sustainable development.Collective Support for Essential ServicesThe continued collaboration among development partners and international financial institutions demonstrates the importance of coordinated action in times of need. This emergency assistance supports the Government of Maldives in addressing the current energy emergency, helping to maintain essential services and mitigate its impact on communities across the country. Such partnerships remain important in supporting the Maldives' resilience and ensuring that people can continue to access the essential services they rely on.

A strong El Niño is underway and is strengthening in the Pacific while a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is expected to develop. Both events are known to alter sea temperatures, rainfall and water levels, creating conditions that place mangroves under severe stress. Against the backdrop of a changing climate, these events can amplify local environmental conditions in ways that are difficult to detect until impacts become visible. Recognizing these signals early, through strengthened monitoring and early warning systems to detect changes in sea level, salinity and ecosystem health, can help governments and coastal communities anticipate risks and take informed actions.Mangroves are a vital part of coastal ecosystems, helping protect shorelines from erosion and storm impacts, providing habitat for fish and other wildlife, storing large amounts of carbon, and supporting livelihoods, food security and cultural traditions. Asia and the Pacific account for more than half of the world's mangrove share, making their resilience critical not only for biodiversity but also for the millions of people who depend on them.  The IOD and El Niño are large-scale climate patterns that influence ocean temperatures, rainfall and sea levels across the Indo-Pacific region. They can create prolonged flooding, unusual heat and elevated salinity in coastal wetlands, placing significant stress on mangrove ecosystems, sometimes across multiple countries simultaneously. Acting independently or interacting, these two events have significant effects on ocean and coastal life. Understanding how they influence these local conditions is therefore essential to protecting mangroves and strengthening the resilience of coastal communities. Due to a positive IOD in 2020–2021, the Maldives experienced one of the most significant recorded mangrove dieback events in its history, with impacts reported on roughly one-quarter of the country's mangrove-bearing islands and losses exceeding 40 per cent of mangrove cover in some locations.  These were driven by raised sea levels, leaving many mangrove wetlands flooded for extended periods. In low-lying mangrove systems with poor drainage, seawater became trapped, evaporation concentrated salt in the soil, and tree roots were deprived of oxygen. This combination of flooding, heat stress and salt accumulation weakened and killed large numbers of mangroves. Sharing the same vulnerabilities, this positive IOD triggered widespread mangrove losses across the Western Indian Ocean, striking as far as the Seychelles, Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar. Studies from other regions, including northern Australia during the 2015–2016 El Niño, have similarly linked these climate oscillations to large-scale mangrove dieback, demonstrating how such events can push already-stressed coastal ecosystems beyond their natural tolerance limits.When a strong positive IOD occurs alongside El Niño, the combined effects have historically been associated with higher sea temperatures and sea levels, changes in rainfall, prolonged flooding in some areas and increased salinity in coastal wetlands. Many mangrove ecosystems are resilient and can recover from periodic climate fluctuations, but they have limits. Monitoring these large-scale climate patterns can provide valuable early warning and help coastal managers respond before ecological stress becomes widespread.   The value of monitoring lies not in hindsight but in translating these signals into real-time, impact-based forecasts that coastal managers and sector users can act on in tandem with information regarding mangrove types and characteristics. In addition, protecting mangroves in a changing climate requires understanding new and recurring climate patterns that can rapidly push these ecosystems beyond their natural limits. ESCAP analysis of potential mangrove exposure to sea surface temperature anomalies finds that until 2040, mangroves in the Maldives are mostly under low or very low risk; but the pattern could shift to a medium level under SSP3-7.0 scenarios by 2060; and by the late century, exposure uniformly intensifies further to High under SSP2-4.5 and to Very High under SSP3-7.0. Understanding how mangrove ecosystems could respond over time is important for developing a strategic approach to mangrove preservation, such as allowing space for mangroves to adapt and migrate as shorelines change.  Development strategies should be less focused on reacting to individual events and more focused on strengthening long-term climate resilience. Protecting existing mangrove forests, as demonstrated by Malaysia's large-scale conservation efforts, restoring degraded ecosystems using locally appropriate approaches, such as Indonesia's mangrove rehabilitation and Sri Lanka's natural regeneration programme,  strengthening partnership and working with coastal communities, whose knowledge of local hydrology and environmental change is critical for successful restoration and long-term stewardship are some of the key elements that could ensure a sustainable approach to supporting mangroves.While climate change is increasing uncertainty, as shown above, governments do not have to respond without guidance. Understanding recurring climate patterns alongside long-term climate trends can help coastal managers anticipate ecosystem stress and protect mangroves before irreversible damage occurs. Note: ESCAP assessments in the area were conducted with the support of the UK's CARA programme funding. Learn more at https://caraprogramme.org/---Authors:Leila Salarpour Goodarzi, Associate Economic Affairs Officer, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAPAhmed Shabin, Secretary General, Maldivian Red CrescentYoungeun Kim, Intern, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAPRahul Kumar Suman, Consultant, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAPElisa Belaz, Consultant, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAP

By: Kenanao Keemenao MotlhoiwaA mother should not have to choose between feeding her baby and protecting her own wellbeing. Yet, too often, the support surrounding breastfeeding focuses on the baby while the mother’s emotional needs go unseen.Maldives has done something many countries have not: it has won the fight for child survival. Newborns who once would not have lived through their first days now do, across even our smallest and most remote island communities. Breastfeeding has been part of that story and rightly remains a national health priority. But alongside this progress sits a quieter, less examined reality. Across the islands of Maldives, in the hours after a child is born, two things are happening at once. A mother is learning, often for the first time, how to feed her baby. And she is also often silently finding her way through one of the most emotionally demanding periods of her life. We have long spoken about the first challenge. We have not spoken nearly enough about the second. What the evidence tells us Postpartum depression and anxiety affect millions of women worldwide, and Maldivian mothers are no exception. For many women living across our dispersed islands, the early weeks of motherhood can be isolating. A mother who is struggling to breastfeed may have no lactation counsellor nearby. A mother experiencing anxiety or depression may have no mental health professional to turn to, and perhaps no other new mother with whom to share her experience.  Too often, our health systems, our workplaces, and our communities treat infant feeding and maternal mental health as two separate issues, addressed by different people at different times. But for mothers, they are deeply connected.  Research on breastfeeding and maternal mental health is nuanced. Some studies find that breastfeeding is associated with lower rates of postpartum depressive symptoms, possibly through hormonal pathways, improved sleep, and a growing sense of confidence and closeness with the baby. Other studies find no such protective effect once additional factors are considered.  What the evidence does show clearly is that the relationship works both ways. Depression and anxiety can make it harder to establish and sustain breastfeeding. At the same time, mothers who want to breastfeed but struggle—because of pain, low milk supply, exhaustion or inadequate support—may experience guilt, distress and a profound sense of failure. The lesson is simple: breastfeeding alone does not protect a mother’s mental health. What matters is whether she is supported, listened to and cared for throughout the experience. Breastfeeding should never depend on a mother’s endurance alone.  Every postnatal contact should therefore become an opportunity to ask two equally important questions: How is your baby feeding? And how are you feeling? They were never really two separate questions. This raises an important question for us: how do we build a system in which a mother’s emotional well-being is supported alongside her baby’s feeding. This begins with a simple shift: treating breastfeeding and maternal mental health as one conversation, not two. Breastfeeding is more than a feeding method; in the earliest days of life, it connects a mother’s physical and emotional well-being with her baby’s health. What must change I believe three things are within our reach for sustainable support systems that this year's World Breastfeeding Week is calling for us to build.  First, health workers in health centres and hospitals across the atolls need the skills and time to ask new mothers “how are you feeling”. Perinatal depression and anxiety are common and treatable conditions, not signs of weakness or failure. Early screening and appropriate referral integrated into postnatal care and breastfeeding support can identify distress before it deepens. Second, we must protect mothers from guilt. A mother who finds it difficult to breastfeed has not failed her child. Mothers need accurate information and practical support to make informed feeding decisions, not pressure, shame, or unrealistic expectations. Our responsibility is to support breastfeeding while always protecting the dignity, agency, and mental health of every mother. Third, we must invest in the conditions that make both breastfeeding and maternal wellbeing possible: adequate maternity leave, workplaces and public spaces that accommodate new mothers, peer support networks that reach mothers, and family and community members equipped to recognise when a new mother needs help.  Supporting breastfeeding is not solely a mother’s responsibility. It is a shared responsibility. The strength of the system around her, from her home, her community, the places she shops at, or works at, or communes with others at, will often determine whether she can continue. Call to action This World Breastfeeding Week, under the theme “Prioritise Breastfeeding: Create Sustainable Support Systems,” I call on health workers to check on a mother’s emotional well-being as carefully as they monitor her baby’s growth. I call on employers to provide mothers with the time, space and flexibility they need to breastfeed or express milk safely and with dignity. I call on partners and policymakers to integrate breastfeeding support and maternal mental health into postnatal services across every island. And I call on families and communities to create room in their lives for mothers to breastfeed freely, and to notice when a mother is struggling, to listen without judgement, offer practical help and reach out rather than turn away. To every mother across Maldives who is awake tonight, wondering whether her baby is feeding enough, and whether she herself is coping: please reach out to a health worker, family member or trusted friend. Asking for help is not a sign of failure. It is an act of care for yourself and your baby. 

This article is first published at UNICEF Maldives website on Breastfeeding, mental health, and the care our mothers are owed | UNICEF MaldivesTo learn more about the works of UNICEF Maldives Please go to UNICEF Maldives

The United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises of Maldives and the Ministry of Finance of Pakistan, convened a four-day workshop as the first peer learning activity of the Borrowers’ Platform. The workshop was opened by the Hon. Minister of State for Finance and Public Enterprises, Mr. Hassan Miras, and the UN Resident Coordinator in the Maldives, Mr. Hao Zhang. It brought together technical officials from nine countries spanning different regions, income levels, and debt profiles to exchange experiences on debt management and the development of domestic capital markets.The discussions focused on practical, country-level experiences with a shared focus: the practical steps countries can take to develop domestic capital markets and manage their risk profiles, built on sound analysis, functional institutional framework, and enabling international financial architecture. Debt management practitioners from participating countries shared their recent experiences, including the challenges navigated and progress made. The exchanges underscored a shared reality: many borrowing countries face similar constraints, yet they have historically lacked a dedicated forum to share and learn from each other directly.The Platform is a dedicated space for developing countries to share knowledge, exchange experiences, and speak collectively on debt challenges of borrowers. When borrowing countries finally have a dedicated space to exchange among peers, the impact is immediate: first-hand practitioner knowledge flows, common challenges bring forward solutions proven in similar contexts, and hesitation can be turned into action.As the inaugural peer-learning event of the Borrowers' Platform, the workshop demonstrated the value of structured dialogue among borrowing countries and laid the foundation for deeper cooperation, in the years ahead.The initiative of Borrowers’ Platform was launched in April 2026, with many developing countries and UN Secretary-General António Guterres in attendance. The establishment of the Borrowers’ Platform was agreed under the Compromiso de Sevilla, the outcome document of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), held in Seville, Spain in July 2025. The Platform will inaugurate its first full annual cycle in October 2026. Member states are looking forward to additional workshops, technical exchanges, and collaborative activities that will create new opportunities for borrowing countries to share knowledge, strengthen capacity, and build a stronger presence within the global debt architecture.The message emerging from Malé was clear: when countries facing similar debt and development challenges come together, they generate practical solutions rooted in lived experience. As many developing countries, including Maldives, navigate complex landscapes to strengthen debt sustainability, this workshop signals the first step to turn these peer learning exchanges into a lasting network of cooperation, one that strengthens learning, fosters cooperation, and amplifies the collective voice of borrowing countries in global debt discussions.