Unlocking the Shared OCEAN Potential Between Africa and Europe
Roadmap towards 2030
Co-driving the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership
Ocean governance has, for long, remained an undervalued dimension of Africa-Europe relations and is seen as a missed opportunity to advance an ambitious ocean governance agenda.
The Roadmap seeks to increase the level of understanding between the two continents, expand sharing of knowledge and capacity building, and increase the momentum around ocean governance at cross-continental level, and worldwide, so to achieve and implement European and African aspirations, including the United Nations 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life below water), and other ocean related targets.
Background Information
- The waters surrounding Africa and Europe, with over 100,000 kilometres of coastline, are some of the world’s most productive oceanic areas, connecting the continents through trade, investment and cultural exchanges thus, offering a unique opportunity to work jointly in shaping the global ocean landscape.
- Only recently have the African Union and the European Union begun to increasingly recognize the ocean’s potential and the need for global action to harness it. The EU Comprehensive Strategy with Africa adopted in March 2020, the EU’s Communication on International Ocean Governance and a new approach for a sustainable blue economy, and the recently adopted (2024) AU’s Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan (STYMP) point to the need to increase investments in ocean governance, sustainable fisheries and the blue economy, identifying this as a strategic area of cooperation between Africa and Europe.
- As the two continents are eyeing 2025 as the year for both the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) and the 7th AU-EU Heads of State Summit, the health of the ocean is a shared responsibility for Africa and Europe, requiring collaboration to unlock a sustainable blue economy with global impact on trade, food security, and geopolitical relations.
- The Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership would contribute to advancing a shared vision and Roadmap for an enhanced collaboration, as well as reinforcing the capacities of both Africa and Europe through joint exchange and understanding of respective development challenges for a strengthened international ocean governance framework and regenerative blue economy.
The Challenge
It is acknowledged with grave concern the fact that less than 1% of Official Development Assistance ODA funding is allocated to ocean development internationally, with SDG 14 Life Below Water being the most underfunded of all SDGs, with only 0.68% of total SDG financing directed to it in 2021. In the context of Africa, it is estimated that 3% of ODA in 2021 were directed towards SDG 14.
Although there has been limited integration of the blue economy and ocean governance concerns in the context of the institutional relationships between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), the context of the Africa-Europe Partnership on Ocean Governance and Blue economy is a key opportunity in this regard.
A strengthened partnership between Africa and Europe appears of strategic interest, as both continents are faced with similar challenges ranging from climate, biodiversity loss, rising sea levels to the overexploitation of natural resources and illegal fishing.
Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership
The Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership aims to foster an environment of mutual respect and collaborative learning, ensuring that the benefits of enhanced ocean governance and the sustainable development of a blue economy are shared in a responsible manner for the benefits of the two continents and the ocean, a global public good.
Actions under the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership should be designed to facilitate more effective cooperation between Africa and Europe on ocean governance and blue economy issues, with a focus on sustainability, restoration, regeneration, and resilience.
In its effort, the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership would contribute to advancing a shared vision and Roadmap for an enhanced collaboration, as well as reinforcing the capacities of both Africa and Europe through joint exchange and understanding of respective development challenges for a strengthened international ocean governance framework and regenerative blue economy.
With its Roadmap, the Strategy Group seeks to address contentious issues that affect the Africa-Europe partnership on ocean governance and blue economy. As such, the Strategy Group calls for the implementation of a structured, formal and ambitious Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership on issues related to the ocean and the blue economy and proposes actions to generate a more favourable enabling environment for a solid Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership.
Strategic actions to structure and execute the Roadmap
- Co-produce and institutionalise a Memorandum of understanding and cooperation for the Africa-Europe Partnership on Ocean Governance and the Blue Economy, signed by the European and African Union Commissions
- Co-Institute an Africa-Europe Blue Resilience, Regeneration, and Restoration Hub (B3R-Hub)
- Foster strong stakeholder coalition between AU Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the European Commission and European Union Member States
- Prioritise cross-cutting development activities rather than sectoral or siloed ones
- Advance a joint Africa-Europe research agenda on the ocean
- Promote and deliver joint Africa-Europe Ocean literacy programmes across both continents
- Elaborate a joint Africa-Europe plan to overcome maritime safety and security challenges as well as IUU fishing in Africa
- Organise joint Africa-Europe convenings and workshops with other agencies and programmes to facilitate strong working collaborations and increase reach
Priority Intervention Areas
The ‘Roadmap Towards 2030: Co-driving the Africa- Europe Ocean Partnership’ highlights activities to help translate the identified priorities into concrete proposals and initiatives, as well as aligning and harmonising policies for the development of ocean governance and blue economy across Africa and Europe. The Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Ocean Governance, following a multi-stakeholder consultative process, identified three priority intervention areas to advance ocean policy outputs and transformative ideas in the short- and long-term along three priority intervention areas:
Ocean Governance
Cooperation and collaboration on ocean governance holds strategic opportunity for both Africa and Europe to drive different aspects of the sustainable development agenda forward, if pursed with honest intent and just implementation. This calls for joint position and common view to address some of the greatest challenges of our times – from facilitating a greater number of ratifications to secure operationalisation of key international agreements, as well as ongoing multilateral processes such as the Global Plastics Treaty, the BBNJ Treaty, the Global Biodiversity Framework, the climate and biodiversity COPs, WTO Fisheries, regulations on deep-sea mining, the 7TH AU-EU Summit, and the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in 2025.
Capacity Sharing
Capacity-Sharing is a crucial element of the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership focusing on developing cross-continental networks for sharing policy, research and data. Building new capacities in Africa and Europe requires leveraging specialist knowledge and expertise, backed by the commitment to data-driven policy making and programming for addressing the complex challenges of ocean governance and the development of a sustainable blue economy, including fostering a greater understanding of the ocean and maximising the impact of the Partnership.
Finance and Investment
The Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership has the potential to align financial systems with regeneration, restoration, and sustainable development goals through ocean governance and the blue economy, ensuring that financial flows are directed away from practices that harm the ocean and undermine its long-term health. Supporting the development of a strong blue entrepreneurship ecosystem that has the potential to deliver significant impact on the ground (by and for local stakeholders); and identify and operationalise innovative financing mechanisms with recognised potential include (but are not limited to) payment-for-ecosystem services (PES) schemes, compensation for natural capital (including debt-for-nature swaps or ocean swaps), blue carbon market, improved allocation of global tax, blue bonds, blue tokens and FinTech, blended finance facility and novel insurance mechanisms.
Roadmap Recommendations
The Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership would consist in a joint vision for a mutually supportive relationship focusing on equal benefit sharing through inclusive and equitable processes and outcomes for the two continents on ocean policy and action, including blue economy.
The Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership would contribute to advancing a shared vision and Roadmap for an enhanced collaboration, as well as reinforcing the capacities of both Africa and Europe through joint exchange and understanding of respective development challenges for a strengthened international ocean governance framework and regenerative blue economy.
With this Roadmap, the Africa-Europe Foundation is committed to reinforce the importance of the ocean as a priority area of focus in the Africa-Europe partnership, offering a compelling proposition to the European Commission and African Union Commission, and partners from both continents.
The Roadmap also underlines the potential of ocean cooperation and blue economy as a route to strengthen AU-EU ties, especially if underpinned by a strong science-policy interface and evidence-based programming.
Co-driving the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership represents an opportunity for transformative collaboration between the continents with the ambition to achieving continental aspirations, SDGs, as well as addressing the major ocean crises of biodiversity loss, pollution, climate change and declining resources.
Quotes from Strategy Group Members
Maroš Šefčovič
Executive Vice-President for European Green Deal, International Relations and Foresight, European Commission
Pascal Lamy
Co-chair of the Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Ocean Governance, Vice Chair of the Paris Peace Forum, Chair of the EU “Ocean and Waters” Mission
“Embracing the 2030 Roadmap is a shared commitment that holds the key to unlocking the full potential of the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership. It is imperative for all stakeholders to heed its guidance, fostering collaboration and progress towards a stronger, more prosperous future for both continents.”
Amb. Nancy Karigithu
Co-chair of the Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Ocean Governance, Kenya’s Ambassador and Special Envoy for Maritime and Blue Economy
“The Africa-Europe Strategy Group’s Roadmap for and ENhanced Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership provides guidance and helps to direct engagement going forward, which will require in particular policy and finance efforts and offers the opportunity for Africa and Europe to regain momentum in their cooperation. The Roadmap deserves study and consideration by all stakeholders.”
Torsten Thiele
Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Global Ocean Trust
“This roadmap for AU_EU cooperation on ocean governance could be transformative in delivering equity and mutual benefits through future development. There has never been a greater opportunity to rein in domestic and foreign extraction that is degrading African water, and dismantling the economic practices that motivate these.”
David Obura
“OceanHub Africa, naturally support the needs highlighted in the 2030 Roadmap as relevant as well as the need for the coordination of the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership.”
Alexis Grosskopf
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OceanHub Africa
“The sea must be seen as a link and opportunity for our relations between Africa and Europe. This roadmap seems to be a very useful and transformative way of co-constructing partnerships between our two continents in terms of ocean governance and the blue economy. Let’s make a joint commitment to this common good, the future of humanity and the promoter of peace.”
Catherine Chabaud
Former Member of the European Parliament
“For Africa, the Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership represents a comprehensive strategy with our close neighbor. This partnership underscores both Africa’s and Europe’s commitment to a deep and comprehensive relationship, particularly in ocean governance, which is a critical agenda for both continents.”
Arthur Tuda
Executive Director,
Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association – WIOMSA
“The Roadmap for an Enhanced Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership provides a framework to significantly enhance collaboration between our regions towards sustainable, equitable and mutually beneficial partnership. The Roadmap can play an important part in realising the ambition of Africa’s development framework, Agenda 2063, which envisions the continent’s ocean economy as a major contributor to transformations and growth.”
Alex Benkenstein
Head of the Governance of Africa’s Resources Programme, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
“As someone born in Africa and with a long career in the EU, I have strived for closer cooperation between our continents. I am thrilled by the publication of this Roadmap which is the right vehicle for that. It notably holds immense promise to advance the deployment of nature-based solutions by leveraging both continents’ strengths.”
Genevìève Pons
Director General and Vice President, Europe Jacques Delors
“The roadmap for an enhanced Africa-Europe Ocean partnership presents a new model of development cooperation for the two continents to contain climate change, hold biodiversity loss and catalyze the transition to inclusive sustainable blue economy for the mutual benefit of the people of these two continents.”
Edward Kimakwa
Senior Marine Advisor and Our Blue Future Coordinator, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
“Many African and other developing countries face major barriers and constraints to invest in sustainable ocean economies, and are being left behind from harnessing its benefits. This Roadmap for an Enhanced Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership can blaze the trail for transformative partnership in support of achieving sustainable ocean economies that deliver for people and the planet.”
Piera Tortora
Senior Marine Advisor and Our Blue Future Coordinator, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Steffen Knodt
Founder and Managing Partner Deepblue Earth, Chairman of the Board German UN Oceandecade Committee (ODK)
Josheena Naggea
Blue Food Future Program Manager at IPBES
“The sea is not just a link between Africa and Europe; it presents a tremendous opportunity for shared sustainable prosperity and nature regeneration. The Roadmap for an Enhanced Africa-Europe Ocean Partnership offers a framework to transform this opportunity into tangible benefits through a mutually beneficial partnership.”
Nassim Oulmane
Acting Director Technology, Climate Change, Food Security and Natural Resource Division (CFND) at United Nations Economic Commission (UNECA)
“Expressed her “deepest appreciation to the Africa-Europe Foundation for its steadfast leadership”, stating that the Africa-Europe Ocean Strategy Group is “a testament of power of partnerships in tackling some of the most pressing challenges” adding that it was essential to focus on “ocean governance, capacity building and investment”.
H.E. Josefa Sacko
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