BLUE ECONOMY VALUATION TOOLKIT
Announcement in Brief
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Programme Rationale
Globally, the ocean economy has an asset base of over USD 24 trillion and generates at least USD 2.5 trillion each year from the combination of fishing and aquaculture, shipping, tourism, and other marine based activities (WWF, 2015). However, these are mere estimations given that the full potential of aquatic and marine ecosystems and associated resources is still not well understood globally and on the African continent.
The lack of knowledge of blue resources at stake is a major gap hindering the sustainable harnessing of Blue Economy resources, policy development and implementation on the Blue Economy. As an example, more than 80 per cent of the oceans remain completely unmapped. This is combined with an equally poor mapping of freshwater and groundwater resources on the continent. To address this, ECA has embarked on the development of a Blue Economy valuation toolkit aimed to guide data collection and analysis for the socio-economic assessment of blue resources, including goods and services generated; which in turn is expected to provide an accurate snapshot of the potential of the Blue Economy and to help inform decision-making.
In addition, there is still lack of clear understanding of the concept and multisectoral approach of the Blue Economy by policy makers and stakeholders. ECA has played an instrumental role in the past few years in assisting member States and regional bodies in developing their first strategic policy frameworks using the methodology provided by the Blue Economy Policy Handbook for Africa (ECA flagship publication).
Specific Objectives
The course will introduce the fundamentals of the Blue Economy valuation toolkit, its concept and approach, as well as provide a step by step guide to help stakeholders to better assess the socio-economic potential of the Blue Economy for informed decision making. The course will build on and complement the overall training on the Blue Economy provided in 2021.
