Strengthening India-Africa Collaboration for Sustainable Ocean Development

This piece is part of the series 'Governing the Oceans: Rethinking Access and Equity'

The ocean-based industry has been acknowledged as one of the industries that makes a substantial contribution to world economic output and employment. According to the United Nations, oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and account for 99 percent of the planet’s living space by volume. Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their well-being, and approximately 44 percent of the global population lives within 100 kilometres of the coastline, with about 80 percent of all tourism taking place along the coast.

With the global population ballooning and the demand for goods and services also increasing, the land-based resources alone may not be able to meet these needs. Thus, there is an increased focus on ocean resources for sustainability, employment, and poverty reduction.

Africa’s Blue Economy: Potential and Pressures

Building sustainable ocean economies has become a priority for several African governments as oceans can be a source of jobs, food security, and leisure. With a coastline of about 30,000 km, including continental shelves rich in fisheries, Africa produces about 13.1 million tonnes of fisheries and aquaculture products. It is also home to some energy resources (with abundant potential for solar capacity (10 TW) and abundant hydro (350 GW), wind (110 GW), and geothermal energy sources (15 GW)). The African continent is also harbouring about 25 percent of the world’s biodiversity, rendering its blue economy an underutilised yet potentially transformative driver of sustainable development, food security, and economic growth.

African coastal communities and small-scale fisheries are especially vulnerable to the synergistic impacts of climate change, rising population levels, and rising food demand, but often lack the resources to build resilience. 

Despite this potential, the emerging risk of climate change may destabilise the sustainability of ocean-based food systems, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Africa. With a current temperature rising by 1.1°C, nearly 60 percent of the global marine ecosystems are estimated to be either degraded or are being exploited unsustainably. Climate variability and weather-related disasters, therefore, have the potential to undermine all four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilisation, and stability.

African coastal communities and small-scale fisheries are especially vulnerable to the synergistic impacts of climate change, rising population levels, and rising food demand, but often lack the resources to build resilience.  These factors are likely to affect food and water security, livelihoods, and thus contribute to an increase in the cost of living. In addition to climate change, there are other threats to the blue economy and community livelihoods, which may impede the path toward sustainable growth. (Refer to Figure 1).

Figure 1: Blue Economy Challenges

Source: Narwal et al, 2023

Without effective adaptation strategies and sustainable resource management, the potential for the blue economy to have a meaningful impact on food security in the region will be significantly diminished. The adaptation strategies may include, amongst others, infrastructure upgrades and coastal protection to address flooding and sea-level rise; and policy, planning, and governance frameworks such as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to facilitate sustainable ocean use. Such strategies could therefore help build resilience against these threats to the blue economy.

The Need for Strengthening Indo-African Collaboration

India-Africa collaboration to advance blue economy initiatives in Africa should focus on:

• Investment in technology for monitoring and surveillance of environmental challenges such as climate change, changing ocean temperatures, availability of fish stock, and illegal activities such as Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing should be considered. These technologies may include autonomous underwater vessels, buoys, and remote sensors.
• Innovative finance and investment solutions such as blue bonds, blended finance, endowment funds for conservation and tourism revenue sharing, small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMME) finance products, public-private partnership funding for port infrastructure and logistics, and ocean renewable energy projects should be mobilised to transition from fossil fuel use to cleaner forms of energy. A creation of a dedicated Indo-Africa Blue Fund as a derisking fund, similar to initiatives such as the Africa Blue Wave,  to finance small businesses, aquaculture and fisheries projects, coastal and marine tourism projects, as well as coastal adaptation and resilience initiatives, may also be considered.
• Promotion of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture practices should encourage investment in fish processing facilities, storage facilities, fishing gear and equipment for fishers, facilitation of access to market initiatives for fish farmers and fishers, and skills and capacity-building initiatives.
• Investing in job-creating initiatives such as coastal tourism, including heritage-related tourism to promote inclusivity, must be encouraged; aquaculture, port services, and support for SMMEs can also support job creation within the blue economy.
• Research and innovation must include building research capacity through increasing postgraduate training, investment in marine data platforms, promoting marine robotics research for mapping and remote sensing, and provision of research grants, which will contribute to the creation of a new generation of African Researchers. Additionally, the creation of joint Research and Development centres with high-impact solutions focusing on seaweed value-chain processing, possibly with organisations such as, amongst others, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI), supporting the research and technological drive, offering training and technical support to fish farmers and entrepreneurs, could be facilitated.
• Skills and capacity building programmes must promote training in fisheries management and marine sciences, investing in infrastructure and equipment to support skills development, and where there is a lack of relevant qualifications, developing qualifications or partnering with international institutions that offer such qualifications. Furthermore, partnerships in extending exchange opportunities in international or domestic universities to promote increased access to tertiary education, focusing on blue economy qualifications.

The proposed leverage points can also promote knowledge sharing and could potentially uplift and render the  African coastal communities more resilient.

Partnerships and collaboration with international institutions are key to the implementation of blue economy projects in Africa.  Strengthening  India-Africa partnership would therefore be beneficial across economic, environmental, institutional, and governance spheres. To facilitate this, shared leverage points that could form a basis for the development of meaningful collaboration to promote sustainable development in the blue economy should be considered. These may include, amongst others, shared economic development partnerships, shared recognition of increasing environmental vulnerabilities and commitment to address those, and shared need for collaborative institutional mechanisms. The proposed leverage points can also promote knowledge sharing and could potentially uplift and render the  African coastal communities more resilient.

Conclusion

To combat poverty and safeguard its essential marine habitats, the African continent requires swift, concerted action and investment. Investment in blue economy initiatives in Africa presents opportunities for addressing challenges to sustainable development and growth. An India–Africa blue economy collaboration offers a unique South–South development model rooted in shared mutual learning and inclusive prosperity. By combining India’s technical and industrial strengths with Africa’s rich marine resources and growing institutions, the two regions can co-create a resilient, sustainable, and people-centred maritime future. India and Africa, therefore, can take the lead in creating profitable and sustainable blue value chains through investing in the future of Africa's blue economy by co-creating funding mechanisms for blue economy projects.

Nwabisa Matoti is Director - Strategy and Internationalisation at the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI).

• Maritime Security
• Maritime Infrastructure
• Maritime Governance Architecture
• Africa
• India
• Blue Bonds
• Blue economy
• coastal resilience
• Coastal tourism
• Illegal
• India–Africa cooperation
• Marine biodiversity
• Ocean renewable energy
• South–South cooperation
• South–South cooperation
• sustainable fisheries
• Unreported and Unregulated fishing

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