Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit

 

 

 

 

Announcement in Brief

Type :Self-paced Course
Programme Area : Natural Resource Management
Beginning of the course : 4 October to  5 November 2021
Duration : 5 weeks
Language :Bilingual (English & French)
Location :Web Based E-Learning
Fee :No Fee
Application Deadline : 6th August, 2021
Specific target audience :No
Website :https://services.unidep.org/e-idep
Applications :https://www.unidep.org/?apply

 

 

 PROGRAM 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). Countries such as Seychelles have decided to fully focus on the Blue Economy to sustain their post-Covid19 recovery. Indeed, due to the vastness of its opportunities the Blue Economy represents more and more a very promising outlet to build economies back better, for sustainable
growth within the context of the socio-economic crisis generated by the Covid 19 pandemic. Hence, there is need to build and develop capacities on the Blue Economy concept, approach, related policy and valuation tools to raise awareness, disseminate knowledge and enable key players to apply it through tailor-made assessments as well as policy and regulatory frameworks and action plans. This has been highlighted as a key priority at the 2019 Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts of SRO-EA and in the policy framework of Seychelles, the Indian Ocean Commission (developed with EAC support). With respect to UNIDEP, this training falls under Cluster 4 (Integrated Natural Resource Management) of the training catalogue adopted by the Technical Advisory Committee of UNIDEP and endorsed by its governing council.

 LEARNING 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 socioeconomic 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 early 2021.