"Southern Africa's maritime interests are considerable: its oceans and ports are essential to the wealth of the region, are crucial for trade and are an important source of employment, food and energy. However, regional governments do not place sufficient attention on the Blue Economy and its potential to stimulate economic growth. Of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, goal Number 14 (Life Below Water) is the least funded. Less than 1% of Official Development Assistance goes toward this goal, and even private investment and funding from philanthropic organizations is grossly inadequate to meet Africa's blue economy needs. It is vital for the international community to face up to the challenges of Africa's Blue Economy and start working on solutions and for southern Africa's Blue Economy policies and goals to be expanded. Just as sustainable development green initiatives show promise, so too could Blue Economy projects and activities. Southern Africa's rich coastal and marine resources need to be managed on both a national and regional level if they are to be used in a long-term, sustainable way. This book provides, for the first time, a concise study of the constraints and opportunities that the Blue Economy offers for southern Africa and the role that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) could play in fostering a sustainable use of its ocean and coastal resources"--

Southern Africa’s maritime interests are considerable: its oceans and ports are essential to the wealth of the region, are crucial for trade and are an important source of employment, food and energy. However, regional governments do not place sufficient attention on the Blue Economy and its potential to stimulate economic growth. Of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, goal Number 14 (Life Below Water) is the least funded. Less than 1% of Official Development Assistance goes toward this goal, and even private investment and funding from philanthropic organizations is grossly inadequate to meet Africa’s blue economy needs. It is vital for the international community to face up to the challenges of Africa’s Blue Economy and start working on solutions and for southern Africa’s Blue Economy policies and goals to be expanded. Just as sustainable development green initiatives show promise, so too could Blue Economy projects and activities. Southern Africa’s rich coastal and marine resources need to be managed on both a national and regional level if they are to be used in a long-term, sustainable way. This book provides, for the first time, a concise study of the constraints and opportunities that the Blue Economy offers for southern Africa and the role that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) could play in fostering a sustainable use of its ocean and coastal resources.

As humanity enters the Anthropocene epoch the oceans are more at risk than ever before as a result of the increased exploitation of its resources. The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean in the world comprising 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. The sea lanes in the Indian Ocean are among the busiest in the world with more than 80 percent of global seaborne trade in oil transiting through the Indian Ocean and its vital chokepoints and an estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. The importance of this region cannot be underestimated and there is no doubt that there are many opportunities for economic growth and job creation presented by the waters washing the shores of the Indian Ocean Rim. In order to ensure a desirable future for humanity it is necessary to make use of the ocean’s resources in a sustainable and responsible manner. Climate change is affecting the Indian Ocean negatively, placing a strain on the ability to ensure food security and damaging the economies of small island states that depend on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods. Increasing ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are taking a toll on ecosystems. This book is the first of its kind, providing fresh insights into the various aspects and impacts of the Blue Economy in the Indian Ocean Region: from shifting paradigms, to an accounting framework, gender dynamics, the law of the sea and renewable energy, this handbook aims at increasing awareness of the Blue Economy in the Indian Ocean Region and to provide evidence to policy-makers in the region to make informed decisions. The contributions are from a mixture of disciplines by scholars and experts from seven countries.

The blue economy, comprising coastal and marine resources, offers vast benefits for sub-Saharan Africa: of the 53 countries and territories in the region, 32 are coastal states; there are 13 million sq km of maritime zones; more than 90% of the region’s exports and imports come by sea; and the African Union hails the blue economy as the ‘new frontier of African renaissance’. Despite their importance, the region’s coastal and marine resources have been neither fully appreciated nor fully utilized. They are only now being recognized as being key to Africa’s potential prosperity. As the region grows, it has, in general, not taken adequate safeguards to protect these valuable resources. That is partly because some of the problems (pollution, for example) are regional and know no borders. All too often, short-term gains are made at the expense of the long term (overfishing, for example). This book provides, for the first time, a study of the constraints and opportunities the blue economy offers for sub-Saharan Africa. It includes an introduction and overview; sectoral analyses (including tourism, fisheries, mineral resources, culture, shipping and maritime safety); country case studies; and analyses of regional and international efforts towards better coastal zone and marine management.

Port Development and Competition in East and Southern Africa analyzes the 15 main ports in East and Southern Africa (ESA) to assess whether their proposed capacity enhancements are justified by current and projected demand; whether the current port management approaches sufficiently address not only the maritime capacity needs but also other impediments to port efficiency; and what the expected hierarchy of ports in the region will be in the future. The analysis confirms the need to increase maritime capacity, as the overall container demand in the ports in scope is predicted to begin exceeding total current capacity by between 2025 and 2030, while gaps in terms of dry and liquid bulk handling are expected even sooner. However, in the case of many of the ports, the issue of landside access—the ports’ intermodal connectivity, the ease of international border crossing, and the port-city interface—is more important than the need to improve maritime access and capacity. The analysis finds that there is a need to improve the operating efficiency in all of the ESA ports, as they are currently less than half as productive as the most efficient ports in the matched data set of similar ports across the world, in terms of efficiency in container-handling operations. Similarly, there is a need to improve and formalize stakeholder engagement in many of the ports, to introduce modern management systems, and to strengthen the institutional framework to ensure the most efficient use of the infrastructure and to be able to attract private capital and specialist terminal operators. Finally, given the ports’ geographic location and proximity to main shipping routes, available draft, and the ongoing port-and-hinterland development, the book concludes that Durban and Djibouti are the most likely to emerge as the regional hubs in ESA’s future hub-and-spoke system.

This informative book examines the intellectual property (IP) provisions of the sub-regional and continental Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that have been implemented in Africa to facilitate trade and promote economic integration. Michael Blakeney and Getachew Mengistie Alemu explain how FTAs can be used when setting IP standards in order to influence the ongoing effort to develop effective international agreements with Africa.