Publication:
Blue Economy for Resilient Africa Program Overview

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (5.2 MB)
103 downloads
English Text (100.81 KB)
12 downloads
Date
2025-03-25
ISSN
Published
2025-03-25
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Blue Economy is at the core of economic development and competitiveness for African coastal countries. Job-creating economic sectors like tourism and food-production sectors like fisheries depend on a clean and healthy coastal environment. Future development opportunities in sustainable blue energy and ocean mining are key to countries’ competitiveness. Ecosystem services from mangroves and coastal habitats, upon which coastal populations depend, can be supported by new revenue-generating instruments, like blue carbon. However, unsustainable infrastructure development, pollution, and the inadequate management of natural habitats and resources threaten the productivity of coastal marine ecosystems on the African continent. Climate change-related events such as sea level rise, land subsidence, storm surge, and coastal flooding are exacerbating the region’s vulnerability. The challenge today is: How can coastal countries manage their coastal landscapes to spur economic growth and reduce poverty while adapting to the effects of climate change? The World Bank produces Country Climate and Development Reports, a new series of core diagnostic reports that integrates climate change and development considerations. These reports help countries prioritize impactful actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost adaptation while delivering on broader development goals. In this series of briefs, the World Bank reflects on successful Blue Economy operations that support African countries as they pursue green, resilient, and inclusive recovery and development.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2025. Blue Economy for Resilient Africa Program Overview. Blue Economy for Resilient Africa Program. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42988 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Jobs and Livelihoods in the Blue Economy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-17) World Bank
    The World Bank Group supports climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience by promoting Blue Economy job growth in Africa and worldwide. From climate-smart and resilient urban development to improving economic participation and decision-making for marginalized groups, the World Bank Group works with a broad toolkit of financing solutions to support governments with on-the-ground development and institutional strengthening. The challenge is how to combine growing the Blue Economy with providing jobs for Africa’s working-age population, which is expected to grow to 450 million people by 2035. Critical governance and policy reforms for Africa’s Blue Economy include building public-sector capacity, aligning economic interests with long-term sustainability, and promoting conditions that encourage business growth in a sustainable seafood sector. Measuring the success of reforms on jobs and livelihoods can be challenging. Still, cutting-edge blue economy thinking reveals itself when the restoration of mangroves, seagrass beds, and dune vegetation, for example, is combined with successful climate-smart job and livelihood support in Africa.
  • Publication
    Blue Economy
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-08) Damianova, Adriana; Klimanova, Oxana; Leontev, Sergey; Minasyan, Gayane; Nemova, Vladislava; Pogozheva, Maria; Smetanina, Marina
    The policy note focuses on the well-established coastal- and marine-based sectors, such as recreational tourism and fisheries, that make a significant contribution to the economy of Krasnodar Krai and where challenges and unsustainable patterns could undermine their growth ambitions and translate into missed economic opportunities. It also discusses the critical importance of protecting the coastal and marine ecosystem from marine litter as well as ways to preserve the substantial economic opportunities that could be derived from a healthier coastal and marine space. Information on pollution in the Black Sea that stems from other sources, such as untreated effluents and oil spills, is intentionally limited in order to expand the focus on plastic litter as a global and regional challenge that needs country-specific measures. The World Bank has recently launched the ‘Blueing the Black Sea’ (BBSEA) program aiming to reduce pollution in the Black Sea through a set of complementary activities that include a thorough analysis of the sea’s current contaminants. The BBSEA will support the Black Sea countries in the implementation of the Common Maritime Agenda (CMA) for prioritizing and catalyzing blue economy investments in the Black Sea basin. More specifically, the program aims to strengthen economic, technical, and communication tools to promote regional collaboration and private sector engagement in pollution prevention in the Black Sea. However, the ambition of the BBSEA is to progressively include all the Black Sea countries in this World Bank initiative beyond the initial four, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, through additional resources. For Krasnodar Krai, there are multiple opportunities for learning and knowledge exchange in the technical assistance format of the BBSEA that could help support the implementation of the specific recommendations in this policy note.
  • Publication
    Ghana: A Blue Carbon Readiness Assessment
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-05) World Bank
    Blue Carbon ecosystems, as powerful carbon sinks, can play a vital role in supporting economies, jobs, and livelihoods. For these reasons, the World Bank Group prepared the flagship report Unlocking Blue Carbon Development: Investment Readiness Framework for Governments, which aims to support governments on their pathway towards Blue Carbon readiness and to scale up public and private sector investments in coastal Blue Carbon. Ghana is a country with a high potential for accelerating Blue Carbon action and support, including through carbon finance. It already has experience in carbon finance in general, notably under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, as well as in results-based finance, notably REDD plus. This puts Ghana in the list of countries where the global Blue Carbon Readiness Framework is not a concept but a tested reality. This report, Ghana: A Blue Carbon Readiness Assessment, applies the global Blue Carbon Readiness Framework to help Ghana further tap its Blue Carbon potential by addressing technical, institutional, regulatory, and financial challenges in parallel.
  • Publication
    Beyond the Shoreline - Towards a Blue and Resilient Future for Tunisia
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-24) World Bank
    The Tunisian economy’s challenging past decade has highlighted the pressing need for a sustainable and resilient development model. The nation’s strategic response, encapsulated in Vision Tunisia 2035 and the 2023–2025 National Development Plan, emphasizes a green and blue economy that focuses on sectors such as tourism, fisheries, aquaculture, and maritime transport as key drivers for recovery and long-term sustainability. Environmental threats such as resource overexploitation, coastal erosion, marine submersion, and pollution - in particular plastic pollution pose significant risks to these critical economic sectors, especially when exacerbated by climate change. To address these challenges, proactive investments in sustainable practices within key sectors can enhance Tunisia’s global market competitiveness, reduce fiscal pressures, and foster innovative growth and job opportunities. The World Bank has been critical in supporting Tunisia’s effort to chart the path towards harnessing the potential of the blue economy. Starting with a comprehensive diagnostic in 2021–2022, the collaboration has led to the development of a strategic roadmap focusing on policy and institutional analysis, public expenditure review, exploration of innovative financing, and critical sectoral analyses to unlock the potential of the key sectors while protecting the environment. Extensive stakeholder consultations have shaped the roadmap, which emphasizes sustainable growth, environmental conservation, and resilient coastal communities. The roadmap addresses key sectors through the three pillars of the blue economy development framework: (i) data, analysis, and dissemination; (ii) policy, institutional, and fiscal reforms; and (iii) fostering investment.
  • Publication
    Charting Croatia‘s Blue Economy Pathways
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-11) World Bank
    With an accessible and attractive coastline of untouched natural splendor, Adriatic Croatia is a strategic driver of national economic development. It boasts rich cultural heritage and biodiversity and abundant coastal and marine resources providing the country with high socioeconomic value. A decade of strong growth of maritime tourism has fueled stable economic development in the coastal zone. Despite this progress, Adriatic Croatia faces multiple environmental challenges stemming from anthropogenic pressures and climate change. Negative impacts from over-tourism, urbanization, and pollution underline the urgency of adopting a sustainable maritime economy approach. The demographic decline and the lack of economic diversification could diminish future economic opportunities of Adriatic Croatia to grow sustainably and provide new jobs. The emerging challenges call for close attention in the context of the national development goals, sustainable development commitments and Croatia’s aspiration to achieve blue growth. This report discusses the concept of blue economy while trying to understand and define the impacts of current challenges on the Republic of Croatia’s transition to blue economy.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Mobility and Development Periodical, Fall 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-01) World Bank
    The fourth edition of the Mobility and Development periodical presents nine stories of how countries have evolved transport sector innovations, policy reform, and technical solutions to improve the quality of life. Opening with big data readiness for urban transport in Latin America, the narrative zooms out to present the potential of drones in the region. After unpacking the fiscal risks of the transport sector, experts unpack pressing urban mobility challenges. Dhaka offers an example of how critical governance can help metropolitan transit agencies deliver value. Keeping inclusion in focus, the next article shows how effective public transportation can boost economic opportunities for women in Middle East and North Africa. Moving to the Europe and Central Asia region offers a perspective of how improved roads influence jobs in rural Armenia. Travelling to Pakistan, authors discuss how to accelerate electric mobility adoption. The final article shows how an economic corridor approach to harness lithium could transform Argentina’s northwest.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Business Ready 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03) World Bank
    Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.
  • Publication
    Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03) World Bank
    Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.
  • Publication
    Unlocking Blue Carbon Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-11) World Bank
    The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical framework to guide governments in catalyzing and scaling up public and private investment in Blue Carbon as part of their blue economy development. It does this by describing in detail a Blue Carbon Readiness Framework, a step-by-step, well-illustrated guide with simple checklists. Client countries can use the illustrations and checklists to determine their readiness to catalyze and scale up investment in blue carbon credit finance. The Blue Carbon Readiness Framework consists of three pillars: 1. Data and Analytics; 2. Policy and Institutions; 3. Finance.