Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience |  University of Cape Coast

Dr. Noble Asare, the sectoral liaison officer of the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR), and a senior lecturer at the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Science, University of Cape Coast, has been officially invited to become a permanent member of the Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Ocean Governance. This invitation comes after the establishment of an innovative Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Ocean Governance. The new initiative, announced on November 17 at COP27 in Egypt and builds on the outcomes of the 2022 Africa Union-European Union Summit, the latest UN Ocean Conference, and COP27, will be led by the Africa-Europe Foundation, with the support of the European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and in partnership with the African Union Commission Directorate for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment.

The Strategy Group which is Co-chaired by Amb. Nancy Karigithu and Pascal Lamy, is a dialogue platform mandated by the two institutions to strengthen the understanding and cooperation capacities of Africa and Europe, by forging a joint exchange and learning platform and creating a mutually beneficial vision for the two continents on ocean governance, including blue economy.

This group will be composed of diverse experts from Africa and Europe from civil society, international organisations, business, and policy-making institutions, whilst also respecting a geographical and gender balance, is scheduled to run for an initial period of 18 months. The full Strategy Group will convene virtually on a trimestral basis as of 2023, and more regularly in working group settings.

The Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) will facilitate this multi-stakeholder dialogue platform to drive reflexion and offer fresh impetus to the Africa-Europe ocean partnership. The purpose of the Group will be to jointly identify common priorities, objectives, and key thematic workstreams, and to define a plan of action so that the priorities and objectives are translated into concrete proposals and initiatives.

The Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Ocean Governance and Blue Economy, to be run under the co-patronage of the European Union and African Union will represent a central platform to achieve the objectives listed below:

1) Building a commonality of purpose and addressing diverging and converging perspectives and approaches across priority domains of partnership;

2) Opening the Africa-Europe Partnership to new and diverse actors, building an inclusive network of networks (civil society, business, policymaking, academia, and the youth sector);

3) Offering space for fresh policy thinking, and strategic foresight, through a permanent forum operating at arm’s length from the institutional architecture of AU-EU cooperation, and not restricted to medium-term programming cycles;

4) Acting as an incubator for scaling up innovative practice, leveraging investment, catalysing pilot projects, and accelerating joint partnership action from diverse stakeholders;

5) Reinforcing the Africa-EU partnership in practice within the international arena, building a far-reaching coalition of partners.

As we move towards 2030, there is an important window of opportunity to reinforce strategic cooperation on the ocean at a cross-continental and global level, address contested issues, and ensure the theme of ocean builds a strong platform for learning about economic opportunities, enhanced quality of life for the populations concerned, environmental preservation, and resilience to climate change.

Congratulations Dr. Noble Asare! We wish you the very best.