Southern Africa’s Blue Economy: Regional Cooperation for Sustained Development

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.

Donald L Sparks, PhD, is Director of the Distinguished Scholars Program and Emeritus Professor of International Economics at the Citadel (Charleston, South Carolina) and Visiting Professor of International Economics at the Management Center Innsbruck (Austria). He served as a staff assistant to US Senator Ernest Hollings and later senior economist for the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium where he directed their Indian Ocean Initiative. Prior to that he was the regional economist for Africa in the US Department of State’s Office of Economic Analysis. He has received Fulbright awards at SOAS University of London, the National University of Laos, the University of Maribor in Slovenia, the University of Swaziland (now Eswatini), and at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also chaired the Economics Department at the American University in Cairo for a year. Dr Sparks has published widely, including authoring the ’Economic Trends’ chapter in Africa South of the Sahara (Routledge, annual) for each edition for the past 35 years. He has written extensively on blue economy issues in the western Indian Ocean, and edited the 2021 volume for Routledge, The Blue Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Working for a Sustainable Future.