A sustainable ocean economy can deliver gains across multiple priorities – from economic development to climate action and biodiversity conservation. When healthy, the ocean supports the livelihood of coastal communities, regulates the climate and houses rich marine biodiversity. It is an essential piece of the sustainable development puzzle, as codified by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Goal 14 (“Life below water”). Recent milestones in the growing international co-operation efforts towards a sustainable ocean economy include the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework, the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity in areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), as well as the progress towards a global plastics treaty and the lead up to the Third United Nations Ocean Conference in 2025.
For developing countries, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS), harnessing the ocean for sustainable and resilient development means seizing an increasing array of economic opportunities, made apparent by the rapid growth of the ocean economy, while managing escalating risks such as sea-level rise and marine pollution. Very often, however, limited resources in terms of finance, technology and individual and organisational capacities stand in the way.
Development co-operation has a critical role to play in helping those countries alleviate these obstacles, as acknowledged by the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) Declaration on a New Approach to Align Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. However, ocean-related official development assistance (ODA) is limited (roughly 1% of global ODA), concentrated and not entirely sustainable. To redress these trends, and as a part of the programme of work of the DAC Network on Environment and Development Co-operation, this report aims to guide development co-operation providers in enhancing their support for sustainable ocean economies. It takes a holistic, cross-sectoral view and highlights a range of issues where development co-operation might play a role, recognising that effective development efforts are demand-driven and partner country-owned.
To prepare this guidance, the OECD held four plenary meetings (October 2023, December 2023, March 2024 and September 2024) with representatives from development co-operation providers, developing countries, multilateral development banks, international organisations, academia, the private sector and civil society. It also held consultations at several international events, including the Ocean Innovation Africa Summit, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, and the 4th International Conference on Financing for Sustainable Development. Together with a public survey carried out in 2023-4, these plenary meetings and consultations provided a platform for sharing good practices and lessons learned, shaping the scope and structure of the guidance.
After synthesising the main challenges for ocean-related development co-operation (Chapter 1), this document presents recommendations across several areas. Chapter 2 provides guidance on what a sustainable ocean economy constitutes – outlining the goals that development co-operation could promote. Achieving these goals requires navigating trade-offs and potential synergies and calls for policy and institutional frameworks conducive to integrated ocean management. Such frameworks can also guide development co-operation efforts and operate as a starting point for development partners, which is the focus of Chapter 3. Akin to sustainable development generally, financing and capacity constraints impede developing countries’ ability to transition to a sustainable ocean economy. Chapters 4 and 5 present recommendations on how development co-operation can address these two issues. Finally, the global “rules of the game” (e.g. international governance systems, global financial architecture) dictate the broader context in which development co-operation occurs. The transnational nature of the ocean as a resource makes it essential to promote coherence across these global arrangements. The recommendations in Chapter 6 address this specific challenge.