By Nirmal Jivan Shah
UNEP’s new report, Transitioning to a Sustainable Blue Economy: A Practical Framework, arrives in a field already well supplied with policy guidance. African governments can consult the African Union’s Africa Blue Economy Strategy and UNECA’s Africa’s Blue Economy: A Policy Handbook, while IUCN has developed principles for a Regenerative Blue Economy. Seychelles adopted its own Blue Economy Strategic Policy Framework and Roadmap in 2018. For officials, the question is what another framework adds.
A comparison reveals considerable agreement about the relationship between ocean industries and the ecosystems on which they depend. Each framework addresses the environmental consequences of economic activity and who benefits from it, although the emphasis varies. They also recognise that governments need institutions capable of applying policy, finance suited to their priorities and evidence with which to judge results.
Where the frameworks agree
UNEP’s 2026 framework sets out four goals: protecting and restoring healthy ecosystems, promoting equity and inclusion, strengthening climate resilience and stability, and reducing pollution and waste through circular-economy approaches. Its implementation guidance covers policy coordination and stakeholder participation, alongside financing and tools such as spatial planning. Monitoring is part of the process, to assess results.
UNECA’s 2016 handbook had already placed aquatic ecosystem management within a wider discussion of social inclusion and climate change. It examined the institutions and legislation needed to support that work, encouraging countries to incorporate the Blue Economy into national development planning.
The African Union’s 2019 strategy is organised around economic activities, ranging from fisheries and aquaculture to shipping, tourism, energy and mineral resources. It asks member states to develop national strategies that make these activities compatible with sustainable management and social benefit. IUCN gives ecosystem restoration greater prominence in its regenerative approach, which also addresses equity and transparent governance. Decarbonisation and circularity form part of its principles, endorsed by the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2025.
These differences affect how a government might use each document. The African Union’s sectoral approach helps frame discussions about particular industries, while IUCN asks how economic activity can contribute to ecological recovery. Across the frameworks, however, the health of marine ecosystems remains inseparable from decisions about their use. Economic performance alone is an inadequate measure of progress when environmental costs or unequal access to benefits go unexamined.
Seychelles reviews its Roadmap
Seychelles’ Roadmap runs to 2030, making its record of implementation directly relevant to this comparison. In October 2026, the United Nations and the Seychelles Blue Economy Department advertised for a national consultant to collect and analyse data for a review. The assignment includes assessing progress against the Roadmap’s objectives, indicators and targets, and identifying lessons for the next phase.
The review follows the Government’s decision to re-establish the Blue Economy Council to strengthen strategic leadership and coordination. Seychelles has pursued marine spatial planning, blue finance and fisheries reform under the Blue Economy banner; examining how these initiatives relate to the Roadmap would help establish whether it has guided government decisions consistently. A record of projects and their achievements would leave that question only partly answered.
The assessment should trace how the Roadmap has influenced particular decisions, including the allocation of investment and the handling of competing uses of the ocean. It should also examine what happened when responsibilities crossed departmental boundaries. Such findings would identify where coordination worked and where changes are needed, informing the Council’s next steps.
Putting the guidance to work
UNEP’s framework provides questions that could sharpen this review. How were environmental costs considered when investments were approved? Who participated in decisions, and how were their concerns addressed? The assessment should examine whether monitoring findings led to changes in management, using examples. These enquiries would make the comparison with international guidance useful to the officials responsible for implementation.
The review’s recommendations should specify which department is responsible for each action and the budget required, with deadlines and a means of reporting progress. Seychelles can then judge where UNEP’s guidance helps address an identified weakness in its Roadmap. That would give the Blue Economy Council a practical agenda for the remaining years to 2030, grounded in the country’s experience.
References
African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (2019). Africa Blue Economy Strategy. https://repository.au-ibar.org/items/b9922a24-c797-4e7b-a538-eed7aca06be5
International Union for Conservation of Nature (2024). Towards a Regenerative Blue Economy. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2024-005-En.pdf
International Union for Conservation of Nature (2025). Resolution 8.030: Definition and principles of the regenerative Blue Economy. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/resrecfiles/WCC_2025_RES_030_EN.pdf
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2016). Africa’s Blue Economy: A Policy Handbook. https://archive.uneca.org/publications/africas-blue-economy-policy-handbook
United Nations Environment Programme (2026). Transitioning to a Sustainable Blue Economy: A Practical Framework. https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/49653
Schutter, M. S. et al. (2022). “Good governance for sustainable blue economy in small islands: Lessons learned from the Seychelles experience.” Frontiers in Political Science. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/political-science/articles/10.3389/fpos.2022.1040318/full