A half day workshop was jointly organized by the African Union Commission and the Global Ocean Commission on 15th September 2014, to reflect on the findings of the commission’s report, on the African Union’s agenda 2063 blue economy and African integrated maritime strategy 2050.

The workshops aimed to draw attention on Africa’s response to the report of the global ocean commission, following the launch of the Global Ocean Commission final report on 24th June 2014 in New York.

In his welcoming address on behalf of H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E Dr. Anthony Mothae Maruping, Commissioner Economic Affairs, recalled the importance of the 2050 - Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050 (2050-AIM Strategy), adopted by the January 2014 Summit of the AU, which seeks to address the geostrategic and geopolitical issues and challenges faced by the maritime sector of the African continent.

He presented the program of the different issues to be discussed and the meeting objectives of the workshop. These include: the findings of the Global Ocean Commission Report; The African Union’s Agenda 2063, the Blue Economy and African integrated Maritime Strategy 2050: Forging Global Partnership toward Comment Objectives; Unlocking the full potential of African Ocean for global commerce, maritime affairs and international Security; Economic and social rationale for establishment of a Pan African Blue Ocean Institute; Collaborating for achieving greater synergies between the Global Ocean Commission and the three Pan African institutions (AfDB, the AUC and the UNECA) among others.

In his closing remarks the Executive Secretary of the Global Ocean Commission Mr. Simon Reddy, expressed the necessity of mapping the road ahead to promote the sustainable use of Africa’s ocean for the benefit of both current and future generations of Africans.