Indian Ocean Commission draws on SAFESEAS results in High Level meeting

At the recent high-level conference on maritime security in the Western Indian Ocean region, a representative of the Indian Ocean Commission highlighted the importance of the SafeSeas Best Practice Toolkit. As he argued the toolkit provides an important lesson for countries of the region, namely that they have to carefully plan and steer capacity building … Read more

SafeSeas presents best practices at Pacific Island Forum workshop

The Pacific Islands are seeking to strengthen their regional collaboration in maritime security and are in the process of negotiating a new agreement — the so-called Biketawa plus agreement. To discuss how information sharing and maritime domain awareness will feature in the agreement the Pacific Island Forum is holding a three-day workshop in the Solomon … Read more

United Nations Special Envoy opens SafeSeas Symposium

The Special Envoy for the Oceans of the United Nations Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson, formally opened the SafeSeas Symposium on Capacity Building for Maritime Security on the 2nd of March. The goal of the high-level symposium is to rethink the strategy and methods of capacity building in the Western Indian Ocean region.

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SafeSeas publishes Best Practice Toolkit

SafeSeas is pleased to announce the publication of the Best Practice Toolkit entitled Mastering Maritime Security: Reflexive Capacity Building and the western Indian Ocean Experience. The report presents the core results of the SafeSeas project drawing on 16 months of research and work with a wide range of partners from the Western Indian Ocean region. The … Read more

Best Practices: Integrating blue economy work

Maritime security, the blue economy and ocean health depend on each other (see box). Resource constraints demand that these sectors are closely coordinated and that efforts are not duplicated. Fishery services and environmental agencies hold information generated from their monitoring activities that is relevant to maritime security. Regulation of offshore resource exploitation, monitoring of fisheries and environmental protection require law enforcement at sea. Successful maritime security policies require the integration of the blue economy and ocean health.

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Best Practices: Identifying Points of Contact

For donors and implementers of regional organisations it is often difficult to reach out to recipient countries. They struggle to identify the right individual or organisation to speak to or invite as a representative to a coordination meeting. The result can be that a government is weakly represented at international events, or that information about opportunities arising are not adequately transmitted within the government.

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Best Practices: Maritime Security Strategies

For many countries, maritime security strategies and plans are a useful coordination device. Such strategies provide overall direction and guidelines; they map agencies and accountability relations and describe maritime security governance structures and the roles and responsibilities of each agency. Often, as in the case of the EU Maritime Security Strategy or the Seychelles Maritime Plan (see box), they are accompanied by detailed plans of action and investment strategies.

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Best Practices: The ‘tool-box’ of capacity building

Capacity building can only be defined very broadly; the measures it should include are debated, if not contested. Different methods of delivery belong in the tool-box and it is important to note their different strengths and weaknesses. The SAFE SEAS Best Practice Toolkit explores the strengths of different methods of delivery.

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