Africa Should Wake up to the Importance of an Integrated Maritime Strategy
Africa’s maritime legislation, governance, structures and capabilities are misaligned with the challenges it poses. The AU needs to assume leadership to ensure that implementation of its proposed integrated maritime strategy promotes the peaceful use of its seas and oceans.
Annette
Leijenaar,
Division
Head Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, ISS Pretoria
There is an
urgent need for African leaders to operationalise their maritime strategies
through orchestrated implementation plans to ensure sustainable development and
competitiveness in the Africa Maritime Domain (AMD). Despite numerous documents
and strategies, including the draft African Union (AU) Africa Integrated
Maritime (AIM) strategy, considered last week in Addis Ababa, Africa appears blind to the maritime
domain’s importance to its development. More often than not it leaves others to
profit from its vast adjoining oceans and rich resources. Stronger leadership
from the AU, more investment in research, science and technology, and real
commitment from African countries are needed for us to go beyond the mere adoption
of resolutions and policies.
Strategically
located between emerging Asia to the east and developing South America to the west,
the continent is dependent upon ship-borne cargo while millions of Africans
depend upon fishing for daily sustenance. Altogether, 38 of Africa’s 54 countries
are either coastal or island states with a coastal line of 26 000 nautical
miles. The continent boasts more than 100 ports, of which 52 handle containers
and numerous forms of cargo. Despite this, no single port in Africa ranks among
the 70 most productive in the world and many, such as Mombasa, operate at
below-optimal capacity.
Like the
rest of the world, more than 90% of Africa’s imports and exports are carried by
sea. If one includes the illegal market in military arms and logged forest
products, Africa has a maritime economy estimated at US$1 trillion a year,
representing 90% of its overall commerce. However, African-owned ships account
for less than 1,2% of the world’s shipping and only 9% by gross tonnage.
The consequences of this lack of attention are
astounding. Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is estimated to cost
sub-Saharan Africa approximately US$1 billion a year; Somalia-based piracy came
at a price of between US$6,6 and US$6,9 billion in 2011. This is more than 110%
of the Somali annual GDP. And it is estimated that 50-60 tons of cocaine move
through West Africa to Europe every year, much of it moved by sea from places
such as Colombia. In addition billions worth of maritime oil is stolen from and
thousands of litres of hazardous waste material is illegally dumped in African
oceans and seas.
Clearly African states have not achieved the
expectations that came with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(LOSC) after the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) of
1970. The LOSC came in force in 1994 and its preamble states that it will ‘promote
the peaceful uses of the seas and oceans’ and contribute to the ‘realization of
a just and equitable international economic order’. This is not due to the
absence of grand plans and lots of hot air. The list of policy efforts is a
long one, including the Maritime Transport Charter and Plan of Action that was adopted
by AU maritime transport ministers in 2009; the draft AIM strategy discussed in
Addis Ababa from 1 to 3 October; the Djibouti Code of Conduct that came into
effect after the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) initiative in 2009
to deal with piracy; the SADC Maritime Security Strategy of 2011; the ECCAS
Maritime Safety and Security Strategy of 2008; the Maritime Organisation of West and Central
Africa (MOWCA) agreements to enhance safety and maritime
security in the eastern Atlantic Ocean; and the integrated maritime strategy
currently under preparation for ECOWAS. Africa remains the continent that
suffers most from illegal and unregulated fishing, maritime terrorism, piracy
and armed robbery at sea, poor legal and regulatory maritime regimes, illegal
drugs, arms and human trafficking, a lack of effective communication and other
technological maritime requirements, and last but not least, unsuitable ships
and ports.
The LOSC provides broad principles and guidelines,
whereas national, regional and continental legislation is required to exercise
the rights of the LOSC. Many African countries have not developed the judicial
frameworks for the implementation of its provisions. The majority of African
countries are unable to pursue ocean governance measures due to a lack of ocean
policies. Due to resource limitations, such as the lack of maritime air
surveillance and satellite imagery, it is also impossible for African countries
to monitor the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles.
Clearly Africa’s maritime security structures are
misaligned with the challenges posed and our capabilities poorly match the
requirements, as these often reflect a mix of design and suitability based on the
international purchases and donations on which Africa remains dependent. Only
five countries in Africa have navies that are defined as coast guards. Maritime
security and policing management is an inter-departmental/agency function that
is extremely difficult to coordinate and achieve. Among others it requires good
governance, an industrial infrastructure, technological competence, effective information
sharing mechanisms and political commitment. Few African countries, if any,
meet these requirements.
What is required then to ensure that Africa will constructively
‘promote the peaceful use of the seas and oceans’ that surround it, to the
optimal benefit of its people? The first is leadership. Our oceans do not
respect man-made borders and the solution to the monitoring and implementation
of effective responses to these challenges must necessarily start at the
regional level. Hence the AU needs to assume leadership and give organisational
effect by establishing a unit with dedicated leadership to drive its proposed
integrated maritime strategy and allocate specialised resources. The key
requirements here are coordination, collaboration, information sharing and capacity
building to increase maritime wealth creation for Africa.
What we need is effective maritime legislation, the
establishment of a combined exclusive maritime zone, good governance, education
and training, ports and harbour management, maritime scientific research, inclusion
of the private sector in developments, risk management, maritime defence and
security, tourism, establishment of regional maritime early warning centres,
common fisheries policies and a naval component within the ASF. To achieve this
the AU will need to ensure the support of the United Nations, the European
Union, NATO, the IMO, the World Bank, international non-governmental
organisations, regional economic communities and academic institutions, as well
as private companies such as Maersk that have a vested interest in the
successful management of the AMD.
What should the next step be? The first is simply gathering
information, because very little is really known of what is going on in African
waters and the information that is available is dispersed among various
agencies, donors, NGOs and national governments. In this regard Africa and its
international partners should focus their efforts on the establishment of
maritime information and research centres and invest in academic institutions
that can provide critical analytical input. At the same time a truly massive
effort is required to educate and create an awareness of the extent to which
ours is a maritime continent, dependent upon shared care of the surrounding
oceans that feed us, allow us to transport our goods and provide pleasure and
sustenance.
As former South African
president Nelson Mandela said in an address in Cape Town in 1998, ‘Africa’s long and beautiful coasts and the
abundance of marine resources can contribute to providing economic, food and
environmental security for the continent. These coastal and marine resources,
like the rest of Africa’s environmental resources, continue to be exploited in
a manner that does not benefit Africa and her people. This is a paradox of a
people dying from hunger, starvation and poverty when they are potentially so
rich and well endowed.’