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Abstract

The Ocean Decade is especially opportune for Africa as its coastal and ocean waters are increasingly gaining importance as a potential source of economic growth and employment. With over 30,000 km of coastline and over 1.5 million km2 of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), African countries are highly dependent on the ocean.The Ocean Decade Africa Roadmap provides a vision and plan for diverse stakeholders to convene around a common set of priorities for the implementation of the Ocean Decade in Africa. It provides a coordinated framework for ocean science planning and uptake, and is a foundation to monitor the achievement of priorities and outcomes. In the long term, the Roadmap will be used to establish and clarify institutions’ ocean science strategies and to help in the prioritization of investments in scientific infrastructure, such as observations, monitoring, and data management. A set of nine priority future Decade Actions lie at the heart of the Ocean Decade Africa Roadmap. With the support and engagement of diverse actors from the region, it is envisaged that these are developed into Decade programs and projects through a process of co-design and co-delivery in coming years, to ensure capacity development across the continent.