Launched at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF) Monaco, a Special Event preceding the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) 2025, Phase 1 of the Blue Economies for Coastal Resilience (BEFCR) Programme is a pioneering initiative by the MENA Oceans Initiative by Goumbook, in strategic partnership with Earthna – Qatar Foundation.
The programme is a first-of-its-kind effort in the MENA region and beyond, and was kicked off with a two-day Regional Workshop hosted by Earthna – Qatar Foundation in Doha, Qatar, on November 12 and 13.
Bringing together more than 40 leading regional and global stakeholders from ocean governance, policy, finance, infrastructure, ecosystem management, and innovation, the workshop laid the foundations for Phase 1: A Regional Outlook Review for MENA.
Strengthening Coastal Resilience: A Regenerative Vision for MENA
At the convergence of rapid development and climate pressures, coastal cities across the MENA region face unprecedented ecological and socio‑economic challenges including rising sea levels, biodiversity loss, infrastructure vulnerability, and financing gaps.
The BEFCR programme aims to shape a regenerative vision for the region’s blue economies, connecting science, policy, and industry insights into actionable pathways for transformation and setting benchmarks for coastal cities worldwide.
Phase 1 will undertake the first strategic assessment of the impact of climate change on the blue economy. Through a comprehensive landscape analysis and regional outlook review, it will identify the opportunities that six key sectors hold to drive coastal, ecosystem, and infrastructure regeneration.
Emerging Insights: A Shared Framework for Blue Economy Transformation
As the programme’s first milestone, the workshop set out to gather inputs from subject matter experts across two days of plenaries, roundtables, and sectoral breakout sessions, laying the foundational vision and technical framework for the BEFCR Outlook Report.
Participants agreed on the key objectives of the programme: restoring and protecting marine and coastal ecosystems, embedding nature-positive innovation, and linking economic growth to long-term ecological health and social benefits for coastal communities.
The discussions advanced a clear, principle-based framework that distinguishes regenerative blue economy goals from traditional sustainability approaches, while recognising the region’s ecological diversity, policy realities, and cultural context. Experts identified the priority sectors with the greatest transformative potential for MENA: Offshore Energy, Shipping and Ports, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Desalination and Water, Coastal Tourism, and Coastal Real Estate Development. The workshop also highlighted early insights into sectoral readiness and priority areas, revealing opportunities for targeted interventions.
Establishing measurable performance indicators, integrating social, ecological, and economic dimensions, ensuring transparency and comparability across countries and sectors, and engaging coastal communities emerged as central to making the diagnostic framework credible and actionable in ensuing phases.
Ahead of detailed sector analysis and baselining over the coming months, the Workshop reaffirmed BEFCR’s role not only as a timely diagnostic exercise, but as a platform to foster shared understanding, align regional ambitions, and bring stakeholders together for collaborative knowledge production in support of resilient, inclusive, and nature-positive coastal development.