The marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) comprises 40 percent of the earth’s surface, it covers 64 percent of the surface of the ocean and 95 percent of its volume. The Common Oceans ABNJ Program (2014-2019) was implemented by FAO as a concerted effort to bring various stakeholders to work together to manage and conserve the world’s common oceans. The Program catalysed important transformational changes and practices in governance, and operational aspects of fisheries and their impact on biodiversity. There is encouraging evidence that these are being mainstreamed by key institutional actors and early trends of positive impact point to improvement in fish stocks health and in bycatch mitigation, starting by the quality and quantity of the information available. However, the Program lacked a proper programmatic approach and missed opportunities to foster synergies among projects and capitalize on knowledge management.

The marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) comprise 40 percent of the earth’s surface, covering 64 percent of the surface of the ocean and 95 percent of its volume. The Common Oceans ABNJ Programme (2014-2019) was implemented by FAO as a concerted effort to bring stakeholders to work together to manage and conserve the world’s common oceans. The ABNJ Tuna project, one component of the Common Oceans ABNJ Programme, promoted important transformational changes in the management practices of tuna fisheries, improving their sustainability, strengthening Marine Stewardship Council capabilities of tuna regional fisheries management organizations (t-RFMOs) and their members, and significantly reducing their impact on biodiversity. The project generated knowledge but lacked a structured mechanism and strategy to harvest and disseminate it. Similarly to the programme level evaluation report, the programmatic approach component, the partnership framework, as well as how to foster synergies among projects and capitalization of knowledge management should be strengthened.

The marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) comprises 40 percent of the earth’s surface, it covers 64 percent of the surface of the ocean and 95 percent of its volume. The Common Oceans ABNJ Program (2014-2019) was implemented by FAO as a concerted effort to bring various stakeholders to work together to manage and conserve the world’s common oceans. The project “Strengthening global capacity to effectively manage ABNJ”, one component of the Common Oceans ABNJ Program, addressed cross-sectoral coordination and dialogue among the separate ongoing processes - a key gap that limited effective ecosystem-based management of ABNJ. The project supported participation and knowledge sharing amongst decision makers in cross-sectoral governance of ABNJ. Limitations to the project design, budget and accountability should be addressed to foster corrective action for phase two of the ABNJ Program.

This report is a synthesis of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Office of Evaluation (OED) on evaluations completed from 2019 to 2021 on FAO’s work in the Africa region. It documents FAO’s contribution to results, identifies gaps and emerging issues and lessons learned. The synthesis is organized around the themes of sustainable production and value chain development, food security and nutrition, climate change and natural resources, resilience to threats and crises, and gender equality and empowerment of women. The synthesis used the Programme Priority Areas of the Strategic Framework 2022–2031 to analyse FAO’s contribution to results, finding many positive examples in the Africa region. However, the sustainability of results is a challenge for the region, due to several factors, including capacity constraints of government partners and limitations of FAO project designs. Gaps and emerging issues include the need for guidance on ‘accelerators’ of results, addressing youth as a key priority and new approaches to partnerships with civil society and the private sector. Lessons learned include the importance of good project design, suitably capacitated decentralized offices, effective knowledge management and strategic and inclusive partnerships to achieve results.

The marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) comprises 40 percent of the earth’s surface, it covers 64 percent of the surface of the ocean and 95 percent of its volume. The Common Oceans ABNJ Program (2014-2019) was implemented by FAO as a concerted effort to bring various stakeholders to work together to manage and conserve the world’s common oceans. The ABNJ Deep-Sea project, one component of the Common Oceans ABNJ Program, was of great assistance to newly-formed regional fisheries management organization and arrangements (RFMO/As), as well as some long-standing regional fisheries. The project showed positive results in safeguarding vulnerable marine ecosystems, strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, mitigating bycatch mortality trends, and building awareness of cross-sectoral aspects in effective governance of ABNJ. Through its cooperation with RFMOs, the project has, to some extent, contributed to minimize the negative impacts of bycatch. Results achieved should be capitalized on and upscaled in a second phase.

This step-wise guide aims to assist with the implementation of relevant international instruments pertaining to deep-sea fisheries and biodiversity conservation in areas beyond national jurisdiction, especially the high seas, into national policy and law. This guide focuses on the incorporation and transposition of international rules, standards, and recommended practices and procedures into national policy and law. It addresses the key measures for making international obligations effective at the national level and suggests possible options for integrating those measures into the national legal framework. Legislative examples are also provided to illustrate how certain provisions have been incorporated into primary or secondary legislation. The guide first addresses the establishment of a national policy, followed by a description and analysis of essential legislative provisions regarding deep-sea fisheries and the conservation of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This guide is thus relevant to policy-makers, parliamentary draftpersons, and parliamentarians.

This report explores the growth prospects for the ocean economy, its capacity for future employment creation and innovation, and its role in addressing global challenges. Special attention is devoted to the emerging ocean-based industries.