At Blue Ocean International, we believe that strategic partnerships are the backbone of a thriving Blue Economy. Complex challenges—ranging from climate change to sustainable infrastructure and marine innovation—cannot be tackled in silos. They demand cross-sector, cross-border, and cross-continental collaboration.

That’s why we offer a dedicated Strategic Partnerships service that supports the identification, facilitation, and management of impactful alliances between stakeholders across the African and European coastal and marine space, as well as among actors within Africa.

Our goal is to move beyond symbolic partnerships and create dynamic, action-oriented ecosystems that generate tangible results and long-term value for communities, businesses, and the environment.

Our Services Include:

• Stakeholder Mapping and Engagement : We conduct targeted mapping of potential partners across public institutions, private enterprises, academia, civil society, and international development actors. We design engagement strategies that align complementary strengths, interests, and shared objectives.
• Matchmaking and Alliance Facilitation : Through curated events, bilateral meetings, and structured matchmaking platforms, we connect African and European stakeholders (and intra-African actors) who share a commitment to sustainable development in the Blue Economy. We foster South–North and South–South partnerships built on mutual benefit and shared accountability.

Partnership Design and Structuring: We help partners co-create frameworks for collaboration, including Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), joint venture models, and consortia for funding proposals. Our focus is on clarity of roles, equitable governance, and measurable impact.

• Support for Multi-Stakeholder Platforms and Blue Economy Clusters: We help establish and coordinate regional platforms and thematic clusters (e.g. blue tech, green ports, coastal tourism, marine biodiversity) to encourage innovation, policy dialogue, and joint investment.
• Capacity Building for Partnership Management: We deliver training and advisory services to help organizations build internal capacities to initiate, negotiate, and sustain effective partnerships over time—especially in contexts where institutional capacity may be limited.
• Funding Consortia and Joint Proposal Development: We bring together multiple actors to respond to funding calls from European, African, and global development agencies (e.g. Team Europe Initiatives, Green Climate Fund, AfDB, Horizon Europe), offering technical support for proposal preparation, budgeting, and coordination mechanisms.
• Monitoring, Learning, and Adaptive Partnership Strategy : We support partners with tools and guidance to track progress, evaluate partnership performance, and adapt strategies based on lessons learned and evolving priorities.

By forging meaningful collaborations between African and European actors—and strengthening intra-African cooperation—Blue Ocean International is catalyzing a new generation of partnerships that are inclusive, nature-positive, and future-ready.

Our mission is not just to connect actors, but to empower ecosystems that transform the Blue Economy into a driver of climate action, sustainable prosperity, and maritime innovation across our shared ocean spaces.