Support to develop Blue Economy Development Roadmap in Pakistan Pakistan

World Bank - Project Dates:
February 2021 - December 2022

Description of Project:
The objectives of the consultancy was to support the World Bank Task Team to have a constructive dialogue with the counterparts in Pakistan and the main tasks by the consultant were composed of the following activities, namely (i) to analyze policy and institutional gaps; (ii) to conduct Blue Public Expenditure Review (PER); (iii) to assess monitoring risks to sustainability and ground evidence for decision-making; (iv) based on these analysis and assessment, to support to develop Blue Economy (BE) development roadmap in Pakistan; and (v) to support through the World Bank Task Team to advise the successful implementation of the final and the approved roadmap.

Services Provided:

It is essential that policy and other decision-makers involved in developing and delivering the Blue Economy in Pakistan have the necessary information to undertake their work in a risk-aware and evidence-based way. A well-designed blue economy information system is therefore needed to compile key spatial and quantitative data that will allow decision-makers to manage individual sectors across the blue economy in an integrated and proactive way.

Poseidon staff led Task 3 (of 4), 'the assessment of monitoring of risks to sustainability and grounding evidence for decision-making'. A Poseidon Director specialising in integrated coastal management and a Poseidon associate specialising in information systems development designed an information system to detect, monitor and where necessary flag risks to the sustainable development of a highly connected mixture of blue economy sectors. The scope of this reflected the tripartite focus of sustainability e.g. the environment, social and economic elements. The goal was to ensure that (i) the nature and interactions of all the blue economy sectors in Pakistan were well understood; and (ii) that key sustainability risk indicators that reflect this dynamic relationship were identified and provided the core of the information system design.

As required by the ToR there was a spatial element to the system e.g. mapping of the extent and intensity of blue economy activities in Pakistan’s EEZ and coastal zone as well as a temporal element that both anticipates change through forecasts and monitors change as it unfolds.