Beyond the promotion of basic infrastructure in support of economic development and regional integration, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has listed as a priority area for the period 2025-2030 the support of Algeria for the acceleration of the structural transformation of the economy.
And this, through the implementation of economic reforms and the creation of agro-industrial value chains. This last component includes the development of the blue economy to allow the country to take advantage of its wealth. Agro-industrial value chains include the fishing sector. But also the fight against the effects of climate change, knowing that the accentuation of the phenomenon combined with overfishing weighs heavily on the sector’s incomes.
Not only in Algeria, but in all the countries of North Africa that border the Mediterranean where the resources of the blue economy represent a total of 47 billion dollars, according to the AfDB, as pointed out in December by representatives of the Bank’s Department of Climate Change and Green Economy during a workshop organized in Tunis on the management of marine resources in the Mediterranean by the Africa 21 association. With the multiplication of climatic extremes and the increase in overfishing in the region, marine areas are seriously threatened, and resources are at risk of falling more and more.
Hence the urgency of coordinating actions, developing regional cooperation and increasing funding for the blue economy and the fight against climate change. Moreover, at the end of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Seville last summer, an appeal was launched to triple the funding of multilateral development banks by 2035 for the benefit of the ecological transition and the Sustainable Development Goals.
« Climate financing »
This is especially since official development assistance fell by 9% in 2024 and by 17% in 2025. This aid could still fall. This would increase the global sustainable financing deficit currently estimated at $4 trillion, while the deficit for structural transformation is $412 billion, according to the AfDB. In North Africa, it is nearly $105 billion. « The Bank has a strong commitment to climate financing with 40% of the total funding allocated to the climate, » recalled the AfDB experts. For the period 2020-2025, the AfDB had set itself the goal of mobilizing $25 billion for North Africa (including $19.5 billion reached in 2024).
But private investments linked to the blue economy remain insufficient in the blue economy. This underscores the need, according to the AfDB, to accelerate the structural transformation of the maritime sector and to ensure integrated management of coastal resources.
In this wake, Algeria, which obtained total financing from the AfDB of nearly $620 million between 2010 and 2024, received support in 2020 from the national blue economy investment plan. Further actions are expected in accordance with the program decided for the period 2025-2030.
source : elwatan.dz
