The Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) today met with the Head of the Delegation of Ghana to ISA and Coordinator of the African Group Mr. Solomon Korbieh, and Mr. Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, Head of the Delegation of Norway, to present the latest outcomes of the Africa Deep Seabed Resources (ADSR) project – a joint initiative between ISA, the African Union and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
To date, two workshops have been held in Abidjan and Pretoria under the ADSR project, which is part of the Voluntary Commitment registered by ISA and the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) at the 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference to support the sustainable development of Africa’s Blue Economy (#OceanAction16374). The voluntary commitment is led by ISA and implemented in partnership with the African Union to which the AMDC is now attached, in close cooperation with all African States and competent regional organizations.
“I wish to extend my gratitude to the Government of Norway, who has joined as a partner, for its generous financial contribution to the project,” said Mr. Lodge. “The first two ADSR workshops have been an important step towards strengthening the engagement of African States in the activities undertaken in the international seabed area, and the results have provided clear recommendations that the Authority can take into consideration when readjusting its capacity-building and training programmes.”
Mr. Lodge underlined that more workshops will be held, under the auspices of ISA, to ensure that the Voluntary Commitment will contribute to the regional and national development objectives set out by ISA Members, especially in the context of the African Decade of Seas and Oceans and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Held on the side-lines of the 1st Part of the 26th Session of the ISA Council in Kingston, the meeting also provided an opportunity for the Secretary-General to introduce the first of the ten ADSR African experts currently deployed with the ISA Secretariat Ms. Judith Owusu, Geochemist at Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and Ms. Tini Guitoba, Legal Assistant at the Directorate of Maritime Affairs, Togo.
The aim of the deployments is to build on existing capacity-building initiatives to provide national experts with technical skills on deep-seabed related matters, and enable the ISA Secretariat to benefit from the contribution of experts to advance specific tasks identified in partnership with the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC).
For more information on the ADSR project visit: https://www.isa.org.jm/isa-voluntary-commitments
Media enquiries:
Katie Elles, Communications Specialist, International Seabed Authority, M: +1 876 835 3801 / E: kelles@isa.org.j