“The Launching of Blue Financing Strategic Document and the Signing Financing Agreement between the Government of The Republic of Indonesia and UNDP”
Wednesday, 12 October 2022
As the largest archipelagic state, Indonesia is committed to encouraging and promoting collaboration between archipelagic and island states. In 2017 during the 1st United Nations Ocean Conference in New York, Indonesia initiated the Archipelagic and Island States Forum (AIS Forum). This forum is an innovative vehicle for effectively addressing climate change and marine issues, which aligns with SDG 14: conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. It was designed as an open-ended, complementary, integrated, and inclusive developmental forum for islands and archipelago
states regardless of their location, size, and level of development.
During the previous three years (2019-2021), the Forum has managed to serve its participating countries by creating a space for inclusive dialogue and allowing them to exchange practical experiences as well as implementing tangible and innovation-based programs. Through the secretariat, the AIS Forum has achieved remarkable results by conducting more than 70 knowledge-sharing sessions, training, and technical assistance, providing scholarships, joint research grants, developing innovative financing, and IoT mobile applications. The Forum has also engaged with more than 1000 start-ups, youth/local communities, NGOs, and private sectors.
Long-term projects that will become the key strategic points to advancing sustainable development goals through accountable institutions have become critical in strengthening support and commitment to the AIS Forum as an organization in the future. With guidance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime & Investment Affairs, UNDP has designed a 5-year acceleration program for the AIS Forum (2022-2026).
This program is imperative to achieving climate change mitigation, as well as social and economic sustainability. It will develop upon existing foundations and successes that will allow for meaningful new strides in the current global context. As an open-ended forum that aims to drive concrete actions forward, the AIS Forum is on track to becoming one of the few platforms for archipelagic and island states that promotes the development of the blue economy. Together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Government of Indonesia has developed a Blue Financing Strategic (BFS) Document that has been adopted within the SDGs Government Securities Framework.
This strategic document will strengthen the framework for issuing blue bonds/sukuk in the future. The Blue Financing Strategic Document is prepared as a general guide to blue financing that can be used as a basis to select blue projects and define blue financial instruments that are relevant to the public sector to open up the capital market. This mechanism is important to unlock the potential of the blue economy, which is also part of the Indonesia development strategy of President Joko Widodo.
This document is expected to become a referral instrument for participating countries in the Archipelagic and Island States (AIS) Forum. As for the document of Blue Financing Strategic, it can be downloaded through the following link https://bit.ly/BFS-Document As the following step, Indonesia announced its launch of the Blue Financing Strategic Document that will be realized alongside the signing of the Financing Agreement between the Indonesian Government and UNDP as the Indonesian Government’s advanced commitment to the AIS Forum.
OBJECTIVES
1. The enactment of the Financing Agreement between the Indonesian Government and UNDP (2022-2026) as the basis for extending Indonesia’s commitment to advance maritime and climate cooperation among archipelagic and island countries through the AIS Forum.
2. Launch and introduce the Blue Financing Strategic document to relevant blue sector stakeholders, which includes government, private sector, international institutions, and development partners.
3. Facilitating discussions between program organizers and Ministries/Institutions regarding the Blue Financing agenda in Indonesia
