The disjuncture between regional ocean priorities and development assistance in the South Pacific

Global degradation of the ocean has outpaced developments in ocean governance. Although ocean policies in the South Pacific are well developed, there is negligible knowledge of the overall portfolio of initiatives and investment, especially in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14; “life under water”). To assess past and future ocean-related activities in the Pacific region for refining future priorities, data for 14 Pacific island countries and territories was collated on (i) development-financed ocean-related projects active from 1997 to 2017, and (ii) Voluntary Commitments from the United Nations Oceans Conference of 2017. Across the 14 studied countries, there was a disjuncture between development-financed regional projects led by Intergovernmental Organisations and the predominantly government-led and single-country Voluntary Commitments. Projects supported by development finance in the Pacific region had a very narrow range of SDG14 targets, while the SDG14 targets of the Voluntary Commitments were much more widely spread over these targets. With well-developed Pacific Ocean policies, the role of SDG14 in the Pacific is specifically as a catalyst for transformative change. This requires shifting narrow development partner interests towards more innovative, self-sustainable and paradigm-changing investments. The opportunities afforded by SDG14 will be different in other oceans, however, effective global delivery requires clearer articulation of the role of SDG14 as the “game changer”