Sustainable blue economy framework in OIC countries: a cross-jurisdictional perspective

According to a 2021 Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) environmental report, economic activities in OIC countries have contributed immensely to environmental degradation and a high risk of depleting their water resources. There seems to be an agreement on the need to improve the livelihood of coastal communities and their marine resources but the strategies and approaches differ. This paper is an enquiry into the strategies for the blue economy in four OIC countries. They are selected small island developing countries (SIDS) that rely on tourism activities such as Indonesia, the Maldives and maritime nations such as Malaysia and Nigeria. This paper adopts doctrinal methodology and strategic analysis techniques to determine internal and external factors in a sustainable blue economy among the selected countries that are also members of the OIC. Preliminary findings show that state strategies reflect the economic objectives of the selected countries and are not necessarily a matter of universality in the blue economy frameworks. The study concludes that there is no single framework that can be applied to all countries to achieve a sustainable blue economy. The level of commitment to achieving a Blue ocean cannot be sacrificed without achieving sustainable livelihood for inhabitants of the coastal states and maritime nations. The implication of this study is to consider the blue economy framework as one of the indices in OIC environmental reports