This report was prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the Programme of Work and Budget of the OECD Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). It is part of the OECD Programme on Cities and Regions for a Blue Economy within the OECD Water Governance Programme.
The report and underlying survey were led by Oriana Romano, Head of the Water Governance, Blue and Circular Economy Unit, and co-ordinated and drafted by Juliette Lassman, Policy Analyst, under the supervision of Aziza Akhmouch, Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division in the CFE. Georges Laimé, Junior Policy Analyst, analysed survey results and contributed in particular to Chapters 1 and 2. María Ferrer, Junior Policy Analyst, provided substantial support and input to the survey and previous versions of the report. Ander Eizaguirre, Policy Analyst, and Mariam Fofana, former Junior Policy Analyst, provided comments on the survey and contributed to previous versions of the report. Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director of the CFE, and Soo-Jin Kim, Deputy Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division, provided comments on the draft report. The survey and report also benefitted from input from the OECD Environment Directorate and the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Special thanks are conveyed to the 81 cities, regions, basin organisations and small island developing states (SIDS) that responded to the OECD Global Survey on Localising the Blue Economy (see the full list in Annex A) and to Los Lagos, Chile; Korle-Klottey Municipal Assembly, Ghana; Porto, Portugal; and eThekwini, South Africa, that pilot-tested the self-assessment framework. Warm thanks are extended to the partner institutions that collaborated closely on the design and dissemination of the survey, namely: Martial Dubuisson, Théo Fortin, Anas Laani and José Sánchez (International Association of Cities and Ports, AIVP); Cátia Martins and Yvonne Piotelat (Atlantic Cities); Chris Aquitania, Chris Hidalgo and Ric Marfiga (ICLEI Southeast Asia Secretariat); François-Xavier Imbert and Eric Tardieu (International Network of Basin Organizations); Théophile Bongarts (Ocean & Climate Platform); Katrin Bruebach and Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy (Resilient Cities Network); and Soumia Benlebsir and Mohamed Nbou (United Cities and Local Governments Africa, UCLG Africa).
The report was edited and formatted by Eleonore Morena, and Pilar Philip and Jack Waters prepared the manuscript for publication.