The Indian Ocean Commission sets new strategic development plan for cross-regional cooperation

Securing regional stability through strategic development planning

The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) fosters regional solidarity by supporting projects across a variety of subjects including climate change, maritime security, connectivity, food accessibility, education, culture, and public health.

As the 2018-2021 Strategic Development Plan came to an end, IOC must establish new strategic objectives to secure the political vision transparency across its area, covering Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, and Seychelles. As such, the Commission needed to identify both the converging and diverging goals of all its members as well as promote each of the state’s interests.

Being Africa's only geopolitical structure entirely composed of islands, the IOC has to ensure the international visibility of every state member, while acknowledging their cultural and economic diversity. Consequently, the IOC was looking for clear guidelines for a new developing plan.

Defining the transformation and governance plan

BearingPoint helped IOC build the foundation of the future strategic development plan. By organizing a workshop in every member state (Réunion Island, Madagascar, Mauritius, Comoros, and Seychelles), the joint team identified the shared and individual objectives. Each country was involved in workgroups focusing on natural disasters, climate change, combating green space reduction, scarcity of resources, and volatility of food and energy prices.

The member states were then engaged in one final discussion on the findings. This resulted in the development of three axes of the strategic plan: resilience, peace, and security; human, cultural, and economic development; institutional and partnership architecture.

BearingPoint then defined the requirements needed for strengthening the operational change, including office site capacities, recruitment processes, and internal procedures. These were connected to the updated economic model based on the internal budget and external funding. Additionally, BearingPoint identified and formulated recommendations for alternative financing sources.

A clear vision for efficient cross-border cooperation

The new strategic development plan represents the single voice of all Indian Ocean states, defining the vision, mission, challenges, as well as the strategic goals for the following years.

IOC now benefits from four business model scenarios, demonstrating the financial impact on human resources and target organization chart. These scenarios help them generate accurate financial projections, thus optimizing the use of resources.

The Commission has clear guidelines to effectively facilitate collaboration between countries on security, resilience, and responsible resource management. The new strategic plan will further expand the common agenda for human development (education, health, research, culture, youth, gender) with the Indian Ocean identity at its core.

About the Indian Ocean Commission

Established in 1982, the Indian Ocean Commission is the only intergovernmental organization in Africa comprised of Island States (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and France by way of Réunion). The IOC formulates and implements regional projects, programmes and strategies in line with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and with the support of International Partners such as European Union and Agence Francaise de Développement.