AUDA-NEPAD Launches First Continental Programme Dedicated to Africa's Island Economies

ABIDJAN, 24 July 2026 - The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) today launched a dedicated programme for Africa's seven island economies, the first continental framework built specifically around the challenges facing small island states. The launch took place at the Ministerial Segment of the Specialized Technical Committee on Trade, Industry and Minerals (STC-TTIM) in Abidjan.

Cabo Verde, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe and Seychelles together hold a combined exclusive economic zone larger than five million square kilometres, an ocean territory bigger than the landmass of the European Union. Yet none of the seven has direct maritime connectivity to the others, and all face the same underlying constraints, small domestic markets, high exposure to climate shocks, and limited capacity to add value to their ocean-based industries before exporting.

The new AUDA-NEPAD Programme for African Developing Island Economies is designed to address those constraints directly. It groups the seven countries under a three-tier typology that reflects their different starting points, and organises support around six pillars, blue economy and ocean stewardship, climate resilience and adaptation, sustainable energy and water, connectivity and AfCFTA integration, youth employment and skills, and digital transformation, running on a 2026-2031 roadmap.

“Africa's island economies are not at the margin of our transformation; they are at its frontier. This Programme meets them where they are, with a framework they own, and with the accelerators that turn distance and small scale into advantage,” highlighted Mrs Nardos Bekele-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, AUDA-NEPAD.

Rather than betting on any single sector, the Programme is built on the premise that transformation for small island states comes from combining several forces at once, industrialisation tailored to island resources, integrated maritime and air corridors, digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence and automation, and investment in the knowledge economy. Officials say this combination is what allows island states to turn distance and small scale into an advantage rather than a constraint.

The framework was shaped during a Senior Officials Consultative Meeting held earlier in the STC week, where the seven economies reviewed the design, confirmed national focal points and validated recommendations ahead of the Ministerial Segment. Ministers went on to adopt a Ministerial Communiqué recording their commitment to the Programme and inviting partner support.

The Programme is being advanced in partnership with the Republic of Korea, with the engagement of the African Development Bank, the Regional Economic Communities and the Indian Ocean Commission. It was launched alongside the Africa Green Transition PPP Fund, with several island economies already presenting the kind of bankable green-transition projects the Fund is designed to finance.