Developing blue ports in the Caribbean

Discover how we helped PROBLUE, the World Bank’s Blue Economy Program, determine the potential for blue ports in the Caribbean by assessing port capabilities, and prioritising projects to boost maritime resilience and sustainability.

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Project facts

Client
PROBLUE, the World Bank’s Blue Economy Program
Location
The Caribbean (Jamaica, Belize, St Lucia, Grenada, and the Dominican Republic)
Date
2021 - 2022
Challenge
Determining the potential of blue ports in the Caribbean
Solution
A multi-faceted port maturity assessment tool

The challenge: determining blue port potential in the Caribbean

PROBLUE is the World Bank’s Blue Economy Program, championing the development of integrated, sustainable, and healthy marine and coastal resources. It’s an umbrella multi-donor trust fund that supports the World Bank’s overall oceans portfolio – including a project to develop blue economy initiatives for ports in the Caribbean.

To boost the resilience, connectivity, and sustainability of the Caribbean maritime industry, PROBLUE needed to determine the maturity of different ports, and the right projects to implement blue economies.

The solution: a multi-faceted tool for port maturity assessment

Assessing the capabilities of different kinds of ports in the Caribbean meant evaluating each port’s climate resilience, shipping service connectivity, and environmental and emissions management. To measure all these criteria, we developed a multi-faceted framework tool with nine key maturity indicators.

This tool was used to baseline and identify improvements for ports in Jamaica, Belize, St Lucia, Grenada and the Dominican Republic, to seek out future investments.

We then worked with PROBLUE and the maritime community to identify opportunities to strengthen and diversify blue port economics. By scoring 140 projects against each port’s policy, legislative, industrial, and operational capabilities, we helped PROBLUE prioritise potential blue port initiatives.

Royal HaskoningDHV did a great job of developing an assessment tool that allows Caribbean policy makers to visualise the state of port operations and infrastructure resilience using key maturity indicators for Blue Ports. This standardised approach is expected to support individual Island nations and the region to identify and address key constraints in moving towards a Blue Port.

Kavita SethiSenior Transport Economist, World Bank Group

The result: cross-boundary projects improve marine access and sustainability

After careful assessment, we identified 20 investment projects to boost blue economies in the Caribbean maritime industry, for ongoing consideration by PROBLUE
To generate further commitments, we presented and workshopped the projects with representatives from regional ports and governments at an event hosted by the World Bank Group in Jamaica.

Adding further value to the blue economy community, we provided our port maturity assessment tool to all participating stakeholders, including the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), to help them regularly reassess their progress towards more sustainable and future-proofed port-centric economies.