Innovative marine spatial planning education in Tanzania for a sustainable blue economy

About the project

The objective of the BLUEZEAL project is to enhance capacity in Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and Blue Economy (BE) using innovative, inclusive, digital education didactics in Tanzania-Zanzibar. Tanzania and Zanzibar prioritize the BE as a key economic driver. The lack of state-of-the-art digital methods and tools, limited MSP expertise, and insufficient university-industry cooperation, however, hinder effective BE development. Each work package (WP) is designed to address specific aspects of the objectives (SO1-4), ensuring a comprehensive approach to achieving the project's aims: SO1: Create interactive, digital game-based learning tools for MSP in Tanzania-Zanzibar using the MSP Challenge platform. WP2: Stakeholder Engagement and Geo Data Management. WP3: MSP Challenge Tanzania-Zanzibar edition. SO2 & SO3: Develop and integrate new theoretical and practical MSP skills into existing BSc programs and conduct training for teachers and students. WP4: Educate the educators; Train the Trainers. WP5: Curriculum and Course Development for MSP/BE. SO4: Increase cooperation between HEIs and the BE industry, fostering innovation-driven industrial cooperation and improving future employment opportunities for graduates. WP6: Accelerating MSP/BE Competences in HEI. WP1 is deducated to management and coordination, WP7 to impact and dissemination. By focusing on enhancing the quality and relevance of higher education to better align with labor market needs and societal demands, the project is highly relevant to the work program. By promoting innovation-driven industrial cooperation, it seeks to improve future employment opportunities for graduates. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of high-quality education in MSP for sustainable development, utilizing advanced digital tools and simulations.

Project goal

The project, therefore, addresses the general objectives (GO1-4 below) and the pre-defined regional
priorities of the action in the following way:

GO1. Competence, skills, and employability of students graduating from higher education
institutions (HEIs) are enhanced by a novel approach. In this project, new, relevant, and innovative
content in the field of MSP is co-created and applied based on local needs. A regional online MSP
Challenge game is first created and then, through peer learning and the transfer of experience and good practices, utilized in education in the Zanzibar region. New education methods related to sustainable coastal management (SCM) are explored, and experiences from the Nordic countries are shared to inspire new digital solutions in education, which are introduced in courses after localisation and validation by the institutions. The project enhances the skills of future professionals to handle environmental challenges and preserve marine ecosystems, in line with the Green Deal, pre-defined regional priority 1 of the action.

GO2. The relevance and quality of higher education are improved to better align with labour market
needs and societal demands: The developed education in the field of MSP, together with the MSP
Challenge platform, enhance relevance and raise the quality and inclusiveness of education through
digital technologies, in line with pre-defined regional priority 2 of the action: Digital transformation.
Furthermore, the project exposes multidisciplinary students to industrial placements with key stakeholders of MSP. This experience allows students to co-create demand-driven, innovative digital solutions for better management of coastal and marine resources, fostering collaboration and real-world critical thinking skills, enhancing the quality and relevance of higher education to meet labour market needs in line with the predefined regional priority 6 of the action: Sustainable growth and jobs.

GO3. Inclusive education and equality are promoted: The project and its activities promote inclusive
education, gender equality and non-discrimination, equity and accessibility of all participants. Special
attention is put on including migrants and people with disabilities and reaching from remote areas,
improving general access to higher education. The project encourages inclusion and cooperation by
engaging diverse groups and using various consultation processes from implementation to the operation steps, in English and Swahili when appropriate, thereby promoting dialogue and conflict prevention through all stakeholder’s collaboration (education, scientists, decision-makers, industry, civil, etc.). The approach is beneficial in managing shared resources, addressing common challenges, and preventing
conflicts over natural resources. Additionally, it supports human development by encouraging
consideration of long-term impacts on biodiversity and building resilience in facing climate change.
Inclusive education and participatory human rights-based evidence-based planning processes are aligned with pre-defined regional priority 4 (Governance, Peace, Security, and Human Development) of the action and shared European values, including respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights.

GO4. International cooperation and exchange of best practices are fostered: This project is based
on partnerships between HEIs from Finland, the Netherlands and Tanzania building on the results of past activities and other partnerships carried out in the field, hence the present consortium composition. International cooperation and exchange of best practices will start with the implementation of the project. More particularly, close collaboration with project partners will be necessary for adjusting the MSP Challenge platform to Tanzania (WP 2,3); since it was originally developed in the Netherlands, adjusting it to Tanzania must be done in collaboration with project partners that are locally knowledgeable. Then, training the trainers (WP4), course development (WP5), and working life interactions (WP6) are activities that will be co-developed with all project partners to be perfectly tailored to culture, knowledge and educational systems. The joint initiative, therefore, enhances a more interconnected and collaborative global higher education landscape. This aligns with the Global Gateway strategy, which aims to create resilient connections that benefit all partner countries.