African Academy for Deep Sea Diplomacy - International Seabed Authority

African Academy for Deep Sea Diplomacy (ADSEA)

Background and rationale

In July 2023, the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) approved a Memorandum of Understanding between ISA and the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC), a governmental entity established to deliver diplomatic courses for African diplomats in both English and French.

Through the partnership established under the Memorandum of Understanding, ISA and IRIC will cooperate in the planning and implementation of specific training activities with a focus on Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1994 Agreement. Such activities will encourage and facilitate cooperation with African States in matters relating to the work and mandate of ISA.

This partnership foresees the creation of a dedicated curriculum on the law of the sea for African diplomats to be jointly managed by ISA and IRIC with a view to support the development of enhanced knowledge and expertise of African countries.

At its meeting in January 2024, the Board of the ISA Partnership Fund, a multidonor trust fund established by the ISA Assembly at its 27^th session, decided to allocate a grant to the African Academy for Deep Sea Diplomacy, a training course to be carried out under the Memorandum of Understanding between ISA and IRIC aimed at implementing its main objectives.

Objectives

The African Academy for Deep Sea Diplomacy is intended to provide training to diplomats from English and French-speaking African countries in the field of the law of the sea, with particular reference to the regime of the Area under Part XI of UNCLOS.

It is anticipated that the training would spread over three weeks in total, including two weeks of in-person training carried out in Cameroon, and would be designed to facilitate the acquisition by African diplomats of expertise in matters relating to the work and mandate of ISA.

Modalities

This training activity will be provided using a blended learning approach.

Ahead of in-person training, selected participants will be granted access to an ad hoc module of the Deep Dive e-learning platform, dealing with key concepts and principles of Part XI UNCLOS. Lessons available in the module – recorded by renewed experts in the relevant fields – will be complemented by selected learning materials and followed by a short final test.

The second part of the course will take place in Cameroon, tentatively at the seat of IRIC, and will last two weeks.

Training schedule

Before the in-person training in Cameroon, all participants will be requested to take part in an introductory module hosted on the ISA e-learning platform Deep Dive. Developed within the framework of the ISA Capacity Development Strategy, Deep Dive is the first and the only e-learning training platform exclusively devised to address all elements of the legal regime in Part XI of the UNCLOS and the 1994 Implementation Agreement, including technical and scientific aspects.

This ad hoc module of Deep Dive is designed to enhance the capacity of government officials, diplomats, and practitioners from Member States to understand and implement the legal regime of the Area and the different elements pertaining to the conduct of activities in the Area.

This module, with an estimated duration of 36 academic learning hours, is self-paced but needs to be concluded before the start of in-person training. Trainees will be requested to complete a test at the end of each lecture and to sit a final test to be awarded with a completion certificate.

Trainees will be unable to proceed to the in-person training unless they have successfully completed the Deep Dive module. The programme for the in-person training is currently being finalised.